Death's Pride
by Paladeus
Summary: Harry dies, again, and his Death Angel is NOT happy. Sent back for the last time with his memories intact, he tries to do it right. And his Death Angel won't leave him or his soul mates alone. Challenge by Reptilia28; H/Hr/L Nev/Sus B/Han A
1. What Do You Mean I'm Dead?

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter1** – What Do You Mean I'm Dead!

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**:"Speech"**, **_'Thoughts'_,** "Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** This story is created from Reptilia28's challenge against the norm of 'Harry going back in time'. This will be only to set the stage, so is mostly dialog and information. Chapter 2 will be the "About" chapter and Chapter 3 will be the start of the real story by the Gringotts trip and summer description, chap 4 will be where things pick up in action and such. My 'About' chapter gives any other miscellaneous info you may need or request. Also, and I apologize for the inconvenience as this isn't how I normally do things, but I am starting this fic with the belief that the readers know who the Canon cast are. If not, the MAIN characters will be given a brief introduction, but will be stilted. This will be the case for Luna, Neville, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, etc. The main characters beyond Harry and Hermione.

I am purposefully making it seem as though Harry returned, and the events in the chamber happened, right before the year ends.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or any other crossover I may intentionally or unintentionally create. By reading this story, you understand this disclaimer and understand that it holds true for this story in whole, and in part, throughout the _entirety_ of the story from this location or any other in which the story itself is placed, regardless of a disclaimer being on future chapters.

**This challenge was also accepted by:**

"Don't Fear the Reaper" by **KittyDemon18 (Now KatDemon18)**

"In Time" by **Artemis Day**

"Tabula Rasa" by **Reptilia28**

"Harry Potter and the Demon of Time" by **El Pepe**

"A Potter's Death: Last Chance" by **Kumitzin**

"Forty One Times Dead" by **Ruskbyte**

**xXx STORY xXx**

Harry Potter, a confused seventeen year old wizard, sat idly in his chair as he watched an attractive woman, oddly with forest green hair, behind what looked like a receptionist's desk type furiously on a keyboard made of a glowing mist while a glowing screen of what he could only assume to be another language hung suspended in the air. Harry could feel himself moving and looking around, but everyone and everything that came into his vision seemed to be moving at incredible speeds while he seemed to be going through the water in the Black Lake at Hogwarts in February. It sounded about the same, as well. He wanted to speak with the receptionist, but the will to actually speak, the energy to do so, just didn't seem to be in him. Even his thoughts felt mercurial and beyond his reach. It was just too much effort and work to think.

He was unsure of how long he had actually sat there, just trying to turn his head from the left side of the pretty receptionist to the door on the right side of her, when things suddenly sped up drastically and his head turned far faster than he had expected it to, cracking slightly as the bones cracked and popped, energy seemingly flooding back into him.

"Potter! Harry Potter!"

Harry rocked his head back and forth, trying to get the painful crick out of his neck as he stood, turning to the new girl who walked in with a clipboard in her hand. His confusion was beginning to let up, and his ability to think was beginning to return to him now that he was out of the state those in charge had held him in. It was a simple feature to keep _new arrivals_ from becoming hysterical or making too much of a fuss until they could be met face-to-face.

"Right here, Ma'am," he said, raising his hand slightly as he found himself able to think once again, though he was still highly confused. He couldn't really remember how he got there or where 'here' even was. She motioned for him to follow her as she turned on her heel and began to walk down a long hallway. Harry did as prescribed and followed her, taking note of her appearance as he tried to figure out where he was. His mind felt muddled and murky and he couldn't quite figure out if he knew this woman from somewhere or not. He was having a hard time remembering what he had been doing before he arrived there or, much to his consternation, much of anything from before his arrival.

This woman had very deep blue eyes, he could remember from when she had motioned for him to follow, and her hair was such a dark blue that it appeared black until it moved enough for some light to come through showing its true color. She was very petite and had the body of a fully adult woman, though she appeared to be about the same age as himself. He also couldn't help but notice how much her steady walk reminded him of Hermione's. Each step deliberate and with the purpose of getting her from where she was, to where she wanted or needed to be with each step echoing loudly down the long hallway. And while the way she walked reminded him of Hermione, the way she held herself seemed oddly like Ginny with her shoulders back but her hair sashaying around as she moved her head slightly, full of confidence and the knowledge that she was attractive.

It was about the time he was comparing this woman's walk to Hermione's that he realized she was muttering under her breath, though he could only make out the odd word now and then.

"... Grandpa Whiskers better ... reason ... gonna kill the little ..."

After about four minutes of walking down a straight hallway, they came to the very first door Harry could recall seeing the entire trip. Scrunching up his eyes, he looked first at the door and then back down the hallway, seeing bare white walls all the way to the door at the end that they came through that appeared as a black rectangle surrounded by white light. Finding it curious, he looked further down the hall in the direction they had been walking and saw that it extended beyond his vision with bare, white walls and no other doors.

"In here, Potter." The woman motioned for him to enter as she closed the door behind them. He was a little worried when her tone came across as frosty as Snape's on a bad day.

"Excuse me, Miss, but where am I? What happened?" Harry asked confusedly, having difficulty keeping his thoughts clear, though his mind was getting better quickly. He took the offered chair in front of a large desk cleared of almost everything but several folders, a stone box that looked oddly like a shoe box without a noticeable lid and a few writing utensils. The walls were lined wall to wall with ancient-looking tomes that would have made Hermione green with jealousy and envy. The woman sighed as she sat down heavily, looking at Harry with exasperation.

"Do you hate me, Harry? Is that what this is? Are you _wanting _to get me fired for all of these early deaths? Or do you just hate living that much? One more premature death, ONE MORE! And I'm through!" The tiny woman yelled. Surprised, Harry could only stare in open-mouthed shock as the woman seemed to crack in front of him, a tear trailing down her cheek.

"Wha- Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I don't even know you!" Nervous, he moved a little closer to the desk, wanting to try and comfort the girl, but having no clue how and not feeling comfortable enough to go to the other side of the desk. Particularly after mentioning the whole 'premature deaths' thing. It had to be a joke, right?

"No, of course you don't! Just like all the other times, you're completely innocent of your own demise," she waved off his concern with an aggravated thrust of her hand and laid her head on her arms over the top of her desk as she growled in frustration.

"My demise? You mean I really _am_ dead?" Suddenly, Harry wasn't so upset about the girl crying anymore. When she snorted and raised her head, she looked more amused than upset now. "But... but _how!_"

"Yes, just like all the other times we've met, Harry," she said as she leaned back in her large chair with a face of utter confusion over her visage. "I don't get it! You're supposed to go to school, get powerful as hell with the help of your soul mate, _some Granger girl I think_," she mumbled, checking into a file on the desk with a nod, "kick Voldemort's slimy arse and live to be a little over two hundred years old under a pile of multi-great grand babies! But no! You have to keep dying on me!" Harry cringed as her voice rose in the beginning, got quiet to where he could barely hear about Hermione and then become louder and more angry than it had up to that point.

"Wait! 'Granger girl'? Hermione is my soul mate? What about Ginny? And how am I dead? What the hell is going on!" Harry cried out pleadingly. The girl sighed and leaned back into her chair, squirming into its large backing, making her petite frame appear horribly tiny and fragile in comparison as she sunk into the leather backing.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning so you're up to date," she mumbled in a way that was half growl. Harry simply nodded dumbly as the woman leaned on her desk.

"Yes please," he plead. She smiled fondly at him in appreciation. Of all of the dead that came through her doors, none were ever so kind or polite as this mortal had been. Well, except for that _once_, but she couldn't exactly hold him to _that_. It wasn't every day you found out that a dragon buggered you to death. He had cried under her desk for the next twelve dead souls to come into her office. His pitiful wails had terrified them more than being told they were dead. After all, what sort of woman seemed to _enjoy_ listening to the wailing of the dead enough to have it as background music?

"Firstly, introductions. I am Lora. I am an Angel of Death, or more specifically, I manage the lives of certain mortals so that, when they die, I can make sure they go to the correct afterlife or, if needed, back to the realm of the living if they didn't learn what they were supposed to, or _do_ what they were supposed to do while alive." She raised a hand to forestall any questions from him as he opened his mouth. "In your case, and those like it where you die before you are supposed to, we send you back so that you have another chance to fix whatever the hell it is you buggered up in the first place." He had the grace to look ashamed.

"Now, I know you, and you do _not_ know me, because your memory of this," she waved her hand in a small circle to indicate everything around them, "is wiped out each time because we can't have people learning of certain elements of what you call the afterlife and how it works or it makes it easier for mortals to try and bypass the system and either go where they want or stay alive, much like your enemy of the mortal world."

"You mean Voldemort?" Harry asked before he cringed a little in fear as the woman glared harshly towards the distance. Goosebumps sprung up along his arms and neck as the air seemed to suddenly get cooler. Most people shivered in fear when his name was mentioned. This woman just got pissed!

"Yes," she hissed, "him."

"Ah," Harry said, unsure what else he could add. The woman looked to be sixteen to nineteen, but she scared the hell out of him. He was sure he saw his breath.

"Now, here's the bit you really need to pay attention to, because I don't like having to repeat myself and I only plan to answer your question once." She waited until Harry nodded before continuing. "Now, off and on from the beginning of summer before your fourth year, one Ginny Weasley had been slipping you love potions with the help of her mother in the food they sent you over the summer. They started out small, so you didn't suddenly show devotion and love to a girl you hadn't shown any previous romantic interest in. They worked, but only partly. Your magic naturally works against the affects of a love potion just like your body fights an illness. It was willing to allow you to fall in love with whomever you cared for, which at the time was Hermione Granger and-"

"No, in fourth year I fancied Cho Chang. Your information ... is ... wrong ... ?" Harry said, interrupting her. He realized it probably wasn't a bright, or even safe, idea when she glared at him.

"You fought off the unnatural portion to begin to care for the Weasley girl and it focused instead on your original love, _Hermione Granger_," she looked into a folder as she spoke, confirming her information again, "by merely fighting off the targeting effect, leaving you being forced into love, but without a person. It seemed to do this because you subconsciously wanted to love and care for someone, but were too scared to try and worried too much about being unlovable. Normally, you would have realized your feelings for the Granger girl during that summer and have been obvious to her in time for the Yule ball for her to agree, but as you weren't fully aware of what you wanted yourself or the reality of loving emotions, your magic worked on the information you already knew, which was the closest thing to Hermione you could get, which was Cho Chang. You simply didn't understand what you were feeling," she finished with a shrug. "Your subconscious knew you wanted the Granger girl, but your body chose Chang for her beauty and supplanted her instead since she was the closest to Granger you knew and your hormones selected someone easy to lust after."

"So, everything between Ginny and I... it was a lie?" Harry asked hollowly. Lora mentally flinched as he seemed to radiate sadness. At least she had a way to make it up to him.

"On your side, yes. She wanted you for your money and fame and had it stuck in her mind that you and her were like characters in a fairy tale. She and the youngest brother are very unhappy with their lives and how they've turned out. They feel they should be wealthier like a 'proper pureblood' family. They aren't blood supremacists or anything, but are well aware that their family is about the only pureblood family that lives like it does, that they're aware of, anyway. The girl wants you and the boy wants the wealth and prestige of being associated with you. He's basically a leech with an inferiority complex. Ginny has something of a viable excuse, though, considering the events of her first year at school and the lack of help, so I can't really blame her for that, though Ron hasn't got an excuse."

"The mother, while normally a good soul, wants what is best for her family, which is you in this case. She feels that she loves you like her own, and having you as the husband of the youngest would be the best route for all involved and it didn't really hurt anything since you'd be with a family that cared for you as well and you would have cared for her, even if not loved her. And the mother feels she could provide you a loving family if she had you with her daughter, therefore feeling it was a winning situation with everyone. She honestly believed she was doing the best thing possible for you and truly does care for you. She just felt she knew what was best."

Harry, though he didn't _want _to believe it, knew that she was telling him the truth. That was how Mister and Missus Weasley got together, because Missus Weasley used a love potion on him. While it worked out in their case as a happy marriage, it romanticized the fact that it was illegal, immoral and just simply _wrong._ And made it seem all the more likely to lead to a happy ending. Ginny herself had told him how much she loved the story. Harry was also well aware of her mentioning of Ron. He was always jealous and petty whenever something that he wanted was given to Harry, or he simply wanted something that Harry had. There were quite a few times in his past to choose from for evidence. And it usually took nearly losing Harry to bring him into the state of mind to accept whatever it was.

"So, this caused my magic to fight against the potion. What else do I need to know?" Harry asked dejectedly. Lora was a little worried that Harry decided to ignore the situation and continue, but didn't think anything else could come of it, so did as asked.

"Well, since it was constantly fighting the potions you were being given, it caused the magic you had access to, to be split between that and whatever you used it for, which caused your spells to be weaker and such. It didn't really affect you as badly until they upped the dosage after fourth year when your mind was the weakest. Another reason I bring it up is because, as a baby, you were already immensely powerful. In the wizarding world, it wasn't a big deal. While not rare, it wasn't uncommon for babies to learn to touch upon their magic at a young age. There were safety guards in place for bouts of accidental magic, though yours was always controlled. However, after your parents were killed, Dumbledore placed a power-limiting seal on you, which left you with access to only about two percent of your over all magical ability, which was all that was left after your magic defended you against Voldemort's killing curse. It was enough to keep you alive, but without the use of magic. You were already very weak from defending yourself and he was terrified that you had the power to break through most power-limiting seals, so he placed the strongest he knew how on you."

Harry looked more confused than when they began. "But I've used magic several times when I was growing up, and I never meant to for the times I remember, so how was it controlled?"

Lora shook her head and thought of the best way to explain. "I was referring to when you were an infant. The seal he put on you kept you blocked and kept part of your mental abilities locked away as well. When you used magic growing up, it was accidental after you began living with the Dursleys because you couldn't control it at that point because it was unnatural to you and your mind was a little weaker. Basically, magic is about as much magical ability as it is mental ability. This particular seal was used because it was powerful enough to hold back the majority of your magic and mostly, just affected your ability to focus on anything specific without holding your mind back. So, you could learn and function as normal, but you always had a hard time retaining anything or focusing on something unless you truly applied yourself to it. Like magically-induced attention deficit disorder. Dumbledore thought that he had to put that seal on you so the Dursleys would be more comfortable."

"But why?" He asked, almost pitifully. Lora sighed yet again, realizing she was doing a lot of it with him. It was difficult when working with children because they were totally innocent and generally knew whatever had happened to them was unfair. It was much the same with Harry simply because he had been so restrained growing up, never really experiencing life much like any younger child.

"The Dursleys hated all magic, even before you arrived. Your aunt was jealous of your mother and your uncle is actually a second-generation squib," she said to Harry's shock. "Dumbledore did it as a way to make sure you couldn't accidentally perform magic when other muggles were around and to let them feel they'd have a somewhat normal home. It just didn't work out that way. They still _knew_ you were magical. When you had access to only two percent of your magic, and were being starved and needed to heal from the abuse, it couldn't go past that two percent, but it could adapt and make that two percent larger by increasing your over all reserves of magic. It did so to keep you healthy and alive." Now Harry was really getting confused.

"How could it do that, though? Is it even possible to increase only a certain portion?" He asked. Lora smiled, happy he had asked a question that was important and relevant, even if he didn't realize it.

"No, it isn't. You see, to increase that two percent to double its original size, it had to increase the other ninety-eight percent as well, effectively doubling your entire magical core. Otherwise, it would be more like a balloon where different bits bubbled up like boiling water which could rupture it. Because of that, when you made it to Hogwarts and were able to perform magic normally, and still with a moderate amount of power, Dumbledore thought you'd found some way to break through his seal and never gave it a second thought. That isn't how it's _supposed _to work, but you did it somehow and-"

"Wait..." Harry suddenly had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Are you saying that the seal has been active the entire time? Even when I performed the Patronus charm in third year? During the Tri-Wizard Tournament and at the Department of Mysteries?" Lora smiled at Harry as he figured it out.

"Exactly! Even with that block on all of your magic and mind the entire time, your magic was able to fight and help you by different means. It was with the potions, however, where things got horrible and you wound up dying left and right. Beginning fourth year, you died at least once each year, upwards of three. Add to the fact that Grandpa Whiskers never bothered to train you and left you flailing about on your own, it didn't help matters." Harry blushed and slumped into his chair.

"So, am I going up or down?" Harry asked, ignoring her name for Dumbledore. It just didn't seem like an important bit of information in the light of things.

Lora looked confused a moment before realizing what he meant and laughed. "Oh! No, you aren't staying dead," she said, amused at his thoughts.

Harry looked up in a mix of hope and confusion, mostly the latter. "Then why tell me all of this if I'm just going to forget it again? Wouldn't it be easier for you to just send me back without saying so much as hello? I mean, you said my memory was wiped each time anyway."

"Yes, it would. However, the reason you've been going back is because Riddle should have died the night he attacked you with the destruction of his body, but he learned something to keep himself alive and we need him killed because he plans to kill all life, or at least enslave it. And we can't have that. He has plans, evil plans, that are going to literally be the end of the world and we can't directly interfere. Understand?"

Harry nodded, already knowing that the 'something' she'd mentioned were Voldemort's horcruxes that he placed a bit of his soul into. Or at least, that's what he thought. "So, while he's alive and has his horcruxes, he can't be killed by anyone except me, so you need me to go back and take him out so that he can't basically take over the world?"

"Right," Lora smiled brightly and bounced in her seat as Harry figured it out.

"Great," he groused. "No pressure."

Lora glared at him with a smirk as she continued. She was furious that she was so close to becoming fired and risking a different type of job that was literally a Hellish existence, but with her charge, or 'minion' as she liked to claim in her head, able to keep his memory, she was _really_ looking forward to this next installment into his life.

"Now, technically, he can be killed in any of the usual ways, but he'll come back because of his horcruxes and sadly, because of the prophecy. The world will bend around Fate to make sure that it comes to that. She always wins in a war of attrition with Time since Destiny is her sister."

Harry cocked his head to the side and frowned as he thought. "So, why can't you just get him yourself? Or someone else? If you have the power to send me back, then shouldn't you have the ability to bring someone in?"

Lora grimaced as she thought of the best way to explain. "It isn't as simple and clear cut as all of that. You see, while we can control some aspects, all things have a balance. Life and death, good and evil, light and darkness, men and women, smart people and idiots. Where you can consider my side as angels, there is the other side that you can consider the demons, so to speak. While both sides are just as varied as humans in that we have some on both sides that are good and evil, we are only able to do certain things within limits." She frowned as she continued, not sure how best to phrase everything to someone who didn't already fully understand the _real_ concept of angel and demon.

"Angels and demons are simply terms that mankind created, or at least the meanings are. Demons, for lack of a better way of phrasing it, are evil, true, and they _do_ want to take over the living earth as you know it, but they cannot live on that plane of existence. Neither can angels, to be honest with you. At least not properly."

"What do you mean 'not properly'?" He asked, extremely curious about the lesson he was getting. Hermione would be so jealous.

"Well, we could go there for brief periods of time, but we slowly die as we stay there. Our power slowly drains and doesn't regenerate, even if we aren't using it. Once we lose so much, we don't even have enough to come back here and will die, even though we still have _some_ power. I may be immortal, but without my own power, I would just cease to exist. There are only a few ways to deal with it, and none of which are pleasant. But we're getting off track." Harry nodded to show he understood.

"Right. Your world has a perfect balance of so many different energies and life that both sides want, but neither can actually _have. _It's the epicenter of numerous realities and worlds and generates its own energies while absorbing that of others, making it wholly unique. Where we can deal with that and try to maintain the balance between the worlds and realities, they would rather no one have your world if they can't, which is one of the biggest dividing lines we have. So I and my," she stumbled a little for a term he would understand, "coworkers ... can't go there because that would be abusing the power and the treaty that was agreed upon when the living world was discovered. While we can influence, we cannot directly interfere." She held up a finger to be sure he paid attention to what she was about to say.

"To keep the peace, so to speak, and ensure the other side wouldn't ignore an offer of peace between us, we came upon an agreement where we don't directly interfere, but are still able to wage a war since they wouldn't stop totally until they could merge your plane of existence with their own so they could acquire those energies. It was necessary if we wanted to stop the Demonic Wars on your world. There will be some who are born purely with good intentions and those who are born purely of evil intentions that we call 'Avatars'. They're also known as 'Saints' in your world, though the evil ones aren't usually as well known to the public. These are the ones who we can send to regulate and influence the living world and we can work through them, should they be open to it and allow it. Many prefer to be unknown and remain behind the scenes so as not to cause people to fight directly against them, whichever side they are on, but then there are those who would rather be icons to try and rally others behind. Think of them as Dumbledore and Riddle, respectively, even though they aren't Avatars. Dumbledore works through proxies and stays behind the scenes while Riddle took on the title of Lord Voldemort to try and lead his forces."

"Riddle, as you know him, wasn't pre-dispositioned for anything, actually. But he did turn evil and killed one of those who _were_. He had learned some rather heinous techniques and wound up absorbing the connection from one of those who _were_ predestined for pure evil when he stole their magical core. At that point, he opened himself freely to the shadow and has been communicating with demons, learning from them and doing their bidding," she shook her head as she finished, truly disgusted with the man. "That is what allows us to take the actions we do. Time travel is normally not allowed, as it interferes with literally all of existence, but we have authorization due to the nature of the shadow's infraction."

"And that's why you're sending me back?" Harry wanted to be very sure that he got an affirmative on this one. "Wait ... Time travel?"

"Yes, Harry, we are not sending you to exactly when you died, unless of course you want us to. Because of the trouble Riddle has been giving us and such, you are being sent back to a point where you can make the biggest changes with the least amount of trouble, but without the risk of changing too much that really matters."

"So, when am I going back?" Harry nodded, understanding the value of the idea.

Lora smiled at Harry in a way far too reminiscent of the Weasleys and Sirius. "There are actually two answers to that question." Lora got up and began to scan her way through a few of the books behind her desk. "As I've told you, we normally wipe a person's memories of what happened after they died when we send them back because we can't let certain facts come out about the afterlife. It was us not taking all the precautions we should have that allowed for several myths and such about death to be frighteningly close to the truth, though I _still _don't know where they got that bloody scythe idea from." She grumbled and pulled out one book and began scanning again.

"Because of these precautions, we can't send you back and allow Grandpa Whiskers, Snape and anyone else the ability to rummage around in your head, so you'll be getting a few books in long-forgotten magics on what you now know as occlumency and a few others that we're clearing for you to take with you and allowing you to keep as Potter family information, mainly because these magics are in books in your world, just not where it can be obtained without knowing exactly where it is." She grabbed a third and fourth book off the shelf as she spoke and Harry's eyes got wider and wider.

"This is just easier than making you go on a long trip that would be hard to explain," another three books hit the pile, "to get those old tomes and these will be in much better condition. We'll be sending you back to just before your second year at Hogwarts ended so you can schedule a meeting with Gringotts and get things started. We would actually like to send you back to the beginning of your second year, but don't want you to have to face that damned basilisk again." She stacked a pile of seven scrolls, each nearly as big around as her head and nearly as wide as she was tall, next to the pile of books.

"So I'm going back to just as my second year ends and then what? I just read during the summer and make the changes I can to make things better?" He asked, beginning to wonder at the enormity of the situation. Lora gave him a look that basically screamed 'You're an idiot' while setting five more books on the desk with a loud thump.

"Those magical wards that Whiskers," Harry's mouth twitched at the nickname, thinking he'd adopt it, "said protect you are love-based magic. That means there has to be love to power them for full functionality. Your mother's blood, or your aunt's in this case, keeps them around, but the power is all about, and based, on love. The love you feel for your parents allows the defensive properties to survive within you, but you largely used up the power you had in your first year to stop Quirrell, much like a battery. It would take a decade to fill them up again, leaving only the wards left. However, they are worthless except for keeping Voldemort's spirit from entering to take you over, but I'm taking care of that for you. The only things keeping you safe there are wards based on ill-intent and owl-redirection wards. So you need to go to Gringotts, take your role as Head of the House of Potter, become emancipated, which means you can legally perform magic whenever you want and will have full access to your family vaults, and get out from under Dumbledore's thumb and move into one of your family's homes." She grabbed a much thinner book from a drawer and set it on top of the others while Harry's mind was still reeling. That pile of books was now taller than _she_ was!

"Our explanation for giving you what would _normally _be considered restricted knowledge is based on the fact that you can get all of it after you go back; it would just take a little while to track them down and Voldemort has several years' worth of experience on you and has been getting influence and outright direction from the shadow," she stacked all of the books on top of each other along with some smaller, pamphlet-sized ones and several smaller scrolls and began moving her hands over them slowly, causing them to seemingly melt into one another, "and we can safely say that the balance requires this." As she finished speaking, the books had stopped their melting and were simply now one single book that was about as thick as his hand was wide, three feet tall and two feet wide. Huge even by Hermione's standards, making him happy when she waggled her hand and shrunk it to only slightly larger than normal at a foot and a half tall by a foot wide.

"What's that?" He asked, curious about all that material being shrunk down. She smiled brightly at him.

"This is a grimoire, or a massive amount of knowledge of magic in one tome. Basically, all of those books and scrolls that were stacked there just became this one, single book," she said happily, opening it to the first page to show him the table of contents. "In its smaller form, every page will be a table of contents, sorted by magic class or section, with each book listed along with a description of the book and what it contains. You will simply state the section you want and then open it to the next page and it will begin with the book you stated. You can also just give it a topic and open it randomly. The more that goes into it, the more accurate and better it becomes. It'll get rid of duplicate information and organize things based on various criteria to make it easier to use."

"What about the book that was about three times this one's size? Will it fit when I open it?" He asked. She smiled at him in a manner that he would have expected to have seen on Hermione.

"The covers on the front and back will actually open extra pages as needed or absorb the previous ones as you flip through them. Think of it as a muggle Rolodex where the pages go in a circle-like fashion. For pages that were larger that held diagrams, like some of the rituals in the book, you'll just need to expand the book itself or copy it over to something to expand."

"Ah. Do you suppose-"

"Don't worry. One of the scrolls in here is a way for you to do it. Just ask for 'book combining spells' and you should find it without troubles, along with the other book-related spells for restoring them, keeping them in good shape, creating others out of knowledge in one's mind and other spells of the like." Harry grinned brightly at her, already planning on giving the spell to Hermione.

"Now, inside of this book are several for combat dueling, mental defenses, warding, healing, security, horcruxes since you'll need everything on destroying them, magical guardians and creatures, animagus transformations, wandless magics and several other things that were included in those books." When she looked up at him, she noticed his eyes were rather ... bulgy.

"Don't worry, Harry," she said laughing. "You don't have to learn everything, just what you think will help. A lot of it is information that you will find in the Hogwarts library or other places, just not as easily or in as much depth since most of it is in hidden locations in your world. The only thing I am going to tell you to learn before your third year is the mental defense bits. You may want to look into the combat dueling as well, though, and maybe the wandless magic. The rest can be looked at as you wish. I_ would _recommend you eventually look through a good deal of it, however. You'll want to look up the horcrux information sooner or later, preferably sooner."

"Er, alright." Harry felt like gasping from the mental strain of everything. So much to do and so much to take in, it was just overwhelming! "Um, you said 'mental defenses'. Is that different than occlumency?" Lora blinked at him for a moment before nodding.

"Yes, actually. It is. Occlumency is more of a vault-like technique, where this is crafting your mind to be more of a defensible location. This is far easier to learn, but more vulnerable until you've truly set it up, whereas occlumency will give you walls around your mind that start out flexible and get stronger, as long as you do it properly. The problem, though, is that it takes a very long time to get to a high enough proficiency at it to keep Snape, Dumbledore and Voldemort out if they're really trying and you don't end up with near the kind of control over yourself as you can have with this. This will be weak until you really get at it, then it's only as weak as you make it, or as strong as you make it instead of being something that can simply be broken through with brute force as occlumency would allow until you've had years to develop the ability. All things aside, it has the potential to be stronger than anything else, but requires more upkeep and leaves you more vulnerable in the beginning is all." Harry nodded. He really had a good many more questions, but decided he would learn them by simply reading the books she gave him. Well, book, really.

"Alright... So, when do I leave?"

Lora smiled in a manner far too reminiscent of the Weasley twins for Harry's liking as she opened the folder on the bottom of the others and pulled out a stack of papers and slid them to him with a pen. "I'll be sending you back as soon as you sign this contract."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the smiling Lora as she looked at him with the fakest expression of innocence he had ever seen. And that was after several years of watching Dudley blame mishaps on him. "What does the contract say?" He began to scan the pages, looking for any words that would hopefully jump out and catch his attention. He was fidgety with contracts ever since his fourth year.

"Basically, that you are going back to the realm of the living with your memories intact and," she paused so slightly that Harry wasn't sure he had caught it or not, "have guidance from us, can't tell anyone about the afterlife you've experienced aside from your soul mate and they must also keep it in the strictest of confidence and you can only tell them after teaching them the occlumency from this book, that this is your last shot to get things right and the like." She peered at the paper as if seeing if he had written his name yet. "Also, if you don't sign it, you stay dead, so it really _is_ for the best, after all. Sign your name on the first page and last page, please." She fluttered her eyelashes at him while trying to look cute while he pouted and put the pen to the paper and did as he was told. Once he was done, the contract rose into the air and disappeared with a flash of light and resounding clack of thunder.

"Huh... flashy..." He blinked at where the paper disappeared until Lora rose from her chair with a large grin.

"Alright! Don't tell anyone about what you know until they've learned occlumency and try not to look anyone in the eyes until you've learned it! The book and box will be in your trunk when you get back!" Suddenly, the entire room began to shift and rotate, fading away.

"Hey... Wait! What box are you talking about?" As everything went black, he heard her disembodied voice float towards him.

"You will ... to ... r-" As the voice left and the room he was in shimmered out of view, Harry found himself in total darkness before he was suddenly thrust into a cacophony of noise. He looked around and found himself in the Great Hall. The first discernible thing he heard was Neville's voice.

"Harry, Ron! Look!" Harry saw him pointed towards the entrance and when he turned, he saw a mane of bushy hair above a smiling face before the freshly unpetrified Hermione rocketed towards him and enveloped him in a tight hug. Harry was surprised at the rush of emotions that suddenly filled him, the same ones that he felt when this happened the first time and the happiness at seeing Hermione again after such a close call with death. Unbidden, words flew out of his mouth as if he were an observer in the body.

"Hermione," he whispered into her ear, "if you _ever_ make me worry that badly again, I'm going to be forced to kidnap you and subject you to days on end of the tickling charm." He squeezed her a little tighter before releasing her, her face slightly flushed from amusement and happiness before she almost hugged Ron, both suddenly stopping and deciding instead to shake hands.

Harry mentally frowned as he tried to decide what he was going to do about the Weasleys, but decided he had plenty of time to figure it out since Lora said it would be during the summer after next year it all started. Instead, he made sure they sat together as they did before and he ignored pretty much everything except Hermione, Ron and Hagrid's entrance, making sure to make his speech to Hagrid was as close as he could remember to the original, all eight words of it. After everyone went to the common rooms after the feast, he decided he would get that letter sent out to Gringotts as quickly as possible.

He quickly went upstairs as soon as he passed the portrait of the fat lady and went to his trunk for paper and quill when he saw the book that Lora had told him would be there along with the stone box and a letter stuck to it. Ignoring the stone box for now, he grabbed the large book along with the other supplies he needed and went back downstairs to sit at the table that had unofficially been left alone as his, Hermione's and Ron's and began to write.

_Griphook, or whomever my account manager is:_

_My name is Harry Potter. I am writing this letter to alert Gringotts of my plans to arrive on the second of July to find out my full account holdings, the status of my accounts and their activity, who has access to these accounts, get any emancipation paperwork taken care of to become fully and legally emancipated and see about my parents' will. It is my intention to take up the mantle as the Head of the House of Potter._

_None of this has yet to have been done for me or with me, and I was curious about all of it. I have recently learned that things and people in my life are not as they appear and the Goblin Nation has yet to give me any reason to doubt or not trust in them. I believe there are owl redirection wards around my residence in Surrey, so I am afraid I do not believe anything you send will make it to me via that method of communication._

_I am familiar with Griphook, which is why I addressed this to him. If this is not who I should be speaking with, I apologize. _

_I would also request a portkey to bring me from my place of residence to Gringotts and back to my starting point. I am aware that there is most likely a fee for this and am fully willing to pay for it. You may withdraw any funds necessary from my vault as needed. I can, and will, take another method of transportation if this is either not available or is for any reason ill-advised._

_I thank you for your time,_

_Harry James Potter_

Harry quickly signed the letter with a flourish and then tilted his head back, letting out a loud, but sad-sounding whistle that fell in pitch, getting the attention of everyone in the common room, including Ron and Hermione who were sitting next to him, though Hermione had been eying his new book and inching toward it ever so slowly.

"Harry, mate, what was that?" Ron's question was answered a moment later as Hedwig, in all of her snowy-white beauty, flew in from the window and landed on Harry's shoulder and snuffled his ear in greeting.

"Nothing ... I just called Hedwig..." In truth, he wasn't sure _why_ he did that to call her. She usually just came on her own when he needed her, but he had to admit, the sound was pretty nice. He ignored everyone's questioning gaze as he tied the letter to Hedwig's waiting leg.

"To Griphook, girl. After this, I think you'll enjoy your new home," he whispered into her ear. Hedwig nipped at his fingertips affectionately before taking flight. Harry watched her go before turning to his book, the same book that Hermione still had targeted in her sights and had covered just over half of the distance towards.

_'I know I _should _tell her what it is, or let her read it, but this is _so_ much more fun!'_ Harry smiled lightly as he began to read about the seal that had been placed on him.

xXxXxXx

Harry awoke the next day to Hedwig's hooting from his headboard. Apparently, she had spent the night going to and from Gringotts to get everything her master needed taken care of, which Harry was eternally grateful for, but she was obviously tired and her feathers somewhat ruffled.

"Thanks, girl. Come to breakfast and I promise to have as much bacon as you can eat ready for you." Hedwig eyed him suspiciously for a moment before letting out an odd trilling hoot and flying off with an aerial flourish, making Harry wonder just how much his familiar enjoyed the crispy goodness. Shaking his head, he opened the letter with a smile and hoping for good news.

_Mr Potter,_

_We at Gringotts thank you for warning us of your impending visit. It will allow us to be very sure that we have all paperwork ready and waiting for you. We only wish more witches and wizards were as candid as you have been._

_Your date for the second of July is agreeable with us. We have provided a portkey for your safe arrival and return. It is this parchment, in fact. It will bring you to Gringotts' reserved portkey and apparition zone. This location is heavily guarded and only used under special conditions. This is our gesture of thanks for alerting us to your requests in advance and we have charged you nothing for it. Please do not expect this to be a regular occurrence. Future portkeys will cost the mandatory twelve sickles. You may arrive with one other as your advisor if you so choose, but any more than that will result in a defensible action. Please do not force our hand._

_All paperwork you requested, has been noted and should be obtained some time today for your arrival tomorrow. It will consist of all you have requested and any other documents we felt you may wish to see afterwards. It would seem we have much to discuss._

_As you have mentioned Griphook, he will be present, but will not be handling most matters. Your family's account has been inactive for some time and therefore, has no account manager. The Head of our accounts department, Senior Advisor Fangstone, shall handle your meeting._

_Sincerely,_

_Bloodclaw_

_Senior Advisor, Head of Relations_

_Gringotts Wizarding Bank, London Branch_

Harry smiled widely as he realized things were beginning to go as needed. Securing the parchment into the front cover of the book that Lora had given him with a sticking charm, he set it to the side and took a quick shower before any of the others woke up. Once done, he grabbed the book and went down to the Great Hall to keep his promise to Hedwig.

xXxXxXx

Hermione had been watching Harry all day. It wasn't so much that he was acting odd, as it was that he had a book that appeared older than anything in the library, and she noticed rather irritably that it did not have a title on the spine, and he was reading it constantly. She had first noticed him in the Great Hall with Hedwig on his shoulder, eagerly eating from a large pile of bacon and reading the book as he chewed, being careful to not get any grease on the pages. Her first thought was that it was a book much thicker than anything he would voluntarily read on his own, but with school about to end for the year and nothing new being assigned, she knew he was doing just that.

Now, they were on the train heading home with Ron and Ginny where she was sitting beside him, hoping to get a glimpse of what was in the book, but found that the print was too small unless she was either holding the book herself or reading directly over his shoulder. And that was just too obvious, but looking like a better option as time wore on.

"Harry, what are you reading? And why did Madam Pince allow you to take a book over the summer?" Hermione's agitation was obvious to Harry as he looked at her with wide eyes, almost as if he had forgotten she was there. For herself, she had asked Pince before and was told school texts could not be checked out over the summer.

"This didn't come from the library, Hermione. I got it ... elsewhere," he said with a frown. "And it's something I'm going to learn over the summer."

"Harry, you're turning into Hermione with all that reading!" Ron wasn't sure what Harry's problem was. It was like he _wanted_ to do extra work or something. "Why read more than you have to? We have two whole months before we have to even _look _at a book again!"

Hermione glared at the boy, causing him to cower closer to his sister. "For your information, _Ronald_, reading happens to be an enjoyable pastime for a lot of people! Furthermore-"

"Sorry, sorry! I just wanted to know _why_ he was reading when he didn't have to!" Hermione huffed as Ron tried to placate her and Harry chuckled.

"Here. You take a look at it, Hermione. I'm going to the loo." He closed it and handed the book to her and walked out of the compartment they were in. Hermione, grinning in a way not reserved for the sane, took the book and curled into the corner where Harry had sat, the warmth left from his body leaving a soothing feeling like when she read by the fireplace at her home den.

Hermione opened the book to the first page to see what it was titled or if it would give a brief description and found that, entitled 'Mind Magicks', and the letter from Gringotts, stuck to the inside cover. Curiousity spinning, she read that first before going through the book itself.

xXxXxXx

Harry entered the loo and turned to close the door, locking it from anyone who may have come in, remembering a rather spirited attempt after his fifth year that he still felt too embarrassed to tell anyone about, and when he turned around, he saw Lora there, smiling brightly at him.

"Hiya Harry!" She chirruped. Harry looked at her for a few seconds and blinked before he hopped backwards, hitting the door with a thump and let out a surprised yelp.

"Ah!" He looked around frantically, checking himself over to see if he had any stab wounds or if he was bleeding from anywhere. "What? Why are you here? Did I die again?"

Lora snorted before sitting on the toilet seat, leaving him to stand. "No, you didn't die. If you did, I certainly wouldn't have been smiling," she looked at him with a penetrating gaze, making him shudder lightly, but unable to look away.

"So ... What's up?" He asked nervously.

"You're off to a good start. You haven't really changed too much yet, which is good. I do have a few things I'd like to mention and then I'll be on my way." When he nodded, still looking highly confused, she began.

"Alrighty. Now, I'm here as part of the contract. Remember when I told you that you would be getting guidance from us? Well, this is it. I've called in a few favors and cashed in a few IOU's from some poker games," she looked sharply at Harry and began speaking in a nearly frightening voice. "Don't ever play poker with rules of 'once the clothes are gone, you start getting favors'..." she shuddered. "You'll regret it." As Harry was processing that, and only just about to get to the point all teenage-minded males would go, she spoke again in her previously chipper voice.

"Anyway, you'll want to decide on if you're going to try and rely on your information of the future, which I don't suggest as the smallest things, including your emancipation are going to change, or start over from the beginning, which I _would_ recommend." Now Harry was most certainly confused, thoughts about possible 'favors' out of his mind.

"Why wouldn't I rely on what I know of what's going to happen?" He asked, thinking that was the whole point of going back in time, just like the original end to his third year with Hermione. Lora sighed, saddened by remembering what happened in the past with just such thoughts.

"Well, think of it this way. Imagine you're in a fight with a death eater and you remember the fight exactly as it happened. Now, say you remember dodging left and dodging the killing curse," as he nodded, she continued, "now, imagine that you dodged left because this particular death eater had a tendency to shoot a little to the side of his opponent and you knew that, but you said something or did something where he wound up fixing it and the next time you fought, he was better and hit you instead." Harry's eyebrows rose as he realized what she was saying.

"You mean I may change something that totally makes things different and if I rely on my knowledge of the future and ignore what's going on now, I may screw it up royally?"

Lora blinked with her eyebrows raised high. "You got that faster than I thought you would-"

"Hey!"

"But yes, that's basically it."

Harry grumbled before nodding and leaning up against the door. "So, probably just learn as much as I can, try to get what horcruxes I can and just take everything as I can. Got you. I can expect fourth year to run about the same, considering old Moldyshorts shouldn't hear about what's going on with me since he's going to use this whole year to get the Tri-Wizard tournament rigged."

Lora held up a finger. "Don't assume," she said in a singsong voice.

"Right ... Probably safer that way." Harry grimaced.

Lora nodded. "Correct. Also, you should see about going to the Apothecary in Diagon Alley and try to get some malnourishment potions, or potions that will jump start you on a growth spurt and try to live at Potter Manor. It's got a lot of protections that would allow anyone who is underage to practice magic without any problems if you so chose to have them over and for the love of God, get a new wardrobe!" She glared at him as only a woman could. "Just wait until after the summer so your growth spurt won't make it pointless."

Harry nodded and adopted a very serious expression. "I'll take all of that into consideration. Thank you. I do have a question though."

"What's that?" Lora, noticing his expression, became highly intrigued.

"Are you going back now, or do you plan to stay and watch while I pee?" Lora's eyed widened and her face became a furious red before she squeaked and simply disappeared. Harry chuckled and did what he had originally come to do, pleased to have gotten one over on her. It was her own bloody fault for keeping him from his business in the first place, though. It was going to be a lot of fun if he could continue. Meanwhile, Lora was devising plans to get back at him, cackling madly as she wrote plan after plan down. The poor dead soul in front of her kept eying the door and whimpered.

xXxXxXx

Harry was mildly annoyed as they pulled into the train station. He had tried twice to get Hermione's attention to get his book back, but she swatted him away each time he tried as if he were an annoying gnat. He had been forced into sitting next to her with his arms crossed over his chest and pouted the whole trip back as she read. It was easily the most bored he had been for a while. He found that he had an odd enjoyment in reading the book compared to usual. Maybe it was because it wasn't being forced onto him? As the train shuddered to a stop, Harry shook Hermione's arm, ignoring her annoyed swatting and finally decided on amused over annoyed.

"Hermione, we're here," Harry announced, rather petulantly. Hermione looked up, shocked that they had made it so far. When she finally looked at the pages she had read through, she found that she was much further than she had thought.

"Oh," she looked around again as if lost. "Erm, okay." She was suddenly very glad that she had dressed in her muggle clothing underneath of her robes.

"I promise, I'll let you borrow it when we get back to Hogwarts or once I've gone through as much as I need to, alright?" Harry assured her. Hermione nodded.

"I saw the letter from Gringotts," Harry mentally smacked himself on the forehead, "and was curious about what you're hoping to find." Hermione was hoping it could be something she could help him with. She would love the opportunity to have something to do during the summer.

"I just realized that I had no idea what my account held," which was true, considering he never even found out in the original time line, "and felt I should really figure that out."

"Okay. That makes sense." Hermione admitted, thinking it was a reasonable plan.

Harry nodded, an idea suddenly forming in his head.

"Hey, what would you say to helping me out closer to the end of summer? I'm wanting to get some books and would like your help to get some decent ones and help me get some normal clothes and you always match, so I figured you'd have a lot of better choices than what I would come up with. That, and I have no clue where any decent stores would be or anything."

Hermione's eyebrows rose as he spoke, but felt it would be fun all the same. "Of course! That shouldn't be a problem. I don't do much shopping, but if you don't have problems with it, my parents would likely take us."

Harry nodded as they made their way down the corridor in the trains. "Great! I plan to get a lot done this summer, so I'll write you often so we stay in touch." Harry mentally patted himself on the back as Hermione flashed him a brilliant smile.

The night before, until he had finally fallen asleep, he took the time to think over everything in his past life that had happened and was truly able to see how he had completely missed Hermione and any potential love interest with her. It was like he'd had an epiphany about his feelings like he sometimes had when he got a spell right. And Harry had every intention of playing catch-up this time around. He was not sure whether or not it was actually love in a romantic sense, but knew it would be incredibly easy if he wanted it to be. As they left the train, Harry gave Hermione a loose, one-armed hug.

"Talk to you soon, Hermione." They smiled at each other as Hermione hugged him back and then offered a final goodbye and then rushed towards her parents, who watched the hug with curious gazes. Ron was already gone with the rest of the Weasleys on their way home to get everything ready to take an international portkey to Egypt thanks to having won the wizarding lottery. They didn't have the time to make pleasant goodbyes.

"Get over here, boy!" Vernon's face was a pale pink as his rage was held in check in public. He despised his nephew and being forced to pick him up from his 'freak' school and make him come out of his way just to accommodate the little bastard simply pissed him off.

"When we get back to the house while we're out at dinner, you're going to take care of the garden, then you'll be mowing, then-" Harry tuned Vernon out as they made their way to Privet Drive, already making his own plans for the next day.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon," he responded automatically, easily falling into the old routine. When they arrived, Dudley and Petunia came bustling out of the door.

"Get inside, boy!" Petunia looked around as if making sure no one could see them, odd as it was. Harry briefly wondered why they continued telling people he went to St. Brutus' when anyone could see his school trunk and realize it certainly was not where he had been.

As soon as the Dursleys were out of the house, Harry made his way upstairs to his room and quickly began to forge a fake letter from Gringotts to explain why he wasn't doing his chores and began working on his homework. Had he known forging fake Gringotts letters was illegal, he probably would have gone a different route, but it suited his purposes and would be destroyed soon enough.

Three hours later when the Dursleys showed up, Harry had made it through Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration and Charms and was halfway through Defense Against the Dark Arts when Vernon burst through his door.

"Boy! Why didn't you do your chores!" Rather than speak, he handed the forged letter to Vernon who took it warily. Almost as if fearing it would bite him.

_Mr Potter,_

_Your request to emancipate yourself so that you may leave your "normal relatives at peace and get out of their lives", as you put it, is in process. We will send a representative to you soon to offer you the paperwork and we will then submit it. _

_Please understand that your request was asked with the express notice of not asking for money, shelter or any other staples from your relatives. Due to this, once the paperwork is signed and completed, you will have one hour to vacate their residence before you will be trespassing and they are under absolutely no obligation to offer you anything. Should they approve of this and sign off on it, then you will have no choice but to abide by that decision. Please understand that this means any obligations, legal and financial, are your sole responsibility, Mr Potter._

_If we do not arrive at some point of the day you receive this letter, please find some method of coming to Gringotts to put all paperwork through._

_Griphook, _

_Gringotts Legal Department_

Harry watched Vernon very carefully as he read over the faux letter and was very pleased when he saw a slight smirk slowly turn into a full-blown grin that threatened to break his face in two.

"My original plan was to surprise you guys and let you know that I was leaving, but apparently, there's paperwork that I need to fill out and you may have to sign it also. As you can see," Harry pointed at the paper, hoping to hide his nervousness, "I've already made sure you won't have to worry about giving me any money or anything else, really, and you won't have anything left to do with me because there won't be anything I can do to come back and hit you guys up for. But that bit where it said that they may be showing up tonight is why I didn't do the chores. If I didn't have to get ready for the whole official thing, then whoever came here would leave as quickly as possible since I know you don't want to risk the neighbors seeing anything freak-related." Vernon smiled widely as he read the bits over he was most fond of; the whole thing.

"If this works out, then we'll call it square, boy. If it doesn't, then expect to be worked hard to make up for your slack," he growled before throwing the paper on the bed and leaving. Harry shook his head and smiled as he walked over to Hedwig's cage and petted his familiar.

"It seems things are working out well so far, girl. Why don't you hunt for the night while I finish up my homework. With my knowledge, I'm breezing through this stuff like crazy." Hedwig hooted gently as Harry opened the window for her to escape from.

xXxXxXx

Dan and Emma Granger listened as Hermione told them about her year at Hogwarts, much of it being what she had already told them in her letters. Both were listening, somewhat in fear and somewhat in awe as she spoke of the year she'd had. By the time she had caught them up to everything, they were already finished with their dinner and were halfway home.

"So, Harry killed a giant snake and saved that Ginny girl?" Emma watched her daughter nod before asking the follow-up question. "And that's the boy who you got off the train with?"

"Yes. He was asking if I thought that I might be able to help him pick out some new clothes at the end of summer and get a few books and such." Emma and Dan shared a look of amusement as Hermione seemed to blush lightly.

"Well, I don't think that would be a problem," Dan began, "though I'm surprised he'd want your help rather than his family's. So long as he gives us enough warning to get ready and is willing to work around whatever we may have scheduled if it's important, I'd be okay with it."

"Oh, Harry isn't the type to put people out of their way," Hermione assured them. "If he hadn't asked himself, I would say he would worry about being a bother, actually. He said he plans on writing to me fairly often this summer and would let me know when he wanted to go out and do some shopping."

"Well, we'll see what we can do for the boy when the time comes. For now, tell us more about your classes. You told us in a letter that you get to choose new ones next year, right?" Emma chuckled as she saw her daughter nod enthusiastically.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Notes: Final:]** - Hidy. Just a bit of forewarning and miscellaneous info.

The next chapter is my "About" chapter and is purely about the basics of this story (take a look for details.)

The next STORY chapter (Chapter 3) is going to be Harry's trip to Gringotts and the rest of the summer and then finally, the excursion with Hermione. I plan on picking the pace up quite a bit on that chapter and the one after it. It will be basically random info and Harry's holdings with Gringotts. Chapter 4 will be running story, again.


	2. About Chapter

**Title:** Death's Pride

**Chapter:** About

**Ships:** H/Hr/L, Nev, S. Bones

**Author:** Paladeus

**Challenge:** Reptilia28

xXxXxXx

**SEARCH TERMS (CTRL+F to find):**

-**CHALLENGE**

-**SUMMARY** (Genre, Lemons, limes, Rating, Full summary)

-**MONETARY CONVERSION**

-**SHIPS**

-**POTENTIAL CROSSOVER POINTS**

-**TECHNOLOGY/MISC INFO**

-**SPELLS**

xXxXxXx

**CHALLENGE:**

Challenge issued by "Reptilia28" - Originally on Portkey(dot)org verbatim:

A funny little challenge I just came up with. It's a comical twist on the time-travel category.

STORYLINE:

*Harry is killed at 17 during a fight with Voldemort. He's sent to his Death's office (explained later) and finds out that this isn't the first time that this has happened.

*Harry's Death (who can have a human name) is mad at his arrival. Apparently, people dying before their time is a black mark on the various Deaths' records, and Harry is getting perilously close to getting this particular one fired.

*When Harry asks what was supposed to have happened, Death goes off on a rant saying how he was supposed to have killed Voldemort, found his soulmate ("Some Granger girl...") and lived to be a centennial age. But since Harry keeps getting into life-threatening situations for one reason or another, he keeps dying before that happens. Harry is surprised about the soulmate part.

*Death gives Harry a paper to sign that allows him to retain his memories (the previous times, he wasn't given this option for some reason). Harry is deposited to a previous time of the writer's choosing.

*Eventually, Harry gets it right. He kills Voldemort, gets the girl, and lives to a ripe old age of whatever. And Death doesn't get fired.

REQUIREMENTS:

*Harry had to have died at least three times before this one.

*The memory keeping contract must be included.

*Death must refer to Hermione as "some Granger girl" when Harry's soulmate turns up in his rant.

*Obviously, must be H/Hr.

*Have fun.

OPTIONAL:

*Dumbledore's manipulations can be a factor in Harry's premature demises.

*Hermione may or may not be told of Harry's little "situation."

xXxXxXx

**SUMMARY:**

Rating: M – Mature themes, Violence, Crude humor (toilet humor, painful jokes and sexual humor, though not explicit to begin with,) nudity and potential sexual acts later in the story (see section on lemons and limes for more detail.)

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Erotic comedy(?,) Fantasy, Humor, Mythology, Parody and Romance

Summary: 

Harry dies, again, and his Death Angel is NOT happy. Sent back for the final time with his memories intact, he tries to do it right, on orders by the Creator. And his Death Angel won't leave him, or his soulmate, alone. H/Hr/L,Nev/Sus B

Basic Info on Plot:

Based on the challenge by Reptilia28, I plan to make this a normal story, but with a high attention towards comedy and romance (I believe romance to be a necessary thing in stories and this is too good an opportunity for comedy.) Expect the shipping to start moderately quickly, but not right away and some light sexual humor used as flirting (nothing _too_ crude or excessive – To start out with, anyway, except maybe between Harry and his Death Angel, Lora, to start with at Harry's expense.) I DO expect to make Harry a little superpowered, but Voldemort will be as well. I expect this story to be funny and not overly serious, therefore, balancing the characters isn't my primary focus. The comedy and relationships are (along with a good deal of bad-guy bashing.)

**Lemons:** While I don't expect to write many since they aren't integral to the plot, I may write one for the sake of someone failing miserably at it for humor – I will NOT write anything explicit in the beginning ... Or if I do, I'll notate it at the beginning of any chapter and show how to bypass it entirely and it WILL be due to the plot (or I get desperate for reviews.. -Shifty eyes-.) Otherwise, you'll just be aware that it happened. It won't be until after 4th year at the earliest for the naughtier things, though there will be playing and teasing and the like, just like normal life. It will be reasonable, not extreme or anything. It'll be a lot of jokes and innuendo for the first couple of years. It just depends on how I feel as I get further into the story and if enough people

**Limes:** Expect lots of limes... (assuming they are what I believe them to be.) My plans are to describe plenty of flirting and innuendo and sexual acts up to 'heavy petting', kissing, etc to the extent of anything found in a rated 'R' movie. Basically, anything but out-and-out sex or any penetration. This fic is basically about comedy, love and relationships, not lust and sex. I'll just throw a bit in there to keep the perverts happy and what works for the story and lots of sex-based humor.

xXxXxXx

**SHIPS:**

Primary: Harry/Hermione/Luna (H/Hr/L)

Secondary: Neville/Susan Bones (N/Sus B)

xXxXxXx

**MONETARY CONVERSION:**

Changed at reader request from 1,000 pounds to 100 pounds for a gold galleon.

**1 Knut (Bronze) - 50 pence/cents**

**1 Sickle (Silver) - 40 knuts - 20 pounds**

**1 Galleon (Gold) - 5 sickles - 200 knuts - 100 pounds**

My calculations are based off of the worth of precious metals at 1 Troy ounce in weight of each type (which each coin is going to weigh in at.) However, as there is not much call for bronze, I used copper prices for knuts, which was 17 cents, 17 dollars and change for silver and a 1003 dollars and change for gold. I am basing the amounts off of American or United States currency and rounding to whatever is closest so that I may do the math easier when necessary. I know that the price of gold has changed a few times and went well over a thousand dollars a few times during my time with this story, so I'll leave it there for ease. However, a thousand pounds is quite a bit, so I'm going to say that the gold is mixed to an alloy for half its true worth so it endures handling and being dropped better.

I do not see this as ignoring Canon pricing, really. If you think about a wand costing 7 galleons, and that it is supposed to stay with a witch or wizard their entire life, then you see that it is more like the purchase of a car, which my pricing more closely reflects (7 galleons by 500 pounds gives us 3500) (you can thank **Seel'vor** and his story "**Harry Potter and the Quantum Leap**" for his own rant that got me thinking about that – I also highly recommend the fic.) It really makes sense if you think about it. Why use the standard 1 galleon equals five pounds/dollars, meaning a wand (also Ollivander's profession where he makes huge headway once a year and then probably rarely after that,) would only cost thirty five to forty dollars? The ingredients probably cost more than that alone, really (how rare would a phoenix feather be? Or a dragon's heart string or Unicorn hair?)

xXxXxXx

**POTENTIAL CROSSOVER POINTS:**

**Naruto- **

I will take the Rasengan from the Naruto anime/manga. Check the "Spells" section for a more thorough description. Likewise with the Kage Bunshin technique, though adapted for the HP fandom.

**The Wheel of Time-**

Gateways (or Portals): These are basically rips in space that a person can walk through to appear wherever they wish, so long as the person is capable of picturing the place they wish to go in incredible detail (This can also be used to arrive to a person, but is FAR more difficult as people are constantly moving about.)

The depth of the portal is thin enough that it would be measured to a millionth of an inch and is therefore thin enough to cut anything that applies pressure to it, including flesh. This means the portal should not be opened randomly at the other end due to the fact that it could open where a person is standing and kill them. Usually, that isn't likely to happen, however, as the gateways open with a default safety mechanism where they are surrounded by a wide band of magic that pushes anything around the opening portal out of the way.

xXxXxXx

**SPELLS:**

**Rasengan:** Spiraling sphere [Literal]

Effect: A mass of raw magic creating in the hand that swirls in dozens of different directions at once to create a vortex of energy. It is held together with a thin shell of magic on the outside that compels the magic within to spiral in a spherical shape. It can absorb any magic that hits it to displaces it outwards and back in the direction it came from.

This skill does not use a wand in it's creation.

**Clone:**

Effect: Clones that are sentient and have the same abilities as the original witch or wizard (but the raw power is split equally among each unless specified otherwise by the caster) and can think independently of each other.

Anything one clone learns, the original will learn automatically once the clone is dispelled, either from attack or the clone dispelling itself or the original dispelling it. Whatever is learned by the clone remains in the original's mind as if the original learned it as well.

This skill does not use a wand in its creation.

xXxXxXx

**TECHNOLOGY/MISC INFO:**

Technology is going to be up-to-date. Therefore, I will not go back to check release dates on movies, music (artists or songs) and the like.


	3. Freedom

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter2** – Freedom

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language, Suggestive Themes

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**:"Speech"**, **_'Thoughts'_**, "Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - A good portion of the summer is going to be VERY bland, and quite frankly, the same thing over and over again for the summer, so I'll recap it once I get to that bit when you get there. This chapter is simply Harry's trip to Gringotts and resulting emancipation, some info on what he has and such, and getting to his new home with some final letters between Harry and Hermione at the end. While it CAN be skipped, there are a few small bits that make reading it worth while. And lastly, the trip with Hermione in both the magical world and muggle will be the start of next chapter, along with the return to Hogwarts and a few bits with Lora thrown in randomly throughout.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Potter and the Quantum Leap" by Seel'vor (H/Hr)

xXx **PREVIOUSLY** xXx

_Harry watched Vernon very carefully as he read over the faux letter and was very pleased when he saw a slight smirk slowly turn into a full-blown grin that threatened to break his face in two._

"_My original plan was to surprise you guys and let you know that I was leaving, but apparently, there's paperwork that I need to fill out and you may have to sign it also. As you can see," Harry pointed at the paper, hoping to hide his nervousness, "I've already made sure you won't have to worry about giving me any money or anything else, really, and you won't have anything left to do with me because there won't be anything I can do to come back and hit you guys up for. But that bit where it said that they may be showing up tonight is why I didn't do the chores. If I didn't have to get ready for the whole official thing, then whoever came here would leave as quickly as possible since I know you don't want to risk the neighbors seeing anything freak-related." Vernon smiled widely as he read the bits over he was most fond of; the whole thing._

"_If this works out, then we'll call it square, boy. If it doesn't, then expect to be worked hard to make up for your slack," he growled before throwing the paper on the bed and leaving. Harry shook his head and smiled as he walked over to Hedwig's cage and petted his familiar._

"_It seems things are working out well so far, girl."_

xXx **STORY** xXx

**Sunday – June 20, Morning – Number Four Privet Dr**

Harry awoke early the next morning since he was still used to getting up for classes and went downstairs, only to see that Dudley and Vernon were still asleep and Petunia was currently making breakfast. As he entered the kitchen, Petunia scowled at him.

"Aunt Petunia, did Vernon tell you about what I was trying to-"

"Yes, idiot child! We tell each other everything, of course! Vernon took the day off to make sure he would be here for this, so get out of here and make sure your 'freak' friends don't come around our house!" She began furiously scrubbing the counter with her towel, ignoring or not caring that she was using the dirty bit of the towel.

Harry merely nodded and went upstairs to take a shower and then read a little more of the book left to him about the power-limiting seal, determining that it wasn't all that difficult to cast if you knew how to use wandless magic since it couldn't be done with a wand. At five minutes after eight, Harry dressed into his robes, grabbed his wand and the paper sent to him from Gringotts. Looking around to see if he missed anything, he finally decided he was ready.

"Well, let's get this started."

Harry tapped his wand to the parchment and felt the expected tug behind his navel. He found himself flailing around in a technicolor stream of lights before landing roughly on his bum with an 'oomph'. Looking around, he got up and rubbed his aching backside. He saw a relatively closed off area that was well-lit with a rather large gold inlay on the stone floor with the Gringotts seal dominant and some kind of runic structure surrounding it. _'Those are cool. I wonder what they're for.'_ His musings were interrupted by a heavy wooden door opening and a familiar goblin entering.

"Oh. Hello Griphook," Harry greeting the tiny creature. The goblin raised an eyebrow at Harry and motioned him towards the door.

"Good morning, Mister Potter. If you'll come this way, we will begin the meeting you've requested."

Harry walked with Griphook out of the room and down a winding series of stone hallways, several of which he couldn't help but think he was purposefully led down several times to keep him from memorizing the route. "Griphook, if you don't mind my asking, where are we?" Harry asked, sure he had just passed the same hallway for the third time.

Griphook considered him a few moments, debating how much to say compared to how little they usually elected for. Only considering the concern the upper-tiers of management had made in regards to the boy and his accounts with them allowed the goblin to come to a decision before actually responding with only a slight hesitation. "Well, Mister Potter ... We are deep underneath of Gringotts in its vast network of catacombs. As stated in the letter sent to you, we almost never use the portkey arrival point given to you and it is because of being in the bowels of the Gringotts' inner networks among other sensitive reasons. I'm afraid I do not have the authority to tell you more than this."

Harry simply nodded, actually happy to have received more of an answer than he expected. "That's okay, Griphook. I asked expecting the answer to be much less, just in case of something like that or security and was only curious. Thank you for what you could give me anyway."

While Griphook frowned slightly as he tried to figure out the actions of the wizard next to him, Harry was thanking Lora and whatever deities that had sent him back with his knowledge from his past life. He had learned towards the end, when he had to deal a bit more with goblins, when dealing with Sirius' and Dumbledore's wills, that goblins reacted _very_ well to respect and honor and were disgusted by anything that showed weakness or vulnerability. Simply treating them as he wanted them to treat him without cowing before them had gained him the ear of the goblins whenever he dealt with them. The only exception seemed to be death of a loved one. They seemed to understand the humans' need to mourn during that time, though they couldn't understand mourning those lost in battle. He hoped to start that much earlier and possibly with a stronger bond this time around.

After several minutes of walking in silence, they finally came to a large, wooden set of double doors with heavy silver and gold handles. The Gringotts seal was etched into each. Harry noticed that the seal appeared to be identical to the one in the portkey room, but somehow seemed different. Griphook didn't even pause as he opened the doors and ushered Harry inside and to a seat at the edge of a long table.

"Senior Advisor and Head of Accounts Management Fangstone will be by momentarily. I will remain with you throughout the proceedings. Do you require any drink?"

"No, thank you."

Griphook nodded and almost immediately, a slightly taller goblin walked in with two attendants who were carrying several scrolls and parchments each. When the goblin entered, Griphook immediately stood at attention and then bowed. Harry, seeing this, decided to imitate him by standing from his chair and bowing as well, obviously using Griphook as his guide since he was looking slightly to the side to see if he matched postures and was waiting for a sign of when to rise. Fangstone raised an eyebrow and found himself equally as amused as shocked at the young wizard's actions. Wizards did not tend to show goblins respect or believe them to be anything more than animals, but this one it seemed, had yet to learn of that facet of wizarding society.

"You may rise," he said, moving to the head of the table. "My name is Senior Advisor Fangstone, Mister Potter, Head of Accounts Management. We have taken the liberty of getting each of the files you have requested of us in relation to your parents' will, a transaction summary of your holdings since your parents' deaths, your full account holdings, emancipation paperwork and a few things we thought you may wish to know about in hopes of anticipating what you would ask about." Harry nodded, already knowing that from the letter.

"Thank you. May we first start with my parents' will?" Harry asked. Fangstone nodded while pulling out the scroll in question.

"As you wish, Mister Potter. I must ask, however, why your guardians haven't come with you." Fangstone watched intently as Harry frowned and seemed to think before answering.

"Well, that was actually part of why I wanted to see my parents' will. You see, I live with my aunt from my mother's side and her husband and son. They despise magic though and, in turn, despise me. I trust you can understand the reference when I say that, minus the magic, I was treated about like one of the Malfoy house elves." Harry noticed the goblin's eyes widen slightly and could feel Griphook shift beside him.

"Ah, I see you _do_ understand. Needless to say, I didn't want to bring them, especially where they may learn I've got money that they would certainly try to take from me. I've also learned that I had a godfather, Sirius Black, and that I was supposed to be with him, but that it wasn't done because Albus Dumbledore put me there and that Sirius was put into Azkaban without a trial or questioning or anything a few days after that. I want to try and find out about all of that and I was thinking about what I might do after school when I realized that I had no clue what I can do financially or anything." He shrugged as the goblins looked worried.

"You are saying, Mister Potter, than you live with your aunt Petunia?" Harry furrowed his brow in honest confusion as Fangstone questioned him while the older goblin glanced at the document that was now separate from the others.

"Yes; how did you know her name?" He noticed a very slight wince from the goblin as he unfurled the will.

"To sum up your parents' will, it says everything is to go to you with a stipend account to help take care of you and gives several options for where you should be placed should the worst happen to both of your parents, with Mister Black being the primary guardian. It also states, specifically, that you should never go to your mother's sister, Petunia Evans turned Petunia Dursley, the Malfoy family, Nott family, Goyle family or any others that have been suspected to have been Death Eaters without direct questioning under veritaserum or magical oath of innocence. It then goes on to state the specifics of how your accounts should be handled until you were able to take over control." Harry quickly read through the will and found that it did say very much the same thing he was just told, albeit with words he wasn't sure he'd ever use in normal conversation.

"What's this bit here about a magical guardian?" Harry remembered Lora saying something of the same name from the book she had given him, but nothing in it was about law. It was something about animals, where this certainly wasn't. He was slightly worried he'd done something wrong when Fangstone seemed to become upset.

"For those who live in both realms, the muggle and wizarding, a child will have a guardian for each, unless those, such as muggleborn children, have natural guardians, or parents. Simply put, your magical guardian handles your legal magical needs while your guardian would be the one to handle any other issues you have. In the magical world, a magical guardian is usually assigned by the parents within their wills. If not, then the current headmaster of Hogwarts will generally take that roll as they do while you are within the school unless you already have a magical guardian, which should have been Mister Black, the Longbottoms or the Bones in your case." Fangstone frowned as he looked at the will.

"However, it would seem the executioner of your will, Mister Dumbledore, has neglected his duties and placed you with his own choice of muggle guardian. I have a parchment that states he had you placed there, but not explaining his reasoning which is required, so I will make sure we look into that-" Suddenly, Harry began to panic. He really didn't want Dumbledore to know what he was up to quite yet.

"I'm very sorry to interrupt, but I actually know why he did it, but I have to say that it isn't worth it."

"What do you mean, Mister Potter?" Fangstone was quite curious, enough so that he was willing to forgive Harry's interrupting him. He was far more polite than most anyway. At least this human spoke _with _them rather than _at _them and didn't simply order them about like household pets.

Harry frowned and took a few seconds to decide what he wanted to do. "Before I explain, may I ask a few questions?" Intrigued, Fangstone merely nodded. "Thank you. First, does my account currently have someone to manage it?" He asked, already knowing it didn't.

"No. Due to the restrictions placed in the beginning to make sure nothing unfortunate happened, the account was placed into an automated system of deposits and withdrawals to maintain account integrity and nothing more. All of your guardians are capable of working with only your trust fund, however, unless they can prove that something immediate must be done with another for some valid reason." Harry nodded at Fangstone's response.

"Thank you. Now, while I can see needing to alert the Ministry to some aspects of our business today, is there anything that we speak about that could be kept within the confidence of myself and Gringotts?" Now very highly intrigued, Fangstone motioned for the others to leave, Griphook only staying at Harry's motion to stay.

"I cannot guarantee that anything we speak about will not be discussed with our leaders where appropriate, but I _can_ assure you that we will not alert those who needn't hear of it, so long as it isn't anything illegal or in some way harmful to the Goblin Nation."

Harry looked Fangstone in the eye the entire time he spoke, slightly unnerving the older goblin since few humans could do so without feeling as though they were prey. Harry wasn't sure exactly why he wanted to tell them this information, but he felt compelled to let them know a little about what was going on, even if not specifically anything related to his time travel.

"While nothing I speak of is in any way harmful to the goblins directly, the results of this information could be later on down the line. You see, a little before I was born, a prophecy was created that basically said I would be the one to fight Voldemort and would be the only one who could defeat him, though it also doesn't specifically say that I _will_." Harry took a moment to take in the completely gobsmacked expressions before continuing.

"Dumbledore knows about the prophecy, though he doesn't know that I know of it, and that is why he put me with my aunt. He said that he put some kind of blood protections around my house that were based on my mother's blood and her sacrifice to save me as a child. They may have protected me from Death Eaters, but they didn't protect me from my uncle Vernon or cousin Dudley, which is why I want the emancipation." He paused a moment and looked thoughtful as the two goblins in front of him tried to take everything in. "Though, I suppose that not being held under that age restriction for magic would be nice also." Fangstone and Griphook shifted to ease their discomfort at what they had just learned.

"You are saying, Mister Potter, that Dumbledore placed you in your aunt's care specifically for the sake of a protection from dark wizards, but were severely mistreated by your guardians?"

Harry nodded. "Yup."

Fangstone sighed and grabbed a thin stack of parchment from the table and slid it towards Harry while speaking. "And you would be willing to testify to the home life you have had?" Harry simply nodded as he began to read the paperwork.

"Very well. Then this is the emancipation paperwork you requested. You've got the funds and are of an age where this can be done legally and, if the Dursleys were to sign it, then there would be nothing that Dumbledore, or anyone else, can do about it unless you prove to be unfit for emancipation. We'll be sure to push this through private channels to make sure this encounters as little resistance as possible. You will simply need the Dursleys to sign this in the places you've left for them. Once you do, the paperwork will disappear and you will receive a confirmation owl within minutes, advising you if it was approved or rejected. If they refuse to sign it, you can elect to mark the second option on page twenty-one and run the risk of it failing or being contested at a later date." Fangstone explained.

"Thanks!" Harry smiled as he signed on the indicated spaces as he read through the paperwork. After several minutes of reading and signing, he slid the completed forms to Fangstone, who handed them to Griphook to double check. They _were_ dealing with a child, after all, who sometimes overlooked the obvious.

"Your holdings with us are actually four-fold," Fangstone said as he slid a folder towards Harry. As Harry opened it, his jaw dropped.

_Holdings of Harry James Potter:_

_Vault 687 – Trust Fund_

_916 Galleons_

_0 Sickles_

_0 Knuts_

_Interest rate: 0% - Supplementary only. To be reset to 1,000 galleons every August 1st and used for anything necessary for Harry and his upbringing. _

_Items: None_

_Security: 3_

_Chamber 23 – Potter Family Vault_

_9,925,183 Galleons_

_4 Sickles_

_28 Knuts_

_Interest rate: 0% - Return on Investments (See investments section of portfolio)_

_Items: Numerous – Listed in separate folder within Chamber_

_Property: Multiple – See combined list_

_Security: 30_

_Chamber 9 – Gryffindor/Ravenclaw Family Vault_

_82 Galleons_

_2 Sickles_

_13 Knuts_

_Interest rate: 0% - Supplementary_

_Items: Numerous – Listed in separate folder within Chamber_

_Property: None – Combined with Potter family at family merger per Gryffindor line_

_Security: 27_

_Chamber 10 – Slytherin/Hufflepuff Family Vault_

_291 Galleons_

_2 Sickles_

_38 Knuts_

_Interest rate: 0% - Supplementary_

_Items: None_

_Property: 2 – Gaunt Residence, Pure Life Cemetery_

_Security: 30_

_Trust Fund, only, is accessible by the account holder's guardians and account holder until Harry Potter is the age of majority. Guardians include: _

_Muggle Guardian(s): Petunia Evans-Dursley and Vernon Dursley_

_Magical Guardian(s): Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore_

Harry was incredibly shocked to see that the founders had been married to each other. He always knew they were friends, but thinking it over, he realized that there was never anything in their texts or as myth that they had never had any romantic interests, but it was widely known that they had legal blood heirs.

_'How in the hell could anyone have missed _THAT_!'_ His eyebrow twitched as he thought about it before he realized that all four founders were on the paper. Maybe he would have to finally take Hermione up on her offer and actually read 'Hogwarts: A History'.

"Um, I know the Potters are heirs of Gryffindor, but I honestly didn't know about Ravenclaw. And I had no clue whatsoever that Slytherin and Hufflepuff were together. But, when and _how_ am I related to them?" Fangstone chuckled at Harry's bewildered expression as he motioned to the paper in his hands.

"I don't understand the whole situation, but I believe that Slytherin had a grandson from his primary line of succession who was believed to be a squib and ran away before his family could kill him for polluting their bloodline." Fangstone smiled toothily at Harry before continuing. "In truth, I believe he turned out to be quite the powerful wizard. He had a chaotic core that kept him from being able to use magic, or even give constant results when tested, so he was ostracized from his family until he learned to control it much later. I believe there is a genealogy tome in your vault that gives more information, but the connection is on your mother's side, if I recall correctly. It was quite the interesting experience when she came in to be added to your father's vaults and was discovered." Harry was in shock. He was truly an heir of all four founders, then. All of his second year, it would seem, everyone was correct.

"I can't believe I'm an heir of all of them," he whispered as he stared off into space for a few moments. When Fangstone cleared his throat, Harry shook his head to clear it. "Erm, what does this actually mean? Being an heir of all of them, that is."

"Not much, actually, aside from the sway they hold due to public opinion. But it is the land that is important for you. Hogwarts Castle may likely be yours, as it belonged to the Ravenclaw line originally, but was built upon by each of the contributing founders and permission given to the Ministry to continue using it as a school after they passed on, though I'm unsure of the exact details and whether control remained fully with you or not at the moment. Any specifics would have to be found within your vaults in any records that may exist there. Other than that, their vaults didn't hold much money, especially when you consider the economy at the time, and sadly, the Slytherin vault was emptied of all items before the first rise of Voldemort," Fangstone said. He and the rest of the goblins didn't normally speak his name, but if some twelve-year old was going to do it without flinching right in front of him, he wasn't about to do any less. They didn't fear the man, but they felt hot rage when he was brought up for all those his minions had killed and all that lost revenue. Even goblins didn't enjoy paperwork.

"Yea, that was actually by Voldemort. His real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, last of the Gaunt line, who were also descendants of Slytherin." Harry's flippant explanation while looking over his property listings nearly caused the aged goblin in front of him to choke on absolutely nothing as he refrained from roaring in anger.

"The Ministry looked for several years to try and figure out who he was, Mister Potter. How did you come across this information?" Fangstone asked in a barely controlled voice. Harry looked up to see Fangstone eying him with a rather critical eye, making him slightly uncomfortable.

"Well, if you look him up, and after you learn about some of the past students, you'd see the connection. The name 'Voldemort' is actually an ana-an," he fumbled over the words purposefully to make it appear he wasn't quite as familiar with it as he should be, "anagram, I think, of his real name. 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' can be rearranged to say 'I am Lord Voldemort'." As Griphook handed the paperwork back to Fangstone with a nod showing it was completed so far, Fangstone decided to leave it alone, knowing that nothing would come of it for now. Later, however, was a different story.

"Your emancipation paperwork is completed on your side, but the guardians you were left to by Dumbledore's orders will need to sign it. Once they do, the paperwork will disappear and within a few minutes, you should receive an owl that either confirms or denies your emancipation, the latter of which isn't likely to happen." Harry's eyes were wide.

"Does it normally happen so quickly?" Harry was thinking of all the different kids out there who would want to run away whenever their parents did something the child didn't like trying to do what he had just done.

"Not normally, no. But, you _are_ Harry Potter and there are several who would not like to see you moving about freely. Also, it would be a very big bit of news and our clients' confidentiality is one of our highest priorities. We will move the request through private, but fully legal, channels so that it can not be contested until it is too late. Doing so, it goes directly to the department needed in the Ministry to be finished by one of our representatives. It shouldn't be until you do something on your own or someone specifically looks into your legal status that anyone will find out." Harry grinned widely as he received the information.

"That's incredible! Thank you very much!" Harry exclaimed happily. Fangstone nodded.

"This means that you will have all rights and responsibilities of an adult in both the wizarding world and the muggle world. Once this is through, you will have full access to your vaults. We highly recommend allowing us to offer you an accounts manager or, if you feel you'd be more comfortable not having a goblin handle your account, you could get a wizarding consultant."

"Actually, that was why I wanted Griphook to remain when you dismissed the other two. I was hoping," he turned to the wide-eyed Griphook as he continued, "and feel free to decline if you don't want to but, I was hoping that you'd be willing to manage my account and answer questions for me when I come in and such."

Both goblins looked at Harry in absolute shock. What he was asking for was, quite frankly, unheard of. Griphook just went from one of the lowest tiers in Gringotts as a simple teller to managing on of the largest five accounts they had. Wizards, more and more often in recent years, have had a growing distrust of goblins. That he would offer to entrust his account to one was something that hadn't happened in almost three decades.

"Y-yes, Mister Potter! I would be honored to accept the position!" Griphook exclaimed happily. Only a few families had more financial wealth than the Potters, and two of them were no longer in the running with the merger of the Potter line with the other four names if they accepted the boy. Only the Flamels and Alucards had more outside of some of their non-human clientèle.

"Excellent! I already know that my aunt and uncle will sign this, so I do have a question. Can I get a way to pay for things in the magical world and the muggle? I will need to buy a few things in the muggle world soon and would like to not have to carry around a large amount of money." Harry already knew that what he wanted was available, but didn't want to seem to knowledgeable about them. That, and he wasn't totally sure when they were created.

"We have a card that works just like a muggle credit card in the muggle society and needs only to be tapped with a wand on our seal for the magical community, which will create a registry of items and costs to be signed off on and has a per-transaction cost of five knuts. It will work with your trust fund until you become emancipated. Then, we'll simply add your trust fund into your family vault. We have banks in the muggle world that act as fronts so that we may support anyone who moves about in that world." Harry nodded as Fangstone spoke until he got towards the end.

"Actually, I'd like to keep my trust fund, if I could. Also, once I'm emancipated, I want everyone but myself off of the vaults and add Hermione Jane Granger, a muggleborn witch, to the trust fund and give her a card like my own if you could." Fangstone discretely wriggled his fingers, casting a nonverbal detection spell to look for any mind control spells and love potions. Getting an immediate negative response, he nodded.

"As you wish, we can do so. But you _are_ aware that she could empty the vault out at any moment without any legal recourse, yes?" Fangstone asked. Harry nodded as he answered.

"I do. But I wouldn't have done this if I didn't trust her. I'm doing this because I have something I'm going to get her for Christmas and want her to be able to use a little of the money for what I'm getting her because it will help me out as much as her with the books I know she'll get." Harry's infectious grin got the two goblins to smirk themselves, though the goblins saw it as a predatory action of a male chasing his mate and thought nothing of warning Harry of what those in the wizarding would would see such an action as the first time the girl attempted to use the card, before Griphook took over.

"As I'll be your account manager, I'll be sure to send her the card as soon as your emancipation goes through. We can do nothing until it does in that regard as you don't have authorization to do so," Griphook explained, looking forward to getting to work at his new position.

"I understand. Thank you," Harry said with a smile. He knew advancing Griphook to an account manager position as he had was unorthodox, but it ingratiated the goblin to Harry for almost no risk.

As an account manager, he handled basic bank administravia to allow various transactions that Harry oversaw and warn the owner of potential problems with either the account or its investments that could spell disaster for the bank or the account as a whole while keeping an eye out for any charges to the account that appear outside of the ordinary or suspicious, which he would then bring to Harry's attention as computers would do in the muggle world in banks and credit card institutions, while also being the primary point of contact within the bank when Harry needed something. And since Griphook was now in a position to make a lot more gold than he had been and was now a more important goblin within the bank, he would be extremely motivated to perform well and assist Harry with anything he needed, which had been the point from the beginning. He needed a helpful set of eyes and ears within the bank for when he needed information. With such a low risk-factor if Griphook should fail, he gained a potentially competent and extremely loyal employee.

Griphook nodded and then got up and left to get Harry his card while Fangstone continued.

"In summation, if you can get your current guardians to sign the paperwork, you will be free of the underage magic restriction and have access to your full holdings with the changes you requested made. Other than that, we've addressed all other things you've asked about and we haven't needed to discuss any of the things we've brought with us. Do you have any other questions?"

"Actually, yes. I was hoping to begin living at Potter Manor since I saw it on the list of properties you gave me. Would that be possible?" Harry asked, remembering Lora's orders. Fangstone nodded once and gathered up all of his paperwork aside from the holdings statement and handed Harry a small box as he replied.

"The properties are yours to do with as you please, so long as your emancipation goes through. Within this box, you'll find the Potter, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw signet rings. If you put them all onto your finger, they will merge into one, showing only the one you wish to show or breaking apart to show you whichever ones you wish to be seen and are charmed to offer a direct link to up-to-date legal information when called upon. It's one of the methods that purebloods developed to stay up-to-date with the changes in the government since they are the only ones with such rings. By being a blood heir to any of the Founders, in this case all of them, you also have an automatic pureblood status in our current government, legally at least, which grants you the same perks that they enjoy and gives you the same abilities as they have, even though you are technically a halfblood since your mother was born to a line of squibs and muggles, or was magical herself at the very least." Fangstone decided not to mention that the rings had a chance of not accepting the boy, waiting to see the reactions of the old magic, first.

Wide-eyed, Harry opened the box and saw all five rings, each with their own coat of arms. The Founder rings were just like the ones from school while the Potter signet ring appeared to be a wand, sword and shield. Placing them on his right ring finger, they flashed and formed into one ring showing the Potter insignia. Fangstone smirked as he saw each ring accept him as their master. This boy, who showed none of the bigotry of most wizards in office, would grow to be a powerful ally.

"Wicked," Harry said with a huge grin. He was going to make Dumbledore regret keeping him from all of this in his past several lives. These rings alone would have saved him during his trial before his fifth year started. And if there was a repeat of everything with Skeeter during fourth year, he would be more than ready to teach the woman a lesson. Even now, as the thoughts of those situations arose, the rings provided him with the information to crush his enemies and somehow offered the ability to go a step further and tell him how to get the most out of them.

_'Must be the Slytherin ring,'_ Harry thought amusedly.

"The Potter signet ring actually works as an emergency portkey to the very residence you were requesting. You merely have to command it to take you there, which it will allow for yourself and whomever you are touching or is touching you, as most family rings will. It, like all Old Family rings, has a form of minor sentience in such a way that it has a mental connection to the wearer, so long as he is a Potter by blood and male, as the Potters, much like other Old Blood families, were patriarchal, unless you decide to change such a thing in the future. It's this same sentience that gives you the legal information when requested from you or given to you when a situation arrives where it is needed if it senses itself capable of assisting you. It is similar to that of a wizarding portrait, only incapable of speaking to you. It understands your speech and desires and can provide laws to you. None of the rings will speak with you, however, except to quote law."

As Harry was looking at the ring, Griphook walked in and handed Harry a shiny black card that had the Gringotts seal in the upper right corner in gold with Harry's name in silver along the bottom and the Potter coat of arms in the upper-left hand corner.

"It has got a mild charm embedded into the card by use of runes written below the black cover that will cause anyone you give it to to accept it as a standard muggle credit card. We have connections to all of the muggle financial institutions in the world, so anywhere you use it will accept it," Griphook advised. Harry nodded as he put it into his makeshift wallet. They quickly finished their business and Griphook walked Harry back to the portkey chamber where he made sure to have the emancipation paperwork in his pocket and tapped the letter a final time to return to his bedroom, nearly an hour and a half after he had left, falling flat on his arse.

"I have _got_ to get the hang of that," he grumbled as he got up. His first step was to get downstairs and get through his next bit of acting with as little trouble as possible.

"Uncle Vernon," he said, coming into the living room. "We're all only a few signatures away from never seeing each other again." Harry let the paperwork fall onto the table in front of his now smiling uncle.

"I've never been more happy to see you, boy!" Vernon looked over the pages quickly, quickly enough to make Harry wonder if he was even actually reading, before signing on each of the glowing spaces that indicated his name. He didn't even balk at the 'unnatural' paper or the quill Harry had given him to write with. Even when the glowing spaces stopped glowing with his name, he was still smiling dumbly.

"Petunia! Get in here and sign the freak's paper! We'll truly be rid of him! We don't even have to give him money to support himself!" Vernon was all but bouncing in his seat as Petunia came in, wiping her hands with a towel.

_'I wonder if she was in there the whole time I was gone,'_ Harry thought as she looked over the paperwork skeptically.

"This is serious? And we don't have to give him anything?" Petunia was actually unsure about all of this. Harry had just shown up on their doorstep one morning with nothing but a basket and a letter, which said that the followers of the mad man that killed her sister were after Harry. But if they were still after him, then Harry surely would not have been able to be allowed to go out on his own like this, right?

"You bet your sweet buns it is!" Harry couldn't stop the shiver of revulsion that raced down his spine at Vernon's blunt confirmation. "The freak's papers basically say that this waives us of all responsibilities of him and that we're free and clear!" In truth, Vernon only read a few words on each paper, just so he could say he had read it. He had no real clue what it said, but he knew what emancipation would mean to them, even if it was all about those unnatural people. Petunia frowned slightly at the quill, but took it and signed on each glowing rectangle. As she lifted the quill from the last page, the parchments rolled up and lifted into the air before disappearing with a quiet flash of light, shocking the two Dursleys.

"What the hell was that, boy," Vernon growled out dangerously. Harry just shook his head and raised a hand in a calming gesture.

"That was the magic contained in the contract to send it where it needed to go. I should have an answer soon of if it went through or not. After that, I'll write a letter, get my things together and be out of here for good."

Vernon hopped up and punched his fist into the air with a whoop. "Wonderful! We'll be rid of the boy and not have to worry about any of those _freaks_ showing up ever again!" His cheering was cut off as an owl flew in through the fireplace and landed on Harry's shoulder, holding its leg out with a letter addressed to him.

"Thank you," he said as he untied it. As soon as it was relieved of its burden, the owl flew back up the chimney.

"Wasn't the chimney grate closed," Petunia mumbled, more to herself than the others.

_Lord Potter,_

_It pleases us at the Ministry of Magic and our associates at Gringotts Wizarding Bank to inform you that you are now officially emancipated and are henceforth exempt from all underage restrictions placed upon you. As of the moment you receive this letter, you are considered an adult in both the magical and muggle communities in all situations legal and personal._

_This means any legal situations you come across, finances, use of magic and means of supporting yourself fall fully unto yourself. Please take these things into consideration, because anything you do will now be looked at as an adult unless you prove yourself to be incapable of maintaining your emancipation, at which point a suitable family will be found for you as your new guardians and a suitable punishment would be found at that point if necessary._

_Please note that you will be unable to take your hereditary seat in the Wizengamot until you are seventeen years of age as you are still within school. The only time in which you may take your seat is for any laws or legal proceedings in which the full and active Wizengamot must be present or if you should happen to find someone to sit in your seat for you as your voice. If you choose to go this route, we ask that you make your choice with care as they have full empowerment to make whatever decisions they choose as if they were yours._

_However, as Lord Potter, you are eligible for only one seat, rather than Potter, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff combined without taking a wife for each line to allow it to continue. Please keep this in mind._

_This request for emancipation was put through on private channels. While this is legal, please note that it means that very few are notified of your new legal status and sworn to secrecy while the information is not public knowledge. As such, you should remember to exercise caution while using magic. Though you are no longer held under the restrictions for underage magic, and the charm held on your wand is already deactivated from our tracking systems, no one is exempt from the Statute of Secrecy._

_Sincerely,_

_Darren Woughen, Ministry of Magic_

Harry smiled brilliantly as he finished the letter. However, with the bit mentioning his seat in the Wizengamot, he felt it would be a bad idea to allow Vernon to read it, so he merely rolled it up and looked at Vernon.

"I'll write my letter and be out of your hair in the hour." He turned and quickly ran up the stairs to his room for the last time. With a rather large grin, he grabbed a fresh parchment and dipped the quill to write Hermione a letter.

_Heya Hermione!_

_Good news! I'm emancipated! I'll explain more, but I've got a few things I need to get done this summer, so I'll tell you when we meet again near the end of the summer break. I don't want to say too much in the letter._

_I'm sorry to say, but no one will be able to find me until I make myself known to you later on. You'd be surprised at how good I am at not being found when I don't want to be. Anyway, I will be sending Hedwig to you with letters, though, so don't worry about that. I plan on responding to each one you end up sending either the day I get it or the day after unless I wear myself out._

_I have plenty of money, some houses and such, so don't worry about what I'll do or where I'll go or anything. Also, please don't tell anyone about this, yet. I don't want anyone, not even Ron since he's currently in Egypt, to know yet. Just you and your parents if you'd like._

_I'll write you in a few days,_

_Love_

_Harry_

_PS: I've already finished my homework! Ha! But... um... seriously... I'm sending them with this to.. ah.. Could you look them over for me? (Puppy-dog look) Don't correct them! But just look them over and tell me what you think? Also, I won't be available for a few hours, so could you please let Hedwig get some sleep while she's there? You can reply later tonight if you don't have any problems with it._

Harry quickly rolled up the parchment and went to wake up Hedwig, only to see her already eying him.

"Hey girl. Do you mind delivering this to Hermione and maybe resting there tonight? I'm going to be making my way to our new home and I don't want you to have to fly around randomly. Once we move in, then you'll be able to fly about freely and we don't have to worry about the Dursleys anymore." Hedwig hooted softly, slightly tired since it was nearing her own resting time. Accepting the letter, she flew out while Harry put the last of his things into his trunk before heading out.

xXxXxXx

Hermione was in the middle of revising her Transfiguration essay when a beautiful, snowy-white owl began to scratch at her bedroom window.

"Hello Hedwig! What did Harry have to say today, hmm?" After she took the letter, Hedwig flew to her headboard and shuffled herself until she was comfortable and began to doze. Hermione read Harry's letter, shocked that he had emancipated himself and unsure if she should be more shocked about that, or that he'd not only done his homework, but completed it all with only a few hours' worth of time. She briefly wondered what he may be doing that would wear himself out, but decided there were more pressing matters at the moment.

_'Okay, important part first,'_ she thought to herself, only to realize she couldn't decide which was more important. _'Okay, forget important. Let's see how thorough he was with his homework!'_ With a mental battle cry, she began to forge through his work, only to be amaze at the level of intimacy with the topics discussed. Five extra years of study will tend to make such things child's play, really. At least for second-year material.

Hermione read through each essay twice, looking for any potential errors the first time and then searching her own texts to confirm some of what he had written.

"What in the world was he doing referencing NEWT level Transfiguration?" She threw her quill down with a frown as she finished making her own notes to go over later and thought deeply about Harry's apparent new-found scholarly self and how it was annoying her to no end.

xXxXxXx

Harry was thrilled with his shopping spree to this point. He had finished up at Gringotts and confirmed that a new account was created for Hermione from his old trust fund and even managed to hit the apothecary and get a series of potions ordered to reverse all of the affects of the malnourishment he had received much of his life by forcing his body into a growth spurt. It was somewhat expensive, but it was not like he had to worry about money any time soon. The owner of the little shop was a bit worried about selling such a potion to a child, considering they were expensive and dangerous if used improperly, but a few words of encouragement from The-Boy-Who-Lived and promises of a few higher-priced purchases later and he was tripping over himself to be of use. A subtle suggestion of possible endorsements just gave him a discount, sadly.

Now however, he was finished with his purchases and didn't care to get anything else until he was with Hermione, so he looked at his new ring a little dubiously. "Alright, Little Guy. Take me to Potter Manor."

Harry felt a tug behind his navel, signifying the pull of the portkey and he flashed through a technicolor stream of lights before landing on his arse over a very dark, wooden floor.

"Ow," he yelled as he rolled onto his back. "Why do I have to get hurt _every bloody time_ I take one of these things?" He got up and took a quick look around, noticing he was in some kind of receiving room that was about the size of the Dursleys' entire home and held an understated elegance in its furnishings and accessories. Everything appeared to have a classic feel rather than simply old. Styles that said class and prosperity without making one cringe at the sight of it.

"Dobby," Harry called out, already having planned on this. He was worried about having to clean the home like they had to at Grimmauld Place before his fifth year. It hadn't been lived in and had a house elf residing there. This one had been empty longer and didn't have one.

"Mister Harry Potter, sir?" Dobby asked as he popped in in front of Harry. As he did, he took a quick glance around to see where he was at and sniffed slightly at the dirty house that dared be dusty with his favorite human within it before focusing all of his attention towards Harry. Harry knelt down in front of the house elf and began his prepared speech.

"Dobby, how would you like to be a part of the Potter family?" Ever so slowly, Dobby's eyes widened to the point Harry was ready to reach out and grab them if they fell out of his head and his ears raised until they were straight up and his lower jaw lowered, all at the same, slow pace. It took the next five minutes for Harry to pry the happily-sobbing creature from his leg before meshing out the details.

xXxXxXx

_Miss Hermione Jane Granger,_

_Recently, one Mister Harry James Potter has become emancipated and has described his wishes for his holdings with us. As such, the card you have just received, along with this letter, were sent to you at his request and gives you access to a vault that you now have nearly full rights to and may use as you see fit. Currently, only you and Mister Potter have the authority to utilize this vault and only he has the ability to add any others. Your lack of ability to change access rights is your only restriction._

_The card may be used in any muggle or wizarding establishments and has several charms embedded within it by use of runes to ensure it will not be stolen or used by anyone without your permission along with assuring that any muggles would see the card as any normal card to their eyes. _

_To activate the card and tie it to yourself, you should place the tip of your wand onto the Gringotts seal in the upper-right hand corner and say 'Activate'. You needn't worry about the restrictions on underage magic as this casts nothing but ties it to your magical signature, using your wand as a bridge between that and the card. The Potter Family coat of arms in the upper-left hand corner holds no significance at this point beyond showing who's account the card is tied to and, should the card be taken and the security seals bypassed, it will be sent to the Account's Manager in charge. Otherwise, by tying it to your magical signature, the card would appear within a pocket on your person should it be called to find its owner._

_You will receive no accounting records for this vault as you are not the primary holder unless Mister Potter specifies he would prefer otherwise. _

_Any further questions should be directed towards Mister Harry Potter or myself._

_Griphook, _

_Account's Manager of the Potter Estate_

_Gringotts Wizarding Bank_

Hermione set the letter she had just received from a rather fierce-looking owl down on her desk and leaned back in her chair with a blank expression on her face. After a few moments of thinking about absolutely nothing, as her mind had been shocked to a standstill, she reached out and ran her fingers gently over the raised Potter insignia and her own name before smiling warmly. This showed a massive amount of trust in her on Harry's side. Suddenly, she decided to set the card before she either lost it or forgot to do it and gave someone else the chance to. She grabbed her wand from the top of her desk and put it firmly on the seal of Gringotts.

"Activate."

She watched in wide-eyed fascination as the entire card blackened further to the point of nearly sucking in the light in the room and an incredibly long series of gold and silver runes began to run down the card from top to bottom for several moments before finally fading and going back to its normal appearance. Hermione blinked the light splotches from her eyes and decided she would ask Harry about that along with the rest of everything that night when she wrote her letter to him and Hedwig was up.

"Just what are you up to," she asked to the letters she had received that day between Harry and Gringotts. She could not understand exactly why Harry was doing so much like this without consulting anyone about it or why he didn't want to explain it in a letter, but she was sure she would get it out of him when they met up if she couldn't get it from him in a letter sooner.

xXxXxXx

_Hello Harry,_

_First, your homework was perfect! The only errors I found were spelling errors! I'm very impressed. I thought there were some other errors, mainly with your information, but I looked them up and found that it was all accurate. I don't know where you got the information, but I really am impressed. It wasn't that it was all obscure information or anything, it's just that most of it is higher-year information. While I knew a bit of it, I am curious about why you did. You aren't exactly the type for advanced reading._

_Also, I thank you for the card from Gringotts, but I can't accept it! It's your money and I can't just go around spending it! When we see each other again, I'll be giving it back. It isn't that I don't appreciate it, but I just can't spend your money like that._

_Okay, I've always assumed that you didn't have a great home life and that you didn't like the Dursleys, especially after hearing about the story of when Ron 'rescued' you before last year, but why emancipation? Why move out? And just where did you go, Harry James Potter! If you need somewhere to stay or something, I'm sure I can get my parents to let you stay with us! What did Dumbledore say about this? Did you even ask him if it would be safe to do? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!_

_Now that I've got that out of my system, I should mention that I'm done with my summer work as well and am going to go over some of the information you've written down. I'm a little curious about what you talked about in regards to transfiguring non-living materials into living materials._

_Your friend_

_Hermione_

xXxXxXx

_Good day Lady Hermione!_

_First, I wanna say thanks for looking over my homework. I just wanted to be sure it was fine. I'll tell you all about where I got the information later. There'll be some stuff I want you to read over first. I'll actually send you the book in a few days after I've copied it all down._

_Second, the card is your own. The money is yours to do with as you please. Believe me when I tell you that it is merely a fraction of what I have. It's less than one percent of my over all holdings with Gringotts and I trust you. It's only to a trust fund. I still have access to everything else (about sixteen billion pounds where this is only about a hundred thousand.) You and I both know that I don't need to buy your friendship and that I respect you enough to not have to worry about ulterior motives. Simply put, you are my friend, Hermione. I am not just simply giving you the money, I am offering to share it with you to get things you are interested in getting. In regards to books and educational material, I know you'd share those with me if I wanted to look them over. _

_I'll admit that I've actually got ONE ulterior motive, though. In the case that I need to get something, but can't for whatever reason, then you could if you're going in that direction. While I don't see that happening, at least we're covered if it is needed._

_As to what I was thinking, and I apologize for how this will sound in advance, but I was thinking I wanted absolutely nothing more to do with the Dursleys than I needed to, which is nothing. I refuse to write anything down, but all you need to know is that I may very well have taken some rather regrettable actions. I'm not talking about killing them, but I assure you, I had access, even with only my trust fund, to do basically anything I chose. _

_Lack of a good home life is like saying I was worshiped by the Dursleys. I am gone from them and will have absolutely nothing more to do with them. Yes, Dumbledore will be upset when he finds out, but for his own reasons. Not for my own well-being. I can't explain in this letter, and he'd do just about anything to figure out how I found out. I'll tell you later, I suppose, but please don't ask me._

_I've actually learned about a duplication charm and I used that on the book I want you to read. It only lasts for a couple of days, so you need to read it as fast as you can. Under absolutely NO circumstances are you to tell anyone else about this book! I'll explain that later also, but I can't right now. It's against the rules. Also, please don't copy the whole thing if you want a permanent bit of any of this. I don't want there to be any chance that someone goes through our things again like they did last year with my own stuff. There hasn't been a copy of this for a few hundred years at least. I would like you to read up and practice the bit about Occlumency. I've learned that both Snape and Dumbledore use Legilimency on us regularly (it's a form of mind reading where they can sift through our memories and hear our thoughts.) Snape almost daily at least. Sometimes, I wasn't able to tell for sure when he did it but was sure it was almost every day. And yes, it's the same one you read on the train ride home. (Snicker) I was a little worried I'd have to carry you to your parents! (Cheeky grin.)_

_That's about all I can actually talk about for now. I'm a little tired. I've been doing all kinds of things today and I'm physically exhausted. My body just isn't use to this kind of activity. I'm looking forward to your next letter and our trip coming up. _

_Love,_

_Harry_

xXxXxXx

_Hi Harry_

_I decided to read through the book before replying since you said it would disappear after a few days and didn't specify how long it would last. I wanted to make sure I wrote down whatever I wanted to keep, which was surprisingly quite a bit. My hand is still aching a little! Thank you for it, by the way. It's very interesting. _

_I'm worried about all these secrets though, Harry. Are you sure you're okay? I mean, you're keeping secrets from Dumbledore, you're doing ... whatever it is that you're doing to exhaust yourself physically, and that also has me worried. You aren't doing anything ... well, something that you shouldn't be, right? I mean, I know you said you had a place to stay and all, but it sound a little ... I don't know. Just be careful, alright?_

_I've been talking to my parents and they're thinking about letting me get a familiar! I'm trying to decide if I want an owl or a cat. An owl would be more practical, but you let me use Hedwig whenever I need to send out a letter and anything I write to either you or Ron can be sent with whatever owl you send to me while I've always wanted a cat. I'm not sure. Perhaps I'll look into it when I get to the store. All I know for sure is that I'm certainly NOT getting a rat or toad._

_I'm glad you said you respect me and trust me to not to spend all of your money. You're right, you don't have to buy my friendship. I'm your friend and, while this is a very large gesture, I will remain your friend, regardless of something like this. And you're right. I'll share anything I get with you. It IS your money, after all and it isn't like I'll be getting a pair of knickers or jewelry that you'll need piercings for. (Snicker) Though you may look good in a dress. Have you ever thought about it?_

_If you don't mind my asking, where ARE you staying? Are you safe? If you need any kind of help, please don't hesitate or worry about asking for help or anything. I'd be happy to help you with whatever you need._

_Your friend_

_Hermione_

xXxXxXx

_Hidy Hermione!_

_My dear Hermione, I DO believe you sounded like you thought I was doing something rather ... NAUGHTY to make my way! (Tsks) For shame, Hermione. However, if you feel I must do such things, then feel free to ask your parents, and I shall remain at your home, if you so choose... (shifty eyes with cheeky grin.) Haha! I'm joking, Hermione. Well ... (Ponders) ... unless you'd like to make me pay in such a manner... (Growls and paws air.)_

_In truth, Hermione, I'm staying at one of the Potter residences. I won't say more in case Hedwig gets intercepted. It's under several other protections. It's actually very interesting to learn about. In the library wing (yes, I DID say "WING". I'll allow you to peruse to your heart's content when you come this way,) is a wizarding portrait of my great, great... uh.. several greats grandfather, Jeffrey. He told me where the Lord's Study was. It's apparently where the head of the House of Potter does whatever the Head of the House does. It's like a massive personal office. Inside is another portrait of his that is right above this large control panel that deals with the wards and safety things in, on and around the house. He also taught me how to link floo's to the Potter Floo Network. It would be a personal floo connection, meaning that the connection goes ONLY from where I connect it to Potter Manor. If you'd like, we can meet up a little earlier than I originally wanted to and I could connect your home to my floo connection and you can come here whenever you want and even practice magic if you'd like. I wouldn't be able to get there until mid-July, though. I've got a lot I need to do before then._

_I know that you would be willing to help me if I needed it, and I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. I really do. We've always been there for each other and I know we always will be. If I need help, I promise, I'll let you know._

_Also, just to help ease your fears a little, I've hired Dobby. Yes, I AM paying him a fair wage and giving him a fair amount of time off. I was rather surprised when he mentioned he found an area in the house devoted to house elves with furniture sized for them and clothes that would fit and had the Potter crest on them. He doesn't seem overly thrilled with them, though. I think he doesn't like the idea of wearing clothes that once belonged to other house elves, but dislikes the idea of not wearing the Potter crest even more. I'm thinking about getting him a pre-paid certificate to Madam Malkin's to get whatever he wants. What do you think? We also can't figure out where the House Elves that would have been here have gone._

_Dobby is able to purchase food from wizarding stores (apparently, that's a normal thing) and we're both capable of taking care of ourselves as well. So please don't worry about us. I promise to be careful. He actually picked something up from the Apothecary for me. It seems that a house elf is not allowed to wear the crest of any family but the one they serve under penalty of death (because of what they are allowed to do for their family) so he can do all sorts of shopping for me. He picked up my second set of potions (which taste nothing like what Pomfrey gives us – I'm beginning to think she makes them taste bad as silent incentive to keep us away,) and had no problems with it._

_I will never have a problem sharing something with you, so you may ask Hedwig to take a letter for you whenever you wish, and she'll always be available to respond to anything I give you. As such, I actually think you should get a cat. You're a very affectionate person and have a lot of love to give. I think a cat would be more enjoyable for you to have. You'd be able to show it more affection, and it you, than an owl (forgive me Hedwig!) and cats, in general, tend to enjoy their toys better than owls. I got Hedwig a mouse toy and she seemed to just be very upset that it wasn't edible... However, if you wish to get an owl, maybe we can get Hedwig to help you choose a good one (either that, or she'll choose a mate ... Not sure which it would turn out to be, but at least they wouldn't fight in the owlry.)_

_I've not considered the wearing of a dress itself, but the benefits and downsides to wearing one. But considering dresses are basically robes in my eyes, I don't see it as too big of a deal. If you get one, though, I'd like to see it. You would certainly look far better in one than I would._

_I've got to go now. Hedwig showed up after my exercises and I've got some training to finish up, so I'll write you later._

_Love,_

_Harry_

Hermione sighed as she read over the letters she'd received so far from Harry in the past several weeks. She was a little disappointed that each letter was nearly a week apart, but could understand that it took time to get, write and then send off the letters. Each one raised so many questions, and none of them would make her feel comfortable if she tried to ask them. Over all, he put to rest many of her fears that he would need some kind of help from her in a desperate sense, and she was thrilled that he was really writing to her so much. It was far more enjoyable than the summer before when she hadn't received any from him. She knew it wasn't his fault, but it still had hurt at the time.

Not only had he written her often, as he had promised, but he had even sent her something to read that was highly practical and highly intriguing, and very useful. The information that Snape was rummaging around in her head almost each day was a nauseating concept. It did raise the question, however, on how he figured it out. She knew this book was absolutely nowhere in the library at Hogwarts, but he seemed to have just had it one day. It looked new enough that he may have been able to order it via owl, though.

Also, while she didn't want to actually put voice to it, when he'd mentioned being physically tired, she actually _had_ thought that he may have been doing something a little dubious. But not only had he caught on, he flirted outright back at her! At _her_! As badly as she wanted to ask her parents to see if he could stay with them at some point of the summer, she was now very worried about what they would think. She was worried about what _she_ would think at this point. Each of his letters held a flirting tone in them somewhere as well. That was one of those things that made her suspect he may have been using his fame for something, to put into Harry's terms, '_naughty_' to have a place to stay over the summer. Now, she was beginning to think it was just something else. And she really didn't truly know whether or not she was fond of the idea or not.

xXxXxXx

_Harry,_

_Harry James Potter! I would NOT make you do ... THAT to stay with us over the summer if you needed to!_

_I AM curious about the home, though, and the charms that are on it. You said your many-greats-grandfather explained it to you? Would he tell me? Would it be against any kinds of rules for him to do so?_

_While on the subject, I certainly have no problems with you setting our home onto a floo network. In fact, my parents said that they would be happy about it, especially if they could use it also to see a wizarding home and see me practice magic. How did you know I had a fireplace, though? We never talked about that, before. And we're able to use magic there? Even if summer isn't over yet? Does that mean all pureblooded families can do that? That most certainly isn't fair! Muggleborn students are already at a disadvantage when it comes to knowing about magic and that is just one more. We'll be talking about this when we meet again._

_I'm happy that you're paying Dobby and not endorsing slavery, Harry. It speaks volumes about the type of man you are. And since we know he is willing to help you so strongly, then he should be very good at keeping you in line._

_I also believe that your idea of a gift for him is a very good one. I'm actually quite surprised with it. I bet he would love it. It would be a way for him to personalize whatever he wants and such. I only ask this because I want to make sure you're thinking about it, but you aren't spending too much, are you? I will give you that card back whenever you ask for it._

_Thank you for telling me which familiar you think would be better for me. I don't think I would have phrased any of it that way, but I appreciate what you said. I was actually thinking about a cat more strongly, but I'll most likely get one now. I'm not too fond of the concept of a litter box, but I suppose I'd have to clean up after both regardless. And the neighbors are far less likely to question a cat than an owl anyway._

_My Occlumency is coming along splendidly! I think. According to the book, we'll have no way to test the actual defenses until we test them against a skilled Legilimens, but I think I'm doing quite well with it. How do you think you're doing? According to the book, we have to envision what type of defense system we want to have and apply it. Personally, I'm doing mine much like a vault system like Gringotts is supposed to have, just not a cave. The whole tunnels and maze-like thing I hear they have underneath the building sounded interesting during orientation. What about you? Do you think we should learn Legilimency and practice on each other?_

_Let me know what you decide when you're ready._

_Love,_

_Hermione_

Harry set the letter he had received from Hermione down as he finished his dinner. The past several weeks, he had been spending from very early morning for several hours working out in all of the ways he could possibly imagine, pushing himself as hard as he could after finding out that he was still capable of casting the spells he was able to before going back. Then he would rest and practice his occlumency and eat lunch.

While it wasn't normally very healthy to push one's body this hard, his magic healed him up rather quickly, along with some tending from Dobby in the form of potions from the Apothecary after he realized what his master was up to. The growth spurt and nutrient potions he was taking each day had him growing in a very admirable manner. Just in the first three weeks, he had very noticeable muscles along his chest and stomach. Admittedly, it was because push-ups and sit-ups were among the few things he knew of that built any muscle definition. He also spent his time running, stretching, climbing a conjured rope and any other calisthenics he could remember from primary school. He'd even managed to grow five inches, which he was incredibly happy about, though it was mostly right at the beginning and seemed to have slowed down. The real downside, however, was the pain that came from his body changing so quickly. His lower back was almost constantly aching.

After he ate lunch, he would work on different things from the books that Lora had given him. Most often, he worked on battle spells and wandless magics with several attempts at breaking the power limiting seal he had on him. He had found the seal's representation in his mind and had been chipping away at it, but it was rather slow going.

His wandless ability, however, was coming along very slowly, but steadily. It required a massive amount of concentration to do anything until he had figured it out, and then it was easy for him after learning how his magic performed the action. And far more precise than with his wand. He could also 'push' harder and make whatever he was doing more powerful, but lost some of the control. He had found rather quickly that the more power he applied, the less he had to focus to make something happen, though that also amounted to wearing himself out faster. The only real problem was he was only able to levitate light items and cast a weak stunner, but he worked like a trooper at it. He would learn other spells as he went.

Another skill he was practicing was something called 'shifting'. It was basically apparition, but instead of being squeezed in a tube, it was ... well, basically shifting to the side without stepping to do it. The first time he had performed the action, he felt it was very similar to when laying in bed and having that sudden dropping sensation that made him bounce. The shock of the feeling kept him from making it to his destination and he wound up half way to the other side of the room. The differences were very slight, actually, between that and apparition. Aside from being a completely lost ability, it was also safer and much easier to use. It could even take you to a person rather than a location. Now, he just had to talk to his many-greats grandfather to figure out how to put Hermione on the personal floo system so that she and her parents could visit whenever they chose.

_Greetings Dear Hermione (Bows)_

_There's no need to be hasty, now. I really don't mind if you want to force me into anything like that. Just be sure to let me know... (Shifty eyes)_

_Yes, my many-greats grandfather will tell you all about the wards. Yes, there actually are rules about telling you about them, but you only need my permission (waggles eyebrows.) And you've already got that._

_Yes, we can use magic here. I know it isn't fair, but there are actually a few reasons as to why we can. You see, the Ministry, from what I've learned, detects magic in two ways. One, is by location. A wand makes a 'signature' (think like a particular tone from a bell for a wand, whereas the same thing would be a violin by using wandless magic) that the Ministry searches for. They blanket everywhere they are looking over. Once a 'signature' is found, they check for who lives in that area and then check for tracking spells on wands that have been tripped for anyone from that area at the time it was cast. Yes, this means they don't bother with pureblooded areas with the belief that 'it's too much of a strain on the system' or some such nonsense. Anyway, that means that, if I were to go your home and cast a spell, they would assume it was you if you were the only person living near there. Well, that is unless there are other magical people living in the area you live in. By only having one person, there is no reason for the automated system to cross reference the wand itself. I'm not sure how they can tell if it is an adult wizard instead of underage one, though, because I know magic had been cast at my home by wizards and I didn't get in trouble with it. But here, you will be able to use it all you want. Or you could just use wandless magic. I've got a book on that, for you, which you can practice here._

_I've got to figure out what to do to connect you to the Potter Floo Network, though. While I'll be able to cast the spell where you live (Jeffrey said it would be okay since I was emancipated and your wand's tracking spell wouldn't activate, which makes me wonder why it would not get you in trouble somehow) and actually do what's needed (including making your fireplace bigger,) I have to get done to his satisfaction or he won't allow me to try the connection. Apparently, there's a risk of messing it up and we wouldn't know until we either tried it or I came back and asked him if the connection went through. I think he just likes to watch me wave a stick around (pouts.) I should be able to do it in not too much longer, so I'll let you know._

_Thank you for being accepting my idea with Dobby. I'll see what I can do, then, to make it worth while for him. He's a little ... Well, I guess I can go with "devoted", but he's a good guy._

_No worries about the familiar thing. I said what I felt and it's all true. I'd be happy to help you with anything you need and any time._

_As for my Occlumency, I think I'm doing really well, too. I'm not going to say what I've got going on here, just in case, but I'll let you know when we see each other. I'll be showing up this Saturday, unless you send a letter saying otherwise. You've got plenty of time to._

_I think you're right about learning Legilimency, though. We have to learn how to do that and we have to learn how to defend ourselves from attacks, so we probably should meet up earlier, rather than later. I'll work on it and try to have it done soon. Just to be very sure you know, this would mean that we would know each other's thoughts and memories. If you're sure that you're okay with that, then I am as well._

_Ron should be back to the Burrow in another week and a half, so we should expect some kind of letter from him to talk about their holiday. Well, I think so, anyway. Ron isn't much for letters, but still._

_Love Always,_

_Harry_

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Alrighty. Next chapter will be Harry and Hermione meeting up. Their shopping trip (has a few focuses, which is why I'll be writing it out, but it won't be horrendously long, I don't think,) finishing off the summer quickly and then arrival at Hogwarts. Expect the shenanigans to begin as well.


	4. Sow The Seeds

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter3** – Sow The Seeds

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: None

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** -

I say "Dark Forest" later in this chapter rather than "Forbidden Forest" for a reason. It will be explained in a later chapter.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Agent Double O Hex" by KafkaExMachina (H/Hr and probably the only crossover I've not immediately hated with a fiery passion.)

xXx** PREVIOUSLY **xXx

_Harry became emancipated, wrote a lot to Hermione, exercised, practiced wandless magic, hired Dobby, set up his mental defenses, found the power-limiter seal's representation in his mind and made a small amount of leeway into breaking through it, but not much and learned that he can set up Hermione onto his floo system._

xXx** STORY **xXx

Harry awoke early on the morning he was to go to Hermione's and thought things over while he went through his morning workout. The past six weeks he had been working out like a madman to increase his speed, strength, endurance and magical abilities. While it was normal for things like these to increase over summer when a body will do the most physical advancement, the use of potions for his malnourishment and to jump start his body into a growth spurt all added together to make one heck of a difference. He certainly didn't have the physical stature of a bodybuilder or his memories of Viktor Krum during his fourth year, but he had gained eight and a half inches to his original height and all of his muscles developed to be easily visible, though he would still be considered wiry and lean. Admittedly, a part of it was also due to working out so much each day. His muscle definition would lessen slightly once his workout time lowered when the new school year started, but it was a minor issue and he already had plans to 'discover' the Room of Requirement again.

His wandless ability increased as well. He had finally learned how to offset some of his need for concentration for simply pushing out raw power into what he wanted. As long as he had the power to shove into whatever he wanted to do, he almost didn't have to concentrate on it. The only problems he had come across, though, were that he could only fight straight out for about a half hour before he reached his limit and could barely use even his wand and that he had less finesse, or finer control when he overpowered the spells. The more he would practice individual spells, the less power they took, but he had only learned a select few of the more common ones he would use wandlessly. In particular, the levitation, stunning, awakening, banishing, binding spells and changing colors of something. He could do several others, but only if he pumped plenty of power into them and was willing to overpower them and lose finesse. Since they were mostly battle-related spells like bone-breaking spells and one originally designed to drill into stone for mining, it wasn't such a big deal as long as allies weren't in the paths of them.

He'd have worked more on individual ones, but felt it was more important to learn the ability to empower his spells like he did during training than each spell alone. He could work on fine-tuning the spells later. They just weren't as strong as he could have been with them or as precise until he worked on them long enough. The Patronus was the only other spell he worked on to the best of his ability to the point where it matched his first misty Patronus in his original third year. He hoped to have the Patronus fully corporeal by the time he got on the train, remembering the attack. The only problem was that all of the memories he used, and no matter how much power he pushed into it, it wasn't more than a misty light from his hand.

Each night that he went to bed since his arrival at Potter Manor, he spent thinking over everything Lora had told him; about Hermione to be more specific. He had come to the conclusion on his first night back that he was an idiot for not having considered her for a romantic interest, but wasn't sure what he actually felt for her. Going two months into his new life and trying to decide of his own feelings had made him come to a rather interesting conclusion. He didn't really know if he loved her or not. At least not romantically.

He could safely say he wanted to always have her near him. He would absolutely _destroy_ anyone who would hurt her and would even be willing, _very_ willing, to go about the usual boyfriend girlfriend ... _activities_. Actually, in truth, he couldn't think of even a single reason to _not_ go out with her, or more, if things happened the way Lora seemed to say they would. It had been a week ago that he finally decided that he would try to go out with her and let things progress as they did. If Lora was telling the truth, which he had no reason to not believe at this point, then he and Hermione would end up happy together unless he did something stupid or by being too sure of himself. Harry had briefly considered Ron's feelings that he knew would come about later, but decided that Hermione could make the decision. It really was hers to make, after all.

Finally finished with his exercises and having eaten a light breakfast, Harry spent a short time working on his mental defenses, which he decided he'd go ahead and call it occlumency since it didn't seem to have much of an actual name, and it would keep people from asking too many questions. That was certainly the last thing he needed.

He sat cross-legged in the library of Potter Manor and relaxed as he breathed deeply. Almost immediately, Harry found himself standing atop the astronomy tower of the representation of Hogwarts in his mind, which was the only place he knew well other than Number Four, which he wasn't about to ever use or visit again. Looking around, he saw several dragons flying through the sky, performing aerial acrobatics that probably wouldn't have been possible in the real world. He had several scores of goblins and centaurs running about the Dark Forest outside of the castle walls, the only safe passage being through the path from the main gate that led outside of his mind which were guarded by a pair of acromantula that put Aragog's size to shame with goblins sitting on top of their heads, holding reins to chase any illusive prey down.

Along the top of the castle walls, which were widened and given walkways, there were yet more goblins and more than several stone gargoyles that would come to life at the goblins' command. Harry quickly checked to make sure the goblins arming the canons and the archers were all still well-equipped before smiling lightly to himself and going downstairs and into the halls of the main building itself.

As soon as he left the stairway, he passed the two suits of armor that would animate for anyone not authorized to pass them and a wandering group of four Luna's and one Hermione who gave him a distracted smile and greeted him before continuing on their way, barely acknowledging his own greeting, though Hermione smiled and waved. He passed several other groups on his way to the Headmaster's office of either Luna, Sirius, Remus, Neville or the twins, who primarily used prank items in the usual devious ways and each being led by a Hermione who coordinated them to their actions as needed. He had made them as old as they were when he went back so he could have them that much stronger and skilled. He knew it didn't actually happen that way, but it helped to think of it as such.

Once he reached the stone gargoyle, Harry gave the password, 'Lora', which he'd chosen under the belief that no one would know of the name and he had met almost no one, especially in the wizarding world, who was named that, so felt rather safe. Though a pair of disillusioned goblins five feet down the hall who had the authorization lists didn't hurt either.

"Ah, hello Harry!" A mental version of Hermione greeted him as he entered before turning back to a control panel that showed the status of all of his defenses, the power-limiting seal, his health, his magical core, status of the containment matrices used to keep a Legilimens from roaming freely in his mind and binding him or her to the rules of the world Harry had created and had a communications panel for coordinating everything together.

"Hey Hermione. How are the defenses today?" Harry asked. She continued to eye the control panel as she responded, though she kept most attention towards the open book in her lap.

"Strong as ever, Harry. The secret passages are still fully blocked and have a dragon and goblin handler for anyone who thinks they can be sneaky, the perimeter is holding steady and nothing has weakened. Actually, by giving each sentient being a modicum of actual intelligence and self-awareness has allowed them to interact with one another as needed and, since you don't hold any prejudices and didn't give _them_ any, they all work together surprisingly well." Harry's eyes widened. That was ... unexpected, but not an unwelcome benefit.

"That's cool. So they each make their own decisions?" He asked. Hermione nodded after flashing him a smile.

"Yup! It makes my job easier and they all know the authorization lists and what their own jobs are, so they don't try to fight each other to do what they think they should. Your attempting to make them all as realistic as possible was a great idea," she said before realizing that a few of the goblin patrols on the wall were converging towards the eastern side and leaving the western one weaker than would be advisable. Quickly setting things right, she looked over to Harry who was double-checking the status of everything himself.

"Hey! I can do it, thank you!" She shoved him towards the door gently as he protested. "If there's a problem, I'll let you know, now scram!" As the door closed, Harry blinked at it in surprise and confusion. She had never done that before, and was usually willing to talk for some time before actually shoving him out the door.

"Erm ... yea ... I'll just ... scram?" Still totally confused at being kicked out of his own mind, Harry left the Headmaster's office and left to set up an entrance area for Hermione in the Gryffindor common room in case she wanted to practice legilimency. It wouldn't do to have her first arrival surrounded by goblins, acromantula and dragons. Then he would have to work with Jeffrey until the old man decided he was proficient enough with the floo creation spell.

On the other side of the door, the faux Hermione sighed and went back to her book. "One of these days, he's going to realize I'm a direct link to his own subconscious trying to tell him what he wants. But until then," she opened the book to the end where she was cataloging various dreams and mental images of people from his past, "giving him dreams to get that extra little push should be all the better!" She chuckled darkly for a moment before sighing heavily.

"I just wish he'd given me my own _male_ form instead of Hermione's, regardless of how much more secure it makes us feel!"

xXxXxXx

"Hermione! Hurry up! Breakfast has already been reheated twice!" Emma Granger was quite amused with her daughter's actions throughout the last few weeks. Each time that beautiful snow-white owl would show up, Hermione would be in a good mood for two days before coming back down to earth. For now, Emma wasn't sure if it was a possibly romantic interest or if she was simply that pleased to have a friend who wrote to her so often and diligently. Considering the stories of valor and heroic deeds this 'Harry' that she has been conversing with has done, she assumed it was probably a little bit of both.

"Just a minute! I'm almost done!" Emma smiled and sat down at the table sipped her coffee as her husband eyed her suspiciously, father senses kicking into overdrive from the unnatural activity in the Granger household.

"So..." Dan waited a moment to see if his wife would offer anything up on her own, but he was disappointed to see her smirk at him, a playful gleam in her eye.

"So what?" She asked sweetly. Dan's scowl made her feel fuzzy inside. It was great to tease him like she did when they were going out.

"_So_," he began, "why is Hermione spending an inordinate amount of time getting ready today? Does it have anything to do with why you took the day off?" Emma sat her coffee cup down and fluttered her eyelashes at him, setting off warning bells and a screaming voice in his head that tried to warn him of danger.

"I didn't tell you?" She began innocently enough. "I'm sorry. Today is the day that Hermione's friend Harry comes over." Dan's eyes narrowed and he began to look around as if expecting to find the boy hiding in a corner somewhere in the kitchen, and not totally convinced that he couldn't be with that magic stuff.

"Oh is he, now?" Dan asked dangerously. Emma chuckled as she watched the protective father in her husband come out.

"Don't worry, Dan. There's been nothing to suggest that there's anything romantic about any of this."

"Maybe he needs some work done," he thought speculatively, thinking about the dental practice he and his wife ran together. "I'm sure I could get some answers out of him. I did just get that new scraper..." Emma smiled brightly at him.

"Possibly, but Hermione would kill you."

Dan sighed and slumped in his chair as he thought it through. "Yes, most likely," he said with an amusing pout. Emma reached over and gave him a conciliatory hug.

"He's spoken with Hermione to do something or other to let us have a way of going to his house whenever we want to, and we can talk with him whenever we feel like it. So you'll be able to meet and threaten him soon enough, I'm sure." Dan nodded and took a bite of his eggs, taking comfort in his wife's promises.

"So what are you three doing today?"

"I'm not totally sure, actually. I know we're doing some clothes shopping since that was what he specifically asked about at the beginning of the summer and he and Hermione were looking to buy a few books and things. I'm really not totally sure what else they're looking for."

Dan nodded as he thought it over and Hermione came into the kitchen with a smile and plopped down to begin eating her breakfast. Dan took a quick glance to see that she _appeared_ to have simply dressed normally and come downstairs, but knew from experience that no girl EVER took that long to get ready and simply appear to look like she normally did. At least, not without a male waiting for her. He still suspected they made men wait on purpose. But then, he noticed her hair was slightly tamer and seemed somewhat straighter than normal. Hermione did more than simply brush her hair?

_'DANGER! DANGER! MALE THREAT TO DAUGHTER DETECTED! KILL! MAIM! ROOT CANAL?'_ He forced the warning tones in his head back and smiled at his daughter, though Emma could tell he looked a little sick at the same time.

"I hear you've got a full day today, Pumpkin." Hermione beamed at her father and nodded enthusiastically as she swallowed her bite of toast.

"Oh, yes! We're meeting up with Harry today and we're going to get some books for the summer!" Hermione said enthusiastically, a bright smile lighting up her face. Emma hid her smile behind her coffee cup as she saw Dan slump and sigh in relief when Hermione's focus seemed to be on the books she would be getting.

"And I haven't seen Harry in two months and after seeing him daily for nine months, it seems weird to not be around him every day." Emma snorted into her coffee cup as Dan's face paled drastically and his narrowed eyes began to search the kitchen again while she covered her amusement by acting as if the coffee went down the wrong pipe when Hermione looked at her.

"Sorry honey. Just tried to breathe in as I was swallowing," Emma said, forcing a cough to help her case. The following twenty minutes before Dan had to leave for work, Emma watched amusedly as he seemed to peer around corners and such as if searching for the boy who may very well be able to magic himself into their home. Or at least, it certainly wasn't as unlikely as waving a stick and making a book levitate like the McGonagall woman demonstrated before Hermione's first year.

xXxXxXx

"Okay Dobby," Harry began. "You remember everything?" The happy house elf nodded enthusiastically with his ears flopping back and forth.

"Yes, Master Harry! Dobby be knowing what to do! If you be calling Dobby, then Dobby is to make himself invisible and pop to you silently in case there is being people around who is not knowing of the magical world!" Harry smiled at his little friend and nodded.

"That's right! Very excellent, Dobby! That should be everything, thank you." Dobby nodded and disappeared with a quiet pop to do whatever it was that he had found to do around the place. Harry, meanwhile, transfigured his robe into muggle clothing that he assumed looked pretty decent and gathered his new wallet with his new card, a large sack of floo powder and placed his wand on his arm in the invisible holster he got from his first foray into Diagon Alley. Once he had everything, he closed his eyes and pictured Hermione in his mind's eye and felt himself shift for a brief second before stopping.

Opening his eyes, he saw himself behind Hermione who was in a chair and reading what appeared to be what she had copied from the mind magics book he had sent to her. Finding himself with a golden opportunity, he leaned forward and quickly wrapped her into a hug, getting a surprised squawk out of Hermione as he did so. The part that surprised _him_ however, was when she threw her head back in her surprise and hit his forehead.

"ACK!" He backed several steps up and shook his head as Hermione twirled around in shock before apparently hopping over the side of the chair and hit him in a hug like a missile hard enough to keep the room spinning and into the wall.

"Harry!"

Said boy smiled at the two dancing images in his vision and laughed lightly. "Hello Hermione," he nodded at one, then the second, "Hermione. It's nice to see the two of you again."

Hermione offered a sheepish smile as she released him. "Sorry about that. You surprised me is all." Having his vision back, he smiled again and hugged her back.

"My fault. I shouldn't have surprised you like that." He let her go and looked around. "So what's up?"

"Not much, really. My mom is upstairs getting ready and my dad is at the surgery." Harry nodded as Hermione's eyes widened and she stepped closer and stood up straight. "You've gotten taller!" Harry nodded as she measured her height to his with her hand. "Much taller!"

"Yup! I've been taking some nutrient potions. They're kind of like vitamins, but stronger. I've also been working out and hit a growth spurt. Summer is when we grow the most and I was eating well and taking potions to fix my previous growth rate. Add it all together and it makes a bigger change," he said, smiling. Hermione stepped back and looked him up and down, noticing his shoes were the same ones, but looked to have been spelled to look a little better. The same with simple, black pants and a very pale blue shirt. She remembered seeing them before, albeit much larger and in slightly worse shape, so she assumed he transfigured them for their outing. In truth, he had learned mending charms from her older counterpart that had come into play.

"Well, you've certainly gotten bigger," she said with a smile, feeling a firmer body in her arms than she remembered. Harry smiled at her and poked her shoulder.

"You have too. You've gotten a little taller and your hair looks nicer, too." Hermione blushed slightly. Yes, she had gotten taller, but her hair was mainly because she spent a long time trying to make it look normal.

"Yes, well, it's summer. What do you expect?" She asked rhetorically. Harry's smile vanished to turn his expression into a grave one.

"Tan lines and bikini's." A smack and laugh later, the still blushing Hermione led him into the kitchen.

"How did you show up here, anyway? And do you want anything to drink," she asked, getting a glass of lemonade for herself.

"Thank you, but no. And I got here by shifting. It's kind of like apparition, but without the squeezing feeling or popping and there aren't any wards to keep people from doing it and is much safer. You still have to visualize where you want to go in extreme detail, though, so I just pictured you since I know you so well, which is why I appeared behind you," he said while appearing to think. "I guess it's a good thing you weren't in the shower." Hermione had almost choked on her lemonade, but swallowed before anything happened.

"Can you teach me how to do it? And if you ever pop up in the shower with me, I'm yanking off your danglies," she threatened, causing him to flinch.

"Yes, but only if you promise not to rip those off. I've grown rather fond of them, thank you," he said primly. "But now that I've been here, I can just pop into whatever room. I'll just need one that is usually kept closed in case you've got company over or something. I can't really use the floo when we set it up for that same reason." Hermione nodded, seeing that make perfect sense.

"Well, thankfully, the fireplace is in the den. The only one who uses the room is me when I read by the fireplace and we keep the curtains closed over the windows most often, so no one will see when we use it."

"Excellent! It sounds perfect!"

"So," Hermione began, sitting uncomfortably close after returning to the living room, "tell me about this library wing and how you have a book filled with information not seen for a very long time." Harry's palms began to sweat and his hands began to shake as he saw a predatory gleam in Hermione's eye.

"Well, it's got a lot of books in it, larger the the Hogwarts library, actually. Apparently, my family had a Potter who was a pack rat," he said, looking a little sheepish. "He went about gathering everything he could find and archived it, even simple and mundane things and then taught his kids to do it as a tradition and hobby." Hermione's grin was a terrifying thing. She oftentimes wore that expression after winning a book from a sneaky Ravenclaw during test times.

"Well, that's excellent news! But we should wait to get too many books until we've had a chance to look through what you've got."

"That makes sense," he said with a shocked face. He hadn't even thought of it, but he had no clue what all he had. The only book Harry had been reading was the one Lora had given him, since he already had his school material known. He was about to tell Hermione about what he expected he would need to get that the library wouldn't have since it hadn't been updated in at least thirteen years when a woman that looked almost identical to Hermione stepped into the room.

"Oh, hello! You must be Harry." Emma watched as the boy got up from his very close spot next to Hermione and walked towards her, introducing himself. He seemed somewhat taller than she remembered him appearing when he hugged Hermione at the train station and seemed more stocky than she thought she remembered as well, but had gentle green eyes that were simply gorgeous!

_'Eyes like that should be illegal for boys,'_ she thought. With those eyes and a smile like that, it was no wonder her daughter was always in such a good mood when those letters showed up.

"Yes Ma'am. I'm Harry Potter. It's a pleasure to meet you." His hand in hers was gentle, but moderately calloused for a kid his age, surprising her. He must have been used to working.

"The pleasure is mine. I'm sorry, I didn't even hear the doorbell ring." Harry laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"My fault, actually. It was easier to come here by a magical form of transportation called 'shifting', and I used that instead of coming a normal way. I used Hermione as my anchor and I showed up in your living room," he said, still looking nervous. Emma only raised an eyebrow.

_'I suppose Dan had the right idea of it this morning. He actually _can_ just magic his way into our home.'_ The idea of any magical person being able to do such a thing was a bit scary, but there had to be some kind of laws against it. They wouldn't want them doing it to themselves, after all.

"No worries, Harry. So, what were you hoping to get done today?" Emma sat in a chair across from where Harry and Hermione were sitting to listen.

"Well, we were going to get several books, but Hermione made a good point about not having any kind of good idea of what is in my library at the moment and I shouldn't go about buying things before knowing if I need them or not. Other than that, I'm needing new clothes since these ones are only transfigured. And with my recent growth spurt, I need some that actually fit." He wasn't joking, either. Along with growing taller, his shoulders had filled out thanks to so many push-ups and his feet and legs grew as well, making his pants too short and shoes too small.

"Other than that, I figured I'd set up your floo and treat you guys to wherever you want to go for lunch for helping me out and whatever you two want to do, I'm game for." Both girls nodded.

"Do you already know what kind of clothes you're wanting to get?"

Harry blinked at Emma with a blank expression for a few seconds. "Boy clothes?" Hermione snorted and Emma smiled indulgently, if a bit weakly, at Harry as she realized exactly why she was needed. The boy had no clue what he was doing.

"Alright. We'll just see what you want when we get there," Emma said, causing Harry to shrug.

"Works for me. Do you want me to go ahead and put your fireplace on the floo network?"

"I was actually wondering about that. Our fireplace is rather small. Certainly not big enough to stand in. How will we be able to use it? The book Hermione has said any fireplace could work, but not how," Emma asked.

"Well, I'll use magic to make it bigger and," he untied the large sack of floo powder from his belt, "then this can be used whenever you want to use it." After getting agreement, Hermione led Harry and Emma to the den and motioned towards the fireplace, ready to see how it was done.

Harry eyed the fireplace speculatively before flicking his wand and making it grow tall enough to comfortably fit Emma with a few inches to spare and wide enough for four people in case Hagrid ever needed to show up. The fireplace itself had been a simple block design that was more efficiency than functionality by simply being cut into the wall with the white walls smooth on either side except where the metal curtain to keep embers from setting fire to the house was attached. He decided to change it from the white walls to a tasteful stone of white marble with black, bronze and crystal veins with protruding shelves on either side that arced out from the sides as if waiting for a wider clientèle and a marble bowl and lid on one side to hold the floo powder. Over all, it was an artful, tasteful and elegant design. It didn't exactly work for the room's style, but neither girl wanted to tell him that.

"Does that work, or would you like something different?" He asked looking over to see Emma wide-eyed and Hermione looking like she was trying to figure out a difficult problem.

"That should be fine," Emma said, still a little shocked at the display of magic she'd witnessed. That was very different than making a book levitate that Professor McGonagall had shown them when delivering Hermione's letter for joining Hogwarts. Harry simply nodded and began moving his wand in a complex pattern of graceful arcs and smaller, harsh movements as if writing with his wand in the air, muttering under his breath. After making a jabbing motion towards the fireplace, a fire erupted in a bright blue that quickly turned into an emerald green and died back out as Harry stopped speaking.

"Excellent! Now all that's left is to test it out," he said brightly, dumping the majority of the floo powder into the new bowl for it and leaving enough for two trips. He tossed the powder into the fireplace, causing it to turn green, spoke and stepped through, going through the floo system like normal, though without any other connections until he popped out of the hearth at his home.

"Well, that works." He quickly tossed the remainder of the powder back into the fireplace. "Granger Sanctuary!" He appeared in the Granger's den flat on his face.

"I have _got_ to get the hang of that," he grumbled as Hermione helped him up.

"So it works, then?"

Harry nodded, his nose twitching from the ash still on his nose hairs. "Mhm. You can only go to my place from this one right now, but you can go anywhere from there. Just say 'Potter Manor' to go to my house and then 'Granger Sanctuary' to come back here." Hermione scrunched her face as she heard their address.

"Why 'Granger Sanctuary'? That sounds a bit odd, doesn't it?"

Harry chuckled. He rather liked seeing her nose all scrunched up. It was cute. "If you ever decide to go on the public floo network, you can choose whatever you want, but I wanted to make sure that no one would guess your floo address too easily if they ever managed to get to my own floo." Not really caring, Hermione just shrugged and decided to ignore it.

"Oh well. Can I try it?"

Harry nodded and Hermione rushed the hearth with a creepy grin plastered over her face and disappeared in green flames.

"That _is_ safe, right?" Emma asked, a little disturbed that both children willingly leapt into green fire. Harry nodded and smiled.

"Very much so, as long as the fire is green. That's the properties of the magical components of the ash in the fire that make it perfectly safe," he explained. "I don't know if magical children have to be warned off about that in their younger years or not, but we're old enough to know green means safe." Emma frowned slightly, but nodded, willing to accept the answer. He just went through it twice and was no worse for wear. After waiting for about two minutes, Hermione came back through, a little soot on her nose and cheek and giggling. While glad she didn't get hurt, Harry was a little annoyed that Hermione could use the floo without even a trace of getting tripped up.

"Harry, your house is huge!"

"Yea, it's been in the family for a long time from what I can tell. According to some of the portraits, all of the Potters lived together rather than spread out. Something about communal something or other." Emma noticed the shift to the 'what do we do now' expressions on their faces and decided to take control.

"Alright you two. To the car." Harry followed Hermione out of her house and into the back seat of the Grangers' car where she forced him into explaining about his summer during the hour long trip to their first stop.

"Alright, Harry. Spill. Tell me everything you've been doing this summer." Harry laughed as he held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"Don't worry, Hermione. I've been perfectly safe and comfortable at Potter Manor," he began, placing his hands back down and one of them close to her leg on the seat to gauge her reaction to close proximity, curious about where she may stand this early. She didn't seem to notice, however.

"I saw that when I went to your home," she said with an eye roll. "But I mean what _else_ have you been doing? Your letters talked about all sorts of things. You mentioned Dobby picking up potions for you and that you don't know what happened to your house elves. What was that all about?" Chuckling, Harry started from the beginning and explained a slightly amended version of events for now.

"Well, I sent a letter to Gringotts about my parents' will and asked about my holdings and such. We met and they told me about everything I have and we looked through their will and it said that I wasn't supposed to live with the Dursleys under any circumstances and a few other things. Since the head of a 'Most Noble and Ancient House' can get legally emancipated at eleven so they have someone in charge of the family, we were able to ignore having to get Dumbledore's approval, since he is my magical guardian and executioner of the will, and I got the Dursleys into signing their approval of the emancipation."

"Isn't eleven a little young?" Emma asked from the front seat. "And if this Dumbledore is your magical guardian, how were you able to ignore him?"

"Most children from what the wizarding society calls 'Most Noble and Ancient' houses are purebloods, and they're trained from all but birth into taking over the family and, since eleven is when we start at Hogwarts and is considered a leap into magical adulthood, it's been allowed for centuries." Harry was very happy his rings supported him with legal knowledge. The information came out almost before he even realized he was talking.

"Anyway, once I was emancipated, that gave me full rights of an adult wizard, meaning full account access, exception to the underage magic use policies and the ability to make my own choices about things that deal with me," he said, smiling brightly. Meanwhile, Emma frowned from the front seat where she was driving.

"Being emancipated means that you're held to adult responsibilities as well, Harry. You _are_ aware of this, yes?" She asked. Harry nodded.

"Yes Ma'am. I'm fully aware of that. I've actually taken care of everything that was waiting to be handled after I took over my responsibilities about a week after being emancipated and the goblins brought it to my attention. I'm making very sure to keep on top of things," he assured her, "even got the goblins inventorying my vaults so I know everything I have on hand."

"There wasn't anything bad, was there," Hermione asked, looking a little worried.

"Nah. Mainly, it was just alerting me to stocks I've got and what my role would be, a tonne of arranged marriage proposals that I had them throw out, an explanation of how my account had been handled by them that was set up by my father and such. Nothing really serious," he explained with a shrug as Hermione's eyes widened considerably.

"'Arranged marriage proposals'! You have to get married?" Hermione asked incredulously. Harry shook his head.

"No, no. Nothing like that. It was mostly from years ago where people sent contracts to try and arrange a marriage with me but couldn't since there was no one to agree to them. Dumbledore didn't have authorization to put me into a marriage and no one could approve a marriage for me."

"Oh," she said, looking very relieved. "That's good! I thought you were going to be thrown into something you wouldn't want!" Harry laughed and began to explain what he'd been learning throughout the summer, ignorant of Emma's paying very close attention to the conversation.

xXxXxXx

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster to Hogwarts, was sitting in his office when a silver bauble on the shelf across the room that was steadily puffing white smoke chimed and the smoke began to blow out steadily instead of puffing gently and became a blackened gray. The old man's blue eyes widened as he accidentally released the first bout of accidental magic in decades as his long, waist-length beard frizzed out and rolled itself up to his chin.

"Ack!" He hopped up and poked the device with his wand, checking the readings and promptly lost control of his bowels. Something that hadn't been done in nearly a month. "Oh no! The wards! Harry! My pants!" With a quick movement of his wand, his underwear was clean once again and he rushed over to the floo, throwing in the magical powder.

"Arabella Figg!" He promptly stepped through to the sight of a surprised older woman surrounded by what had to have been nearly twenty cats._ 'It seems she got more,' _he thought absently as he immediately ran out her door without a second glance or word of explanation, disillusioning himself before he was actually out the door.

He quickly rushed over to Number Four, Privet Drive and looked at the outside for a quick moment. There was no external damage to suggest anything untoward had happened, though the flowerbeds and small details around everything showed signs of only the barest of attention having been paid to them. Finding nothing obvious to explain why the wards were about to fail, he moved around back, finding everything in a similar state. Frowning, he knocked on the door and reappeared to the world as his disillusionment was canceled.

"Who are you," an annoying voice asked as the rather rotund boy answered the door with a sneer. "And why are you in our back yard?"

"My name is Albus Dumbledore. I'm coming to find out where Harry Potter is." The rotund boy's eyes widened when Harry was mentioned. It was a few seconds later that he realized that this old man was one of _his _kind.

"Mum!" The boy tried to shut the door as he spun around and left the kitchen in a hurry. Dumbledore simply held out his hand to stop the door and stepped inside.

"What on earth do you think you're doing, coming into our home uninvited!" Petunia was coming in from somewhere in the living room when she saw the old man in the kitchen. She, however, almost immediately recognized who the man was, or more accurately, what world he came from. "You!"

Albus immediately put his hands up in a calming gesture. "I have only a few questions and then I will leave. I did knock before entering." Frowning, and looking at the way she came where she could hear Dudley hiding in his room, she quickly nodded her head.

"Fine. Ask and then leave. Vernon should be back soon." Albus nodded and didn't bother trying to sit, seeing the woman already making shooing motions with her hands.

"I am curious about where young Harry is." He watched the woman pale and her jaw slacken.

"He ... That is, the boy, he emancipated himself the day after returning." Only years of practice at occlumency kept Dumbledore from screaming like a little girl. He did quickly perform another scourgify for his underwear, however.

"Tell me everything!" Wincing, Petunia did just that.

_'Harry, what have you done?' _

xXxXxXx

Harry shifted back to his home and collapsed onto the couch in the sitting room with a groan. _'I am _never_ going shopping with women again!'_ As he sulked, he raised his right foot over his knee and massaged it firmly, knowing he would do it again if either of them wanted to go. While tiring, it was quite fun.

Hermione, it seemed, was a monster. He'd decided after only a few minutes that there was a gene somewhere in the female body that caused them to lose sense of all time and induce some form of pain-killing chemical for all that walking about. That was all he could think of that would keep them from collapsing in exhaustion. He had been running every day since he was emancipated and Hermione was bouncing around him in circles like it was nothing!

He had managed to do what he wanted during their excursion though. That made it all worth while. Harry had originally wanted to get new clothes and use it as a way to invite Hermione to share the day with him where he could flirt lightly with her, but the opportunity to make a much stronger impression had shown itself, and he couldn't help but take it. Harry chuckled as he remembered the smile in her reflection of the mirror in the fitting room before he shook his head and called Dobby before he would risk forgetting his new plans.

"Dobby?"

"Master Harry Potter, sir?" Harry looked to the side where Dobby had silently popped in.

"The Grangers agreed to come for dinner tomorrow night. Would that be okay?" Dobby nodded in energetic bliss. The poor elf was ecstatic to cook for Harry's friends.

"Oh! That would be good, Master Harry! Dobby is being able to make anything you want!" Harry chuckled again.

"Anything you would like to make, Dobby, is okay," he said. The happy elf nodded and went about making the evening meal.

"Hello Harry!" Surprised to hear another voice right beside him, Harry turned to see the grinning face of Lora right next to him, just far enough away for him to see her and to know he wasn't seeing things. Suddenly, he let out a yelp and hopped over the back of the couch.

"What are you doing here!" Frantically, he patted down his front side, looking for any unnoticed wounds or missing bits while Lora laughed loudly.

"I came so we could have a quick chat about everything." She eyed him as he looked about suspiciously before sitting in the chair across from her over the mahogany table. "I thought you would have a few questions now that you've had time to look up a few things from the book and time to think." Harry nodded, having several, actually.

"You're right, actually. One of the things I've been trying to think about the most has been how I died." He squirmed uncomfortably in the leather cushions. "I can remember a couple days towards the end with Hermione about a month and a half after Ron left us while searching for the horcruxes, but the closer I get to the end, I found I was missing pieces of the day, then more and more until I lost days in between." He looked at her questioningly. "What happened?"

"Well," she said frowning, "you had managed to find Gryffindor's brooch, remember?" He nodded, prompting her to continue. "When you entered the castle where it was hidden, you hadn't been able to get through all of the traps and wards that Riddle had set up and you died, along with Hermione." She watched as he paled and shuddered, knowing the memory was coming back to him.

"We didn't have enough skill to break the wards properly," he whispered. "There was a matrix of fire strung about, but inverted. We hadn't known about anything like it until we saw it activate." Lora nodded sadly.

"Exactly. Unfortunately, while you still have your knowledge from before, it wasn't enough then. That's one of the reasons we wanted to send you backwards in time. So that you could emancipate yourself to get on better grounds with the goblins and possibly learn some warding skills next summer from them, or the many books about it you'll find here," she said with a Marauder-worthy smirk, knowing what was in his family's past. "We also wanted you to be able to get closer to your soul mate." Harry frowned as he heard that term again.

"That's something else I've been meaning to ask you. You keep calling Hermione my soul mate." He leaned back in his chair and cocked his head to the side. "I don't understand. What does that mean, exactly?" Lora looked up at the ceiling for several moments, trying to decide the best way to explain it.

"Well, you humans have several different meanings to the term. Some believe that a soul mate is the literal 'other half' of a person. The only two who will be perfectly happy with each other. Some, say that a soul mate is just someone who you can be happy and lead a pleasant life with."

"So what is it, really?" He asked again.

"Well, the truth is, a soul mate is a person who complements you and you can love and cherish and be happy with forever and yes, feels like they complete you. You will, of course, have your rough moments as all relationships will, but there isn't just any _one_ person for any other person. It isn't just some thing where you find each other and lock into place like the yin-yang symbol, but you still have to work at it. It can't be taken for granted and you don't automatically fall in love with each other when you meet, otherwise, you and Hermione would have been together from the start." Lora waved her hand and a glass with a bright blue liquid appeared on the table which she drank from.

"Soul mates _are_ rather rare. I'll agree with that. In fact, there are only three women in the British Isles that could be that close to you, two of which are actually in Hogwarts. Usually, a person will have three in the entire world and they're lucky when they meet even one. You seem to be a rare exception to that rule."

"Wait," Harry said, really confused now. "If there are two in Hogwarts, why was it Hermione that was my soul mate?" He asked. Lora waggled a finger at him, frighteningly like Madam Pince from the library.

"Like I said earlier, you don't simply click into place in a relationship. You have to work at it. The other girl that could have been it didn't spend nearly enough time with you, though that was as much your fault as anything else. Well, I suppose it's actually mostly your fault," she mumbled to herself, though still loud enough to be heard.

"Who is she?" He asked, confused. He couldn't figure out how it would be 'mostly' his fault to not spend enough time with a girl. Surely whoever this second girl was had some sort of say in the matter.

Lora simply shook her head. "It doesn't matter anymore. You've already begun bonding with Hermione. Both in your past lives and this one, only you're actively strengthening it this time. You may have simply just begun, but it's started now. He's made sure it'll be helpful to you this time around."

"What bond? And who's 'he'?" Harry asked, feeling like he was missing a lot. Lora flinched, not meaning to have said that.

"Have you ever heard of the phrase 'seeing is believing and believing is seeing'?"

"Yes," he said, causing her to nod.

"Well, the truth is just as I told you before. All things have balance to work properly, just like the fundamentals of alchemy; balance is supreme. If you look at many of the religions in the world, you'll find that, at their core, they are fundamentally the same: Supreme God or Goddess, or the Lord and Lady in Wiccan religion, where the supreme being is a balance of male and female, Allah, Buddha, all of them, they preach basically the same things, but in different ways and with morals and such that are slightly different based on location and the people. Their beliefs give power to their gods and, because they are all the same at the core, you'll find that that energy from all of those worshipers created a single and united entity that most in the know simply call 'The Supreme Entity', and then the evil side, so to speak, for his enemies. That's why I said 'the correct afterlife' when we first met," she ignored Harry's shocked expression and blinking eyes. "Unless we come out fully into the open, then it would be foolish to expect everyone to follow a set code of conduct, so we have multiple forms of the afterlife and paths souls can take afterwards, based on how they lived their lives. Anyway, I'll just call him 'Bob' for short. Now, Bob decided that he's going to help create a soul bond between you and your soul mate. He said he's going to do everything we can to make your soul bond as useful as he can."

"What's a soul bond, exactly?" Harry asked, dreading the answer and deciding that gods, goddesses, angels, demons and who knew what else was more confusion than he needed to worry about.

"It actually depends on you and your bond mate. Some get the ability to speak telepathically, some share emotions, memories or visions or even special abilities." She shrugged. "It just depends on the power of those in the bond and how it develops since you don't even need to be magical for this since it transcends magic. The most common are telepathy, sensing each other and sharing emotions. Anything more than that is just random. The bond will create itself between you and your soul mate when the two of you openly acknowledge your mutual affection for one another. Nothing until then, though you can be close enough to sense each other without finalizing the bond since it's basically about being in tune with each other." Harry seemed contemplative.

"That ... doesn't sound too bad, actually." He was thinking of the ways this could hurt Hermione and, aside from being stuck with him, he couldn't see much of a downside. Even that would only be if she decided to be with him and, if she chose that, she wouldn't leave him anyway, so it was basically just strong confirmation of what he already knew.

"Okay," he continued, "so what about that stone box?" Lora blinked blankly at him.

"What about it?"

"I haven't been able to _open_ the bloody thing! What am I supposed to do with it? It just looks like a stone block." Lora palmed her forehead.

"You'll need two people to open it," she grumbled. "Your hands aren't large enough to do it by yourself. I forgot about that. Just have you and one other pull from the sides and it should open. I can't interfere with the physical world, only react as though I am like sitting on this couch, which is also why I got my own drink. Just get Hermione to help you."

"Oh. Well, what's in it?"

Lora sighed and rested her chin in her hand. "Remember how I told you that you have the scroll that explained about how to remove the power-limiting seal?" Harry began shaking his head before he stopped suddenly and then smiled guiltily.

"I thought so," she said with a glare. "Look, you will need to gain access to more magic than you have now, but if you simply remove the seal that Grandpa Whiskers put on you, you will have more power than you can handle. It's just more than you've ever learned to control," she said with a shrug. "So, inside of the box are bracelets that will serve several functions for you."

"Like what?" Harry jerked back and shook slightly when Lora glared at him.

"I was just getting to that!" She grumbled a second before shaking her head to get back on track. He was sure he heard something about probes and his butt. "They will do several things. They'll be mentally linked to you so that you can gain or limit access to your power until you learn to control more and more of it."

"That'll be helpful! I haven't been able to break through it yet!" He was suddenly whacked upside his head harshly. "Ow!"

"You idiot. If you'd broken through the seal, you would have been leaking magic out in waves too strong for you to control." Harry glared at his Death Angel and stuck his tongue out.

"At least I hadn't broken through yet. Anyway, does it do anything else?"

Lora glared a few seconds longer before sitting down on the couch with a thump.

"Yes. It will also grant you a battle armor that used to be used before wizards and witches learned to use wands. It was worn by a group called 'war wizards'. They have runes sewn into the whole outfit for a little defense, they aid you in manipulating your magic without the need of another device like a wand and generally provide various functions based on what type of armor it is. Don't think of it as actual armor, but more a uniform of various ranks in a military unit, each with their own use." Lora smiled ferally when she saw Harry's shocked expression. "The outfit will activate whenever you recognize yourself in a battle situation unless you actively keep it from happening."

"That's so cool!" Lora smiled at his enthusiasm. "Does the armor do anything specific?" He asked. Lora shrugged.

"Depends on what armor you get, really. It'll link to your magic and you could really get anything. They aren't perfect, of course. They won't grant you incredible abilities, but they enhance different features for what you already have." Harry nodded, his eyes sparkling in happiness.

"Other than that, there is a meter that shows how much of your power you're accessing and that's about it." Harry smiled brightly at her.

"That's awesome! Thanks!"

"No worries. But you'll have to get another person to open it and, when you put it on, do it outside and keep anyone else inside, okay? It will probably release a strong wave of magic where it breaks the power-limiting seal and then seals it back up where you've got control over it. It won't damage the magic safeguarding this place, though. That's one of the reasons I mentioned it. You're family at the time was quite large and they all offered magic for the protections, so even you would be cutting it close. But, since your ancestors were the ones to raise the protective wards, they will feed on your magic rather than get damaged by it and boost the power of the wards." Harry nodded.

"I can do that. I'll ask Hermione to do it tomorrow. Will it make me go unconscious or hurt or anything?"

"I don't think so," she said thoughtfully. "You've got a lot of power, so it may feel a little overwhelming ... But it shouldn't hurt since it's your own magic and it shouldn't knock you unconscious, but I suppose it could." Harry wasn't exactly confident, but if he died, it was going to be _her_ fault this time.

"Alright. I'll deal with whatever happens, then. Other than that, how have I been doing so far?"

"Very well, actually. I missed a lot of your days because I was cashing in a bunch of IOU's with some other Death Angels to take over most of my clients so I could devote most of my time to you and switched Hermione's Death Angel with one of mine so I could keep track of her also, since she'd be around you so much, along with a few others that I know are your closer friends, but I caught a lot of what you've been up to so far, so I'm happy." Harry smiled proudly.

"Okay. So basically, I need to work on wards and anything I've come across to get his horcruxes. That about it for right now?" He asked. Lora nodded.

"Along with what you've been working on so far, yes." Lora got up and walked towards the wall before turning back to him. "And just so you know, I'll be popping up like this from time to time as I'm able and when I think you need me, but for the most part, I'll be watching only. Bob's creation of the altered soul bond sucked up a lot of the time I'll be able to spend with you," she said frowning. Curious, Harry asked why.

"Well, exactly how much help and interference we're allowed is a delicate thing. For instance, you told the goblins about the prophecy, which was me putting the suggestion in your head since they will be able to help you greatly. I can't do that too often. If we go over what we should to keep balance, considering how much information demons have given Voldemort, then they get to do more. But, the bond I mentioned earlier was changed by Bob for the sake of making it stronger." She frowned a little deeper as she remembered the event. "Strong enough to make him quite pleased, actually. So, where I had planned to show up every couple of weeks to talk and help guide you, I can now only show up maybe once a month, if that." Harry frowned and looked at her worriedly.

"Is this going to be anything I should be worried about?" He asked slowly, looking as nervous as he sounded. Lora shook her head and smiled disarmingly at him.

"Nope. Just means you'll be closer, for the most part. Anyway, goodbye and I'll talk to you later." Without waiting for a goodbye from him, she strode through the wall as if it weren't even there, making it wave like ripples in a pond as she disappeared with her glass following moments later.

xXxXxXx

Not long after Harry's enlightening conversation with a woman from beyond the grave, Emma was getting into bed with Dan, who'd arrived in time for dinner, obviously dying to know how the day with this boy he had yet to meet had gone. While Hermione had spoken in length about it, he was waiting for the right time to ask his wife what she honestly thought without the risk of offending his daughter.

"So," he said, getting under the covers, "how did the day honestly go? Hermione was rather happy about the day, but what about you?" Emma smiled at her curious husband and blinked rapidly.

"What makes you think the day wasn't as good as she said?" Dan simply mock glared, but the quirk of his mouth let her know he was enjoying the banter. "Oh, fine. From what I can tell, Harry's a very good boy. He was kind, very polite, seemed to value Hermione's opinions, except for when she asked about boxers or briefs," she snorted at the memory of Harry's embarrassment. "He even treated us to a late lunch for helping him out today." Dan leaned back into his pillow with a contended sigh.

"So you didn't see anything that seemed like this could be romantic, then?" He asked, almost sure of the negative answer at this point. Realizing he had let his guard down, Emma smirked in a manner not unlike a certain Malfoy.

"Oh," she said in a singsong voice, "I wouldn't say that." She laughed when he looked at her with a pathetically piteous expression. "Oh fine. I left for a few moments while he was trying on some clothes to pick out a new color of a shirt and when I came back, I caught them talking."

"_Harry, really. You shouldn't say things like that. I know I'm not pretty, so you don't have to lie to me." Hermione was looking down partly pleased to have heard him say she usually looked pretty, and partly out of shame when no one has ever said such things and she believed them to be lies. Harry, however, not realizing that Emma was now eagerly watching through a rack of shirts, simply moved Hermione in front of the mirror on the door of the fitting room, unwittingly letting Emma see her daughter's face as they spoke._

"_Look at yourself, Hermione. I mean really and honestly look. What do you see that makes you think you aren't truly pretty?" Hermione looked at her reflection for several moments, taunts from her past rising in her mind about her hair and her teeth, and general unpleasantness. Harry's presence seemed almost overwhelming, pressing her to speak and open up._

"_I see a girl with thick, bushy hair," she said, looking down for a moment before looking up to Harry and then back at her reflection. "A girl who has overly large front teeth like a beaver's, ironic when her parents are both dentists, really. Too overbearing and always nagging the people around her to do their homework." She looked down, feeling ashamed of her emotions, but believing them to be truth nonetheless. Harry simply nodded, a contemplative expression on his face._

"_Wow you're blind," he deadpanned. Hermione looked at him in the mirror in shock as he pointed at the mirror to make her look at it again._

"_I'll let you in on a secret," he said. "Your teeth will only seem big while we're small. As you get bigger, no one will even notice. But if it matters that badly to you, there's always a shrinking charm," he smiled at her as her eyes widened at the possibilities. He was just commenting the matter from remembering Draco making them grow while Pomfrey had spelled them smaller again. "Besides, your teeth don't matter. You've got a pretty smile." Hermione looked down with a blush as she smiled at the thought before looking up as Harry continued._

"_Your hair is naturally you. It may be bushy, but it isn't like it's ugly. I sometimes wonder if magic may be a little like static electricity and you just unconsciously release tiny amounts or if it just courses through you to make it happen like that. Either way, it's still pleasant. And let's face it, your nagging is something I always thought was just you trying to push everyone to be better and keep us safe." Harry noticed her blush intensified a little, but continued, deciding that, even if they didn't end up together, he would still nip this way of thinking in the bud. She had reacted almost violently to his praise when he said he thought she would help him better than others because she always looked pretty. It honestly bothered him to see how upset hearing something like that had caused her to react._

"_Of two things you think keep you from being pretty, there are a lot that make you so," he said quietly. "Whenever you're really happy, or feeling any intense emotion, your eyes do this really nice sparkly thing, and they're already very nice and expressive." Quickly, she looked up to her eyes and then back away from her reflection to look at the floor so he wouldn't see her massive blush. It was strange and wonderful to be scrutinized so thoroughly and not to be found wanting._

"_You've got an incredible smile and you're one of the most gentle and loving people I've ever met. You care about everyone and everything, except maybe Malfoy," he smirked when she snorted in an ill-concealed laugh, "and you're not one of those useless girls who are obsessed with boys and fashion and whatever girls like Lavender and Parvati get themselves in to. You're an intelligent girl, Hermione. While they saw me as The-Boy-Who-Lived, you took the time to honestly get to know me instead of constantly seeing an image created by people who wanted to sell books." He squeezed her arm gently as he continued. _

"_You're an incredible girl, Hermione, and these things you think make you not look pretty are honestly the only things that they can use, and that's probably only because of people who are terrified of you for being better than they are can use them as easy targets, simply because they're there to be seen at a glance, so they don't have to get to know you any more than they need to so they don't find out how great you really are. I'll admit you aren't the prettiest girl in school," he felt horrible to say it as her shoulders shook slightly at his admission, so he rushed to continue his comment._

"_But you _are _pretty. All of those girls who pride themselves in their beauty and spend so much time on make-up and boys, they end up looking _too _pretty so that they look like toys and have very few redeemable qualities like you do. I can talk to you and actually have a real conversation, when I don't even know what Parvati and Lavender are talking about half of the time." Even from where he was standing beside and slightly behind her, he could see the blush all the way down her neck at this point. He could admit that she wasn't the most beautiful girl in the school, because she was a little plain in comparison, but he truly felt she was gorgeous when she smiled. Feeling a little mischievous, he reached around, cupping her chin and face gently, and lifted her head, making her look into her eyes that were almost in tears._

"_See? Your eyes are doing that sparkly thing again," he told her gently, smiling. Then, he walked off to the side to start picking through shirts, raising his leg to check the colors to them against his pants, trying to look like what he had just done was an every day conversation, though Emma could tell he was flushing brightly at this point. Looking back at her daughter, she saw her look from Harry back to her reflection and smile, still blushing. Barely able to keep herself quiet, Emma squealed loudly in her mind for her daughter's lucky catch, even if she wasn't aware of it yet. She watched as Hermione took a few seconds to look at herself in the mirror again grinning shyly and helping him pick out a dark green shirt to try on._

Dan was silent a moment as he thought about what he'd heard his wife tell him before he responded. "Well, damn," he grumbled. "You mean he made her _happy_?" He sighed and groaned loudly. Emma simply smiled at her husband's antics, more than please with the boy so far. She reached over and kissed him soundly on the mouth, surprising him.

"You can grumble all you want, but I think he's a sweet boy for Hermione if it becomes serious."

_'Which I really think it will,'_ she thought giddily.

"Thank you, ever so much," he groused. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep properly now, so instead, I think I'll complain a little m-OOG!" He was quieted by Emma placing another kiss on him.

"You talk too much," she said huskily before sliding her hand up the middle of his pajama shirt, unclasping each button. It took him only a moment to realize what she had in mind before he forgot all about Harry.

xXxXxXx

"Alright everyone! I want you all to put your things away and then meet in the kitchen for lunch in an hour! After that, you'll get started on your homework!" Molly Weasley and her family had just entered their front lawn from their return portkey the next day and the woman was in full-dominance mode.

"Yes Mum," they all chorused together. The large crew marched upstairs and into their rooms, putting away dirty clothes, recently-bought knick knacks and mementos being placed on their shelves. Each was thrilled with their time away, but happy to be home after six weeks of being in another country. Sure, they had had a week and a half to get everything ready and themselves prepared, but nothing beat sleeping in your own bed.

Ron tossed his bags and clothes down at the foot of his bed, certainly not happy to put his things away or to take care of his dirty clothes. Instead, he pulled his school trunk out of his closet and sat down to write a letter to Harry and Hermione.

_Harry_

_Hey mate, how's it going? We just got back from Romania where we got to see Charlie and his job as a dragon handler! We'll see if you can come to the Burrow soon. I wanna tell you all about it! It was great! Even better than when we went to see Bill in Egypt! Mom and Dad decided we had enough money to visit both of them, so it was a wicked summer!_

_Mum's going to make us work on our homework for the summer after lunch, which really is stupid. We still have a whole month left! Nutters that._

_Ron_

Once he was done, he pulled out another parchment and scribbled a similar note to Hermione and sent them off with Errol. Meanwhile, Molly was in the kitchen making their lunch when she heard her name being called from the kitchen and went to check who had called.

"Oh! Albus. How are you?" The green face of Albus Dumbledore let out a relieved sigh as his fourth attempt at the floo found the Weasleys home.

"Excellent Molly, quite excellent," he said, not wanting anyone to know he'd lost Harry. "I wanted to be sure you arrived safely is all." Molly smiled at the man's thoughtfulness.

"Oh, we're quite good here, Albus. We arrived about fifteen minutes ago and everything is going quite well so-"

"FRED!" The voice of Ginny Weasley interrupted the Weasley matron before she could finish. "TAKE MY KNICKERS OFF OF YOUR HEAD AND GIVE THEM BACK!" Molly let out a frustrated sigh.

"THAT'S NOT FRED! I'M FRED!"

"Well, mostly well, at least," Molly sighed, deciding to ignore the sound of a twin being either punched in the stomach, or kicked in what she hoped was a shin. Albus chuckled, knowing he'd have heard from the woman if she or her brood had found Harry there.

"Very good. A word of warning, Molly. Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban nearly a week after you left. Be wary. He may learn of young Ronald's friendship with Harry." Molly looked stricken, but nodded.

"Thank you for the warning, Albus." Saying their goodbye's, Molly went back to her cooking with a new vigor while Albus began pacing his office. He had checked the Granger residence the day before, but the house was empty and nothing of Harry's appeared to be in any of the rooms and he was beginning to worry until Fawkes trilled merrily on his perch. With a new hope, Dumbledore walked over to the phoenix.

"Would you be willing to deliver a message for me, Fawkes?" With a happy trill, the old man rushed his desk to compose a quick letter, hoping not to let his desperation through on the parchment.

xXxXxXx


	5. Butterfly Effect

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter4** – Butterfly Effect

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language, Suggestive Themes

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry's Bond Part 1" by MioneFan (H/Hr - 2nd and 3rd out)

xXx** STORY **xXx

Hermione sat on the couch in her family's den, sitting across from her father who was reading a magazine on dentistry technology, which actually meant there was a comic book hidden within as one of his guilty pleasures, and keeping an eye on his daughter who had tried twice now to escape through the fiery floo of doom. Her right leg was resting on her left knee, shaking at a rapid pace that was keeping her book from being steady enough for her to even read.

"You sit there, keeping me from going over to Harry's and visiting his library and you've had that huge grin on your face ever since you woke up," she spoke, finally having enough of her father's oddities. "What's got you in such a good mood today?" Dan felt nervous for a moment, not wanting to even hint to his intelligent daughter what he and her mother had been up to the night before, thrice even.

"It's a good day, that's all," he said in a manner far too reminiscent of an aged headmaster she was familiar with for her comfort bubble.

"I still don't understand why you won't let me go over there yet. He _did_ say I could come over at any time," she huffed.

"Hermione, I don't think he expected you to get up at six-thirty and try to go over there in your pajamas," Dan said delicately. Hermione growled, _growled_ at him lightly in displeasure.

"I already changed and took a shower. It's already near noon!" Dan chuckled as Emma walked into the room, only just getting up after an exhausting night, and balked in surprise at seeing Hermione.

"Oh. Good morning Hermione, dear. I thought you would be at Harry's already." Hermione glared at her father anew and then spoke to her mother.

"For some reason, the grinning wonder here hasn't let me through yet." Emma laughed at Hermione and made a shooing motion with her hand and Hermione was up like a flash, only to disappear in a burst of green light. Curiously, she looked at Dan and asked the obvious question.

"Grinning wonder?" She asked her husband, noting that he was, indeed, grinning. Dan got up from his seat and enveloped his smiling wife in a hug.

"I haven't been able to get this grin off my face." To emphasize his point, he began nipping at her neck as she giggled.

"Let's go widen that grin," she pulled him with her towards the stairs.

_'JACKPOT!' _Dan picked up his wife and tossed her over his shoulder as she squealed in happiness and rushed towards the bedroom.

xXxXxXx

"Harry!" Hermione called out moments after having come through the large fireplace at Harry's home. A pop in front of her made her jump slightly as Dobby appeared before her and rocked back and forth on his heels in happiness to finally have a visitor to Potter Manor.

"Hello. I am Dobby, house elf to the great house of Potter. Master Harry is being outside for his morning workout and cannot be answering you." Hermione blinked at the little excited creature, not having previously met him. He had remained invisible when her family had visited for dinner and she hadn't seen him the year before. And to be honest, during the dinner, her interest had been in discovering what Harry had done, his home, his library even though her parents had forbidden her from seeing it that first night, and trying not to let things slip to her parents that she had been hiding in regards to the more realistic dangers she faced in the magical world that Harry wasn't aware not to talk about.

"Oh. Hello Dobby," she said, reaching down to shake the diminutive hand in front of her. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"Oh!" Dobby broke into happy tears. "Dobby knew Master Harry was a great wizard, but should have known Master Harry's Miss is being just as great as he is to shake Dobby's hand!" Hermione blinked rapidly, beginning to get a little worried. The little elf didn't seem to really understand the concept of personal space.

"Erm, Dobby? Could you take me to where Harry is, please?"

Dobby nodded fast enough to cause a quick fwapping sound with his ears as he walked her through a hall and a few rooms to the back of the house where she saw Harry in nothing but shorts doing a series of pull-ups from a tree off to the side where Dobby was pointing. Her eyes widened considerably when she saw his muscles flex and bulge as he went up and down. She cocked her head to the side as she watched him go through several repetitions with his eyes closed for the additional concentration it seemed to provide. She continued to watch him for nearly another minute more before he opened his eyes and saw her watching him. Blushing all the way down his neck, he let himself drop and smiled sheepishly.

"Er, hi," he said. Hermione blushed and decided her safest bet was to act like she hadn't just been staring at him like the last book in a library. Those nutrient and forced growth spurt potions seemed to have helped him build a truly admirable physique.

"Hello, Harry! Dobby said you were out here, so he showed me the way. Are you going to show me around?" Hermione asked, trying to appear normal. Harry smiled as he slid his hand through his hair, desperately wishing for a shirt.

"Actually, Dobby could do that while I take a quick shower if you don't mind?" She shook her head and Harry called Dobby to do just that while he cleaned himself up. "Meet you in about fifteen minutes." He ran up to his room and took a quick shower while Hermione got an explanation over the grounds from the hyper house elf.

"Potter Manor has eighty-five bedrooms, not including Master Harry's room where they all have full bathing rooms and the master suite is having an extra room for personal suiting needs that the Master of the house can be making anything he be wanting it for. Some is using it for 'play time', otherses is being using it for a nursery or mistress' room, and one is even using it for his collections of phonograph records. Charlus, Master Harry's father's father, used it for dried meats of the game he hunted. Dobby be liking the smell, but Master Harry Potter Sir wanted it all stored with the normal food with a selection in the pantry for snacking."

"There is also the Head's study and another study for public use. There is also being the library, potions lab, a hospital wing about three times as big as Hogwarts' own, a normal baby nursery, music and dancing rooms, game room with card and gobstone tables, pool, darts, and several other games, three sitting or receiving rooms, an astronomy dome atop the library that is also known as the 'Astrolab' according to a brass plaque and kitchens, of course, with storage rooms for everything Master Harry may be needing." Dobby said as they walked back inside. "There is also being plenty of hidey rooms, secret places and many storage places underground that I still am not finding. The pool is connected to a not-real hot spring, which Dobby is thinking is better than a sauna like Dobby's bad previous masters is having."

_'Hot spring, eh?'_ Hermione mused thoughtfully and with no small amount of interest. _'I'm about to become an excessively clean witch.'_

"There is also being eight smaller cottages used for extended family and guests around the river and pond and trees before you is getting to the three hundred acres of gardens and orchards, but the gardens is not being in great shape right now. They is having four to ten bedrooms, though, and no libraries, potion rooms, nurseries, game rooms or the like, but they do be having a study that is having bookshelves and a kitchen, and they is all being connected through tunnels under the ground."

"Why are they so far out?" Hermione asked. "Wouldn't it make more sense to keep them close?"

"According to the picture-wizard, when the house was being built, the Master at the time was not liking his Miss's parents and was wanting a way to keep them from visiting," Dobby said as if telling a dirty little secret, causing Hermione to giggle. "Old master Charlus Potter was not being liking his wife's family much, either, so was happy to have them and supposedly made a hit for his mother-in-law Violetta. Dobby isn't being finding that, though I did be finding a tiny little house with no door with her name on it that Dobby be seeing dogs sleep in like where you be living. But also, there was being more Potters then, so they is wanting to be close like house elves, but is not wanting to lose privacy." Curious, Hermione looked at Dobby.

"What do you mean 'close like house elves'?" She asked, intrigued. Dobby seemed surprised she wanted to know, but had no problems telling Master Harry's Miss about house elves.

"House elves is being very close, Miss. We is always wanting to be together with family but is not liking being alone. We sleeps together and eat together and spend time together when not doing our master's wishes," he said happily. "When a house elf is being doing a _naughty_ thing, we is being punishing them by making them be alone for a short time and they is being better after. Most times." Dobby frowned as he considered those elves who did not reform after their time alone and shuddered.

"Most of the time? What happens if they remain the same?" She asked, not sure she really wanted the answer. Dobby flinched.

"If a house elf is being still bad, then they is not being allowed to be with us any more and we use house elf judging on them," the little elf stated soberly. Deciding she _really_ didn't want to hear about what that may entail, as she was pretty certain, she changed the subject slightly.

"Harry mentioned you found a spot where the other elves lived. Did you ever find anything out about that?" She asked delicately, not sure if it would offend the excitable creature, especially after learning how close house elves seemed to be together. His ears drooped a little, but he shook his head.

"Dobby is not knowing what happened to the other Potter house elves. There is being no burial spots on the grounds and many of the things were taken away from the rooms." Hermione bit her lower lip as she went into deep-thinking-mode.

"Harry said he had more than one home but wasn't visiting them until later. Could they be at any of those? If there were things missing from here, then they may have taken them, wouldn't they?" Dobby's ears stuck straight up and his eyes widened as he thought about it. Potter Manor wasn't in very good shape when you consider the dust around it, but the only reason they would have been forced to leave would have been if they were supposed to protect themselves in some way by going to a particular residence instead of the primary Potter home.

"Oh! Yes, they could be doing that! House elves is losing our magic and dying when we are not bonded to a master and no house elf will allow themselves to belong to another when we is having a rightful master, so ownership would be going to Master Harry twelve years ago, but Master Harry would not be being old enough to accept it, so they would not be knowing they have a new master to be serving now!" Dobby was hopping up and down in excitement of thinking about it.

His master only had plans to stay at this residence for the summer, so Dobby had been spending his time cleaning it and taking care of Harry instead of going to each of the other houses since they would not be in use until the next summer at the earliest. And by agreeing to work for Harry with pay, instead of being bonded to him as a slave, even if that was what Dobby would have preferred, the other house elves would not have known of any changes in their bond to their master! Maybe he could use this as a way to get bonded like a proper elf? Dobby continued showing his master's Miss the rest of the manor with new enthusiasm as he made plans to be bonded properly to the great Harry Potter.

Several minutes later when they got to the Potter library, Hermione went googly-eyed. If Dobby hadn't known it was not possible in thanks to the girl's age, he would have thought she had teleported into the middle of the bookshelves. As it was, he watched as she moved with a speed and efficiency that nearly scared the little elf.

She was sitting at a table with an armful of ancient tomes, already reading happily when Harry walked in, his hair still damp. He stopped and stood amused as he watched her in what appeared to be her element; sitting in a peaceful quiet, absorbing knowledge and ... was she _cooing_ at the book in her hands?

Quietly, he snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her in a quick hug, making sure to keep his head from behind hers this time, and then looked at what she was reading. "Reading up on arithmancy, Hermione?" As soon as he said it, he realized he had forgotten to send his letter to McGonagall about changing his electives for the coming year.

"Well, I'm planning on taking the arithmancy course and thought this could give me a good start," she said defensively, causing Harry to squeeze her tightly for a moment before letting go and sitting next to her at the table in the plush chair. If Hogwarts' library had chairs like this, he felt sure it would get more recreational traffic.

"I know, don't worry. I'm actually going to owl McGonagall later to change my Divination elective to Arithmancy and Ancient Runes," he said to Hermione's surprise. "Divination is a subject that you either do or you don't, so there is no point in taking it except to get an easy grade, which I admit allowed Ron to influence my decision originally, and those are worthwhile subjects to take. I meant to send McGonagall a letter much earlier, but I guess I got sidetracked." Hermione beamed at Harry and hopped up and down in her seat.

"Oh! This is wonderful! I'll have someone to sit with in those classes and really," she waved her hand in a dismissive manner, "McGonagall said that Divination is a rather woolly subject anyway." Harry smiled at the vision of the future, or past in this case, that he would come to see. Maybe there actually _was_ something to Divination after all?

"You're still taking it, aren't you?" He asked, sounding almost accusing. Hermione blushed lightly and would not look him in the eye as she responded.

"Well, it's always good to know your subjects, really." Both chuckled before fire erupted in the air a few feet away from them and a scarlet and gold phoenix landed on the table. Hermione stared at the bird in shock while Harry frowned. Dumbledore using Fawkes meant he had probably caught on to what Harry had done. And there had been an odd tingling just before he showed up.

"Fawkes? What are you doing here?" As if to answer, he held out his leg and Harry saw a letter there. As he began to untie the piece of parchment, he continued to speak. "Do you mind waiting for a reply?" Fawkes trilled lightly as Harry finished and hopped over towards Hermione who was beginning to speak while studying the bird rather thoroughly.

"That's a phoenix! They are very rare! Where did it come from?"

Harry laughed as he unfurled the scroll and motioned towards Fawkes. "He's Dumbledore's companion. He helped me out with the basilisk last year and brought me the Sword of Gryffindor. Healed me when the bugger broke a fang on my arm, too, so he saved me. Go ahead and pet him. He's a shameless flirt." Fawkes trilled in agreement with Harry, almost prideful of the fact. As Hermione did just that, Harry read the note that was obviously written in Dumbledore's loopy scrawl.

_Dear Harry_

_I hope this finds you well. I was sitting in my office when a device I use to keep me alerted to a very powerful protection ward that I had set up around your home began failing. At this point, it will fail in a mere three days._

_This protection is only viable as long as you live with the Dursleys, Harry, and protects them and you from Voldemort and his followers by utilizing the blood protection your mother had given you as a child. You must spend time with them each year in order to recharge these wards. _

_I would like you to floo to Hogwarts and I can return you to the Dursleys'. If you go to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley, you can get some floo powder from Tom, the barman, and he will tell you how it works. Just say 'Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office' and you will return here. Or, you could simply go there yourself. Whichever works best for you, of course. I am aware that you may not want to return, Harry, but I ask that you trust me in this. Should those wards fail, then the Dursleys are at risk of being attacked by some of the darker elements in our world, of which they would have no protection from. I would hate for you to have such a horrible thing on your conscience._

_I also found that you emancipated yourself. I must warn you that the temptation to spend your parents' hard-earned money will be great, but you must endeavor to try and not go about spending such money on frivolous things._

_Fawkes will wait for a reply of whichever option you choose so I know whether I should expect you or if you shall be returning directly to your home._

_See you soon, _

_AD_

Harry frowned heavily and set the paper on the table while he thought about what he had read. The man's desperation was mildly amusing. Oh, sure he had not put in any words that would seem too much like he was begging or pleading, but that 'whichever works best for you' comment was not something he had really ever heard from the aged wizard. That he did so meant he had no idea where Harry was, which was as it should have been considering he only had himself, the Grangers, Sirius, Remus and people he knew would be friends later like Neville, Luna and Susan allowed for the time being keyed to the wards. So, if all worked properly as it seemed to be doing, he shouldn't be able to think up the address or even hear when it was mentioned unless uttered by Harry himself. And the shameless ploy at using the Dursleys' potential future harm to get him to return actually did quite the opposite.

He knew they didn't treat him well, but had decided long ago to let bygones be bygones since their opinions had never once been asked for. Nor did they ever get money from his account that was supposed to go to his guardian, despite being reset to nearly a hundred thousand pounds each year to ensure he had anything and everything needed to be raised as well as possible. But looking into the history of his accounts, no one had obtained that money and it had simply laid idle. So, he felt a clean break was done with and they were no longer going to be a part of his life and he would do nothing to or for them. That would be the extent of his revenge: doing as much for them as they did for him by not seeking out actual vengeance.

"What did Dumbledore send you?" Hermione asked. Harry handed Hermione the parchment and went over to a roll-top desk next to what was the beginnings of a card catalog his mother had begun, but never got around to finishing, where blank parchment was held along with all the necessary implements for writing, archiving and an old mechanical typewriter rested that his mother had apparently been using for her project. By the time he got back to the table, Hermione was looking at Harry worriedly and frowning.

"Fawkes, would you mind delivering a letter to McGonagall as well as the reply to Dumbledore?" The bird bobbed his head, indicating his acquiescence to the idea and Harry penned both letters quickly.

_Professor McGonagall,_

_I would like to change my electives for this coming year. I signed up for my core classes plus Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. I would like to drop Divination and instead take both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. _

_Two years out of two years, I have been forced to face Voldemort in spirit form along with a troll and a basilisk respectively with dementors most recently. To be honest, Divination is not going to be a subject that helps me should such a thing come to pass again and I am ashamed to admit I was lured in by the promise of an easy grade. I was forced into knowing absolutely nothing about my past, about my family, about magic or even about who I am and was expected to survive these encounters thanks to Dumbledore and his apparent inability to keep dangerous things out of the school (that's a rather large nest of carnivorous spiders next to a castle filled with children in the dark forest.) I know you wanted to help me back then and weren't able, but this is within your power to help me for the future now._

_I've looked into Muggle Studies and found it to be a joke. The information is either wrong or outdated by roughly a hundred years or more. I know more than enough about the muggle world (though I must ask why, since there are more students from muggle homes, there isn't a class for introducing these students to the magical world and communities. It would help us learn to deal with those in power, who have a strong tendency towards bigotry and tradition.) However, a three-year old generally has a better understanding of the muggle world than what the books actually state. I adore Arthur Weasley, but the one man who NEEDS to know things about the muggle world doesn't understand the barest basics of it, which gives me little hope for that class._

_Divination is a subject where you either have the gift or you do not and, from what I hear, the teacher predicts a student's death quite often. As I'm likely to be a prime target (and with my history in Hogwarts, I cannot be sure she wouldn't be too far from the truth,) I don't want to take the class now that I have had an opportunity to learn a bit more about it._

_Those are the only reasons I don't plan to ask to take those as well (along with scheduling issues, of course, though I feel I could take Muggle Studies NEWTS right now and pass without a problem.) I will need to be as ready as I can if something happens again and Divination will not do that. _

_Thank you for taking the time to read this and I apologize for the inconvenience not having made the right decision to begin with is now causing you. I will see you September first._

_Harry Potter_

Once finished with that, he set it to the side, motioning for Hermione to take it when she indicated the desire to, and began Dumbledore's letter while she read.

_Headmaster_

_I thank you for being concerned about me. But your concern is really unnecessary at this point, now. Being emancipated allowed me, just as you stated, access to my full inheritance. Because of this, I have more than enough money to support myself and I am in a very safe location. _

_You have told me about these wards that were around the Dursley residence before. Just after first year when I asked if there was any way that I could leave them and you told me that there was not. I have failed to see what those wards protected me from, to be perfectly honest with you. I have been abused in that home and it was hell for me. You lied to me when you told me there was no way to leave them and you ignored my pleas for help. I was not protected from the Dursleys themselves, Headmaster, and so far, I've been safer when facing down trolls and basilisks than I was with them. I had a fighting chance against the things you didn't force me to stay with._

_I will never be going back to them, Headmaster. I am both safe and content where I currently am. Being emancipated, I am immune from the underage use of magic restriction and as such, can not get in trouble if I find myself forced to protect myself, so long as I be sure to follow the statute of secrecy restrictions. When I left, I decided to make a clean break and will never have anything more to do with them. I will not seek them out to form bonds none of us want, nor will I do so to protect them. Conversely, I have no intention of seeking them out in revenge, either. I think that makes us even._

_Let's face it. In two years since coming into the wizarding world and under your so-called 'protection', I have been forced to face Voldemort twice. Once each year. While you could say it is all the more reason to worry about the protections, you have specifically said that they were wards around the Dursley home and those only protect the location, not me when I leave. I've looked into those things. I freely admit there could be more to it than I am aware, but I'm willing to take my chances. These wards have not protected me in any way I could see or observe save for MAYBE with Quirrell at the end of first year, but that could have as easily been accidental magic, or something else entirely._

_I will always accept your advice, but decisions about my life are mine to make._

_Harry Potter_

As he finished, he handed the letter to Hermione, knowing she would want to know what it said as well and, to be honest, he was hoping to use these as additional ways to get her off her dependency of authority figures. He waited a few moments while she read and then looked at him with a somewhat distressed expression.

"Harry, I know you said not to ask and that you would tell me when you were ready, but I have to at least try. Are you sure you are doing the right thing?" Hermione winced when Harry leveled narrowed eyes at her. He had never actually glared at her before and she realized it kind of scared her. She was used to Ron glaring and saying mean things to and about her, but Harry never had aside from shirking his homework duty. Thankfully, the look only lasted a second before his expression softened and he sighed.

"Hermione, the Dursleys starved me, beat me, allowed my aunt Marge's dogs to bite and maul me and chase me up trees as they laughed or got angry with me when I bled on their flowers. Dudley and his friends would play a game where they would chase me down and then hit me and I was forced to do all of the chores save for a few in the kitchen that Petunia said was hers to do. Aside from that, I lived in the cupboard under the stairs until last summer when they were worried I could do magic and they gave me Dudley's second bedroom and I didn't know my real name until I started school and the teacher told me." Harry looked at Hermione and noticed her pale and shocked face, but continued anyway.

"Tell me, if there is all of that, which was a constant, and I don't even have _one_ happy memory with them except times when I could escape them, _why_ would I want to go back to them?" Hermione swallowed thickly before reaching over and giving him a bone-popping hug.

"Why didn't you ever say something," she sobbed. "I may have been able to get my parents to let you come over for whatever summer the Weasleys couldn't, and they were always willing to have you too." Harry hugged her back before releasing her and sitting her in her chair.

"I was ashamed of it, to be honest. I didn't want to deal with it any more than I needed to and, since Dumbledore was the only person I knew that could actually help and he said I had to go back there, I didn't really feel like there was anything I could do, so I didn't bother," he said with a shrug. "It didn't occur to me that Dumbledore is my headmaster. Nothing more. He doesn't have the right to say where I live and he knowingly went against my parents' will to actually put me with the Dursleys, so he went against the law, which he is supposed to head, and I decided that there's nothing to do with him that I don't want there to be. And he had a person living near by to give him reports on my supposed well-being, so he knew everything I went through. That's why I'm not going to really be as quick to follow his orders." He quickly tied Dumbledore's note to Fawkes' leg and then put McGonagall's in Fawkes' beak while Hermione's mind began a debate with itself that would last for some time.

"Please deliver McGonagall's first and I'll see what I can do about bringing some plums after the first for you." Fawkes trilled happily and shot up before disappearing in a burst of flame. Once gone, Harry turned to Hermione and smiled. "How would you like to help me open a box?"

xXxXxXx

Minerva McGonagall was finishing up the letters that would be going out this summer to the students when a burst of flame erupted over her desk. Several years of working with Albus Dumbledore had numbed her to the surprise his companion used to evoke in her. However, when the finicky buzzard simply dropped off a letter and then disappeared into flames again, her curiousity was aroused and she picked it up.

After reading, she had a confused smile on her face. Harry's letter gave her mixed signals. Parts of it mocked the school and its educational material, though she felt she had to agree, particularly with the idea for an introduction to the wizarding world that could do more than a staff member meeting with muggleborn children for an hour or two, and part of it made some extremely good points about his education.

"Well, Mister Potter," she said, making the necessary notes to go to the right people, "let's see if Miss Granger can make a respectable scholar out of you, shall we?" She smiled to herself, somewhat curious about what Hermione had done to manage to get Harry to take the harder courses.

"I think I need to get with the Weasley twins. I need to place my bet before it's too late." Smirking, she wrote a letter to the two and sent it out with a school owl while Dumbledore was reading the letter that Harry had sent to him.

As he got to the end of Harry's letter, he was able to recognize that the only way he could get Harry back to the Dursleys would be to break his emancipation and that would simply take too long. Harry failed to even mention his true concerns towards the Dursleys. The boy seemed to be harboring a hatred for them now, and that hatred could lead to far worse. Sighing, Dumbledore sat in his chair behind his desk and thought of the options available to him. There weren't many.

xXxXxXx

"So, what's in this box is going to make you stronger?" Hermione watched as Harry sat the stone box he just got from Dobby on the table and looked at it critically. It didn't seem like there was any way to open it.

"No," Harry said, pointing a finger in a frighteningly close version to McGonagall during one of her lectures. "Dumbledore placed a power-limiting seal on me when he put me with the Dursleys because he knew that they hated magic and, when I was able to do magic after arriving, thought that I had already broken through it, but I hadn't." He pointed at the box and then looked at Hermione again.

"What is inside are two bracelets that will change the power-limiting seal into one that I can control so that I can choose how much power I have and don't have access to at any given moment." Hermione nearly argued about Harry's statement about Dumbledore and his magic being bound, but could see it as a strong possibility.

The day before while they were talking away from her mother who had been admiring the grounds during a tour of his home, he had put all of the odd circumstances of their first and second year in a new light from how she had originally thought them over. The first year's challenges before facing Voldemort seemed hard at the time, but after looking back, not a single one of those should have stopped a dark wizard. And Lockhart alone was bad enough last year. But add into account that Dumbledore did absolutely nothing to stop the rumors of Harry being the Heir of Slytherin and not being aware that a very large, bus-like snake was making its way through the halls of the school and it raised serious questions. Admittedly, it was all conjecture, but it made far more sense than seeing them as honestly difficult challenges. How had Quirrell managed to make it past the chess set without defeating it first? All of the pieces had been whole. While normal for the game, they had still been destroyed when she returned with backup for Harry.

"Where did you get these from?" She asked, deciding to ignore her previous thoughts for now. Harry frowned before answering slowly.

"A friend gave them to me. I can't tell you more than that until we've had a chance to practice our occlumency against each other. What I know can't be told to anyone I don't trust fully and, quite frankly, I know that Snape and Dumbledore both scan the students with legilimency regularly, so I am not too fond of the idea of letting them risk finding it out yet. I just don't trust them enough." Hermione frowned and looked at Harry instead of the box.

"Harry, Professor Snape-"

"Hermione," Harry said forcefully. "I ... _know_ things. Things that I can't explain yet." Harry looked away from Hermione, not wanting to see the look of hurt on her face.

"You know you can trust me with this, right? I would never betray you," she told him quietly. Harry smiled at her and scooted his chair closer to hug her tightly. He knew her far better than to think she would ever do that to him. They had been through too much and, even though _this_ Hermione had not yet been through all of those same things, she was still the same woman he had come to know.

"I know you wouldn't," he said into her ear, still hugging her. "But I have to be extremely careful with this knowledge. I plan to tell you everything I can once I'm sure that our minds can't be broken into and our secrets taken. This isn't just my choice. I am under restrictions and you are currently the only person, aside from maybe Dobby, that I would trust with all of my secrets."

Hermione had allowed herself to be drawn into the hug with Harry because she wanted to feel comforted when she thought he felt she wasn't able to be trusted, and she rather enjoyed the contact, but he had totally blown that out of the water with his sweet comments. And the boy was almost never affectionate. At least not physically. Until that hug in the Great Hall after she was unpetrified, he shied away from contact except for small things like holding hands or a hand on the shoulder. It was the first time he wasn't as stiff as a board during a hug, and now he was initiating them, just like right after getting off the train after arriving in King's Cross. But some of what he said worried her.

"What kind of restrictions?" She asked, staying in his hug and hugging him back. "Is someone making you do something you don't want to do?" As her thoughts followed that trail of possibilities, especially with her inner doubts over the summer with his cloak-and-dagger letters, she pulled back to look into his smiling face.

"Not really, but they are restricting how much I can tell, but they have a very good reason and I agree with it." Hermione frowned, still unsure. "Regardless, grab an end of this thing and pull so we can open it up, alright?"

Curious, she did as asked and the stone box pulled apart slowly, Harry getting an end with the four long corners and Hermione getting the other end with each of the four sides on hers.

Once pulled apart, two stone bracelets levitated in the air the box had been occupying between them. They looked like they had a gold sheet of metal inside that went against the wearer's skin and covered in runes while the rest was a somewhat lighter shade of gray than the box it was in. The entire outside was smooth as a river stone would be, but on both was a large rectangle created of three lines of very small runes. They were both about three inches wide and about as plain as could be other than that.

"That's it?" Hermione looked at them in confusion. Aside from floating on their own, there wasn't really anything remarkable about them. Harry simply shrugged.

"I suppose so. I'm going to go outside and put them on. You can watch, but I need you to stay inside and-"

"What? Why?" Hermione couldn't help but feel like she was being left out of pretty much everything that Harry had to do recently and was certainly not fond of the idea. Especially when she didn't know the source of these bracelets and was already worried for Harry's well-being. Harry, unaware of the full nature of her worry, grabbed the bracelets and looked at Hermione, noticing how she felt.

"I've done my homework with these, actually. I would like you there with me, but there is going to be a massive burst of magic where these destroy the power-limiting seal and then rebind my magic. But before it's rebound, it will be wild. The house has protections on it," he said, gesturing around the room, "but you won't be safe out there. I don't know how bad it will be. I've never had to control that much of my magic at once." Hermione looked between Harry and the bracelets several times quickly before finally relenting.

"Are you sure you can trust whoever gave those to you?" She asked, showing her well-founded concern. Harry nodded.

"Very much so. She's already proven that she wants to help me." Hermione watched Harry walk away as she tried to figure out the feeling of anger she got when she realized some other _girl_ was helping Harry. It didn't take her long to realize, with some amount of shock, she was jealous.

_'Bloody hell! The boy flirts with me a little bit and I already get territorial!'_ She followed him through the halls silently until she got to the glass doors and watched him walk a small distance into the yard. _'If this is any indication of what I am going to be facing this year, I am so screwed.'_

She watched as Dobby popped into existence next to Harry and speak with him momentarily before disappearing, only to pop into existence next to her. She only spared him a glance as she noticed Harry was beginning to put the bracelets on. Once on, he seemed to look at them without knowing what to do before they pulsed a brilliant blue light and then he threw his head back and let out a silent scream.

xXxXxXx

Across the country, back in Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore felt a wave of magic hit him that he recognized as Harry's unique signature. Fawkes, who had been sitting on his perch sleeping awoke with a start and began flapping his wings wildly and squawked in surprise and righteous indignation of his senses being overwhelmed. The multitude of baubles and meters scattered about Dumbledore's office began to emit random results before the wave disappeared several seconds after it began.

"Merciful Merlin!" He rushed into a hidden room behind a swing-away bookshelf and checked the wards around the school, finding them to be stronger than he had ever seen them and the school itself humming with power through his link with it. Shocked and confused, he left the room and sat in his chair once again, noticing Fawkes was now gone once again. He had only a few moments to ponder quietly before his door was thrust open and Minerva was standing there, obviously out of breath and her hair severely mussed.

"Albus! Did you feel that? That was Harry's magic! I would know it anywhere!" He motioned to the chair in front of his desk, which she gratefully accepted.

"I did, and it was. Alas, I have absolutely no idea as to what happened." He popped a lemon drop into his mouth, only to notice the calming drought each was laced with seemed to no longer be active. He would have to see about that later.

"Albus, how could we have felt that from here? It's rare for a witch or wizard to produce a physical aura of power strong enough to be felt from even a hundred yards, and I am quite sure he is much further away than that!" McGonagall was really quite terrified for her lion. A release of that kind of power would normally result in self-destruction, and even then, she would have had to have been close to have felt it, but she knew he was nowhere on the grounds at the very least, and that was easily far enough away so that she shouldn't have felt such power. There were some things that would make a person's magic radiate out like a ping or a brief burst, but it was just that: brief! That wave had lasted easily fifteen seconds.

"I know, Minerva," Albus sighed. "I just sent young Harry a letter with Fawkes asking him to come to me here, or return to the Dursleys and a few minutes later," he trailed off, gesturing around to indicate the wave of power.

"That would explain why Fawkes delivered Harry's letter to me rather than Hedwig. I was rather curious about that. What about the wards of the school? A wave of that magnitude surely weakened them severely," McGonagall suggested. Albus shook his head.

"Quite the opposite, actually. I just checked them and they are stronger now than they have ever been since I have been able to gauge them," Dumbledore said, his voice showing his astonishment. Minerva looked absolutely flabbergasted.

"How is that possible! Wards don't work that way! Any attack on them should have weakened them, that wave of magic especially!"

Albus shook his head again, feeling lost himself. "I do not know, Minerva. Only the magic of the creator of the wards or one entrusted with their maintenance should be able to do such a thing, and even I have never had enough power to strengthen the wards to such a degree. I believe they are as strong, if not stronger, than at the time of their creation." Minerva shook her head along with Dumbledore, unsure of what this all meant.

"I feel we should send a letter to make sure he is okay." Without waiting for a response, she pilfered one of his blank parchments and his favorite quill to begin a note for Harry. "Fawkes! Get your feathered butt back here!" Albus flinched at his Deputy Headmistress' protective instinct coming out. The flinch made him look behind her and he noticed an empty case.

_'Where's Godric's sword?'_

Meanwhile, in the Burrow, the entirety of the Weasley clan was at their table, some eating more like a starving man than others, when they felt the burst of energy rush through their home. Each one stopped eating and looked about, able to feel the magic course through them.

"What in the world is that!" Molly looked about as if looking for the source of the disturbance somewhere in the kitchen.

"I don't know," Arthur told her. "Whatever it was, it doesn't seem to be causing any trouble. Perhaps we'll find out in the Daily Prophet tomorrow." The Weasleys went back to their meal, though Fred and George both thought the wave of whatever it was, seemed to be familiar.

Across wizarding Britain, witches, wizards and the multitude of magical creatures were able to feel the wave of raw power for several long moments before it eventually died down. The only real difference being that those who were capable of deep and intelligent thought would later recognize it when they came across its source later.

xXxXxXx

"Let me out! I have to help him!" Hermione was pulling and jerking on the handle of the door while screaming simultaneously at Dobby, who looked as terrified as she did. The difference, however, was that he was given orders to stay here and keep his master's Miss inside until the wave was done.

"Dobby is being sorry, Miss, but Master Harry is saying that Dobby is to keep you inside until-" He was cut off by the aura of magic suddenly stopping and Harry fell to the ground. Immediately, he popped to Harry and Hermione rushed out of the door to Harry who was shaking his head.

"Harry!" Hermione launched herself onto him and grabbed him in a strong hug before pulling back and checking him over for damage. "Are you okay? Why did you make Dobby lock me in the house! You could have been killed!" Harry chuckled and pulled her down into a hug and squeezed hard to get her to stop talking and because he was half worried he had been about to wake up in Lora's office again.

"I'm fine. It didn't hurt, but I could feel all of my magic trying to escape. It took almost everything I had to keep it from lashing out." He groaned as Hermione helped him up. "It is going to take a _long_ time to learn to control all of that." He stretched his back and popped his neck. He told her it had not actually hurt, but that was more for her benefit. It had actually felt like he was about to burst or blow up and felt rather stiff.

He looked at the bracelet on his left write and saw that the rectangle now had a display of information. On the upper left corner was a number two while the right half had an arrow pointing up. The one on his right wrist had a blank face, still.

"Harry, what's that?" Hermione asked, indicating a black stick-like thing on his left side. Spinning him over, she saw it was a scabbard. Harry blinked in surprise and pulled out the sword, noticing the familiar blade of the Sword of Gryffindor. "How on earth did that get on you?"

"I dunno. Maybe it has something to do with being a blood heir of Gryffindor or something," he shrugged. "It's never happened before, so I'm not sure." He wasn't kidding, either. It had never just appeared like that before. Even in his previous lifetime.

"It was called by your magic, Master Harry," Dobby said beside him as they walked into the mansion. "You is being the heir of Gryffindor so the sword will be answering your call." Both Hermione and Harry stared at the bouncy creature as he pulled them towards the house. Once they entered, they found Errol and a shaken-looking Fawkes.

"Looks like you've got more letters," Hermione pointed out. Harry chuckled and snagged the letters. Ron's was about as minimalistic and simple as they got. They were back and he was looking forward to the school year. McGonagall's was more informative.

_Mister Potter,_

_First, let me congratulate you on your academic changes. I have made the necessary alterations. Make sure you try to stay on top of things._

_Another reason I am writing this is because I want to make sure you are doing well and to ask if anything odd has happened with you recently._

_M. McGonagall_

Harry frowned and decided to send a thank you note for the changes and to assure her he was fine.

_Hey Harry_

_We just got back from Egypt. It was great. We got to see all sorts of tombs and pyramids and things. I didn't really care about all the stuff Bill said about them, though. I was hoping to find one that they didn't yet and score some treasure, but Bill said that it would still belong to the curse breakers and stuff._

_I got you a foe glass and Hermione a book. I made sure it doesn't have pictures, so she should like it. There wasn't a lot to do. So I'm glad to be home. Nothing like sleeping in your own bed at your own home._

_Ron_

Harry shook his head at Ron's letter. It was identical to the one he remembered getting from his past. Or at least as much as he could remember it actually saying. It was quintessentially Ron. Short, to the point and just about meaningless. But it was the thought that counted.

_Hey Ron,_

_Glad to hear that you are back and about. I'm looking forward to hearing about Egypt._

_There have been a bunch of changes on my side. I will tell you more when we meet up. I'll be going to The Leaky Cauldron for the last week of break and we can meet up there some time and catch up. I have a lot to talk to you about. _

_Tell your family I said hi,_

_Harry_

Ron put Harry's note on the table and ran outside to play Quidditch with the twins. He would see and speak with Harry in a couple of weeks, so he didn't bother with another letter to him. If he needed anything, he could always send Hedwig.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – August 30, 07:00 – The Leaky Cauldron**

A week later found Harry waking up in his room at the Leaky Cauldron for his first day staying in Diagon Alley. Hermione would be showing up later that day with Ron showing up the next day with most of Hogwarts for their supplies, before they all left for the Hogwarts Express in the three days after. He had also elected to stay at the Leaky Cauldron partially out of nostalgia, but also so it would be easier to meet up with the Weasleys without as much risk of Ron's jealousy cropping up.

By this point, he was finally off of the potion to induce his growth spurt, but was going to be forced into taking the nutrient potions for the remaining three weeks left that the growth spurt itself would last. Harry was extremely thankful to be off the potions as his lower back had been causing him untold amounts of grief with the stretching the muscles had to do. He would have to go on one again the next summer to fully make up for a decade of poor growth, but for now, he was done.

Harry had added another few inches to his height, giving him a full foot from when he left Hogwarts the year previous bringing him to a full five feet and eight inches and, while he was still lanky, his body had matured and filled out in an admirable manner thanks to the potions he had been taking to do just that and the copious amount of exercise he had been doing. While he certainly looked fit before, he was now in better shape than even before he was tossed back in time, which he hoped would give him a large advantage for the things to come. He was actually taller now than he was before his was thrown back in time by three inches. He was really very happy that he wouldn't be as tall as the average thirteen-year old when he was an adult.

Harry had met Sirius just like he remembered having done in the previous time line four days before. The only difference was that he had decided not to take his trunk with him and he smiled at the man-turned-dog instead of acting terrified of him and Harry had made sure to leave a large order of take-out where he had shifted from to go back to his room at the Cauldron and slept, knowing they would be meeting again soon enough. Harry had wanted to do more, but didn't want to change too much with Sirius. While it was bad that he came to Hogwarts for Peter Pettigrew, who was still hiding out as Ron's rat Scabbers, it would offer the best way to free him as well. Harry was hoping he didn't tip the rat off too soon, though. He had wanted the man dead for too long to just act like nothing was wrong when around him.

Finishing his morning ablutions and eating a quick breakfast in the main area of the Leaky Cauldron, Harry hurried out and into Diagon Alley to pick up some things for the coming year and to get some things he had been planning on getting for most of the summer.

Harry walked into the trunk shop and looked around for several minutes to see what kind of trunks were available. As he made his way around, he saw a small book that showed their options and, finding what he needed, he rung the little bell on the counter to bring an old and heavily wrinkled man to the register.

"I'm John, owner of this little trunk shop. How may I help you?" He eyed Harry up and down, curious about why the boy would be in the shop before the usual Hogwarts rush of students and parents.

"I'd like to order some specialized trunks," Harry said happily. The shopkeeper frowned.

"What kind of trunks are you looking for?"

"I have a friend who collects a rather large number of books and I want to give her a trunk like the one over there," he said, pointing at the apartment trunks, "so that she can have a large library room for all of her books. I'd also like it to be able to accommodate several people inside so that there can be a sitting room inside the library room."

"We don't offer furniture, boy. You'll have to buy that separate," John grunted. Harry nodded, showing that was okay.

"Not a problem. I also want another room to be open for a potions lab, three bedrooms, a kitchen, a loo, a standard living space, a storage room and then also one compartment that is just like a normal Hogwarts school trunk that can be opened from outside. I would also like every safety spell and charm you can think of to put on it and the strongest security charms as well." The old man behind the counter whistled. He knew who Harry was, but that didn't mean he was like the hundreds of others that were starstruck over the boy, so he knew Harry could afford it. Still, that was a large order to fill.

"That's some order you've got there. Any particular reason you want all of these things? The Ministry frowns on offering these kinds of things to minors, especially with the intent of muggleborn having them in their homes. I know you've got the gold for it, but ...," Harry waved the issue aside as the man trailed off, obviously unsure how to continue.

"I'm emancipated, sir. So there should be nothing legally holding you back. I'm getting this for a friend because, like I said, she loves books. But, she has muggles over often and she's running out of room for her books where they can all remain hidden. Also, she's quite good at potions, but she can't have a cauldron sitting around where just anyone could see it when they are at her home. The rest is because she likes to go on holiday with her family and this will allow her to remain comfortable at any time." John, the old man behind the counter nodded. He had to be sure none of the plans were illegal and, while anyone can certainly lie about why they wanted the trunk like that, Harry had eased his discomfort at the prospect.

"Well, that is a lot of work. I've got to do stabilizing charms so none of the stuff inside gets bounced about when the trunk is moved, ventilation and banishment charms for the fumes in the potions room, anti-theft, anti-fire, feather-light and unbreakable charms and a whole mess of others." He raised his hands up and shrugged. "I'm afraid I can't have this done for several hours at least. But certainly by the end of the day." Harry nodded.

"Time isn't much of a problem. This is for Christmas, so there is plenty of time," Harry said.

"Alright then. Now, we've recently developed a way to have the rooms for apartment trunks, or any trunk you enter actually, where you just go from compartment to compartment as if each was a room with a doorway like normal. It's a bit more pricey by five whole galleons because it's a highly advanced series of charms and rune work, but it keeps you from having to get out of the trunk to go back in, no matter the number of compartments the trunk is to have. It's the same that we do as when you open the trunk from the outside, but we use runes so it works from within what already exists inside the trunk. Would you like that feature?" Harry's eyes widened.

"Most certainly! But, can this be done with different trunks? Not just a single one? I plan to get a trunk similar to this one for myself as well and it would be nice to be able to visit each other like that where we can travel between the trunks." John thought for a moment. The possibilities were tremendous if he could!

"To be honest, I've never tried it. It's never come up before and I had never thought of using it like that before. I hadn't thought of using it like that in a way for a new form of wizarding travel," he nodded before finishing, "and to be honest, I have to have both compartments close enough to point my wand at, so it wouldn't have worked for that, but I never thought of putting it on two trunks. I don't see any reason it won't work, though. Distance in general don't matter to this charm since they work with spacial expansion anyway," he continued a few moments talking more to himself than Harry if his technical jargon he was beginning to spout off was any indication. As far as Harry could tell, the man was either one of those crazy types of geniuses, or just crazy.

"So you think it would work?" Harry asked carefully, looking forward to the possibilities. John nodded emphatically.

"I do, actually. And since you gave me the idea, I'll only charge you once for doing it to both trunks." Harry smiled and nodded.

"Deal! But one thing," he asked. "If you can do it to whatever you can point to, could you maybe make two doorways and just charm those instead of trunks? That would work for your wizarding travel thing, wouldn't it?" John's eyes widened as the man coughed in surprise. It was so simple! Why hadn't he thought of it before!

Had Hermione been there, she would have rolled her eyes at the lack of common sense in magicals once again rearing its ugly head. But that would have ruined the surprise.

"If it works on your trunks, there wouldn't be any reason it wouldn't work like that! I never thought of using simple doorways that can _then _be installed wherever you want 'em!" Harry laughed at the old man's obvious enthusiasm, silently deciding it was just crazy, not crazy genius.

"Well, I tell you what. If you can figure out a way to do that, the doorway method I mean, and get it to work for only specific people so that not just anyone can go from the one I'd put at her house to my own, then I'll pay you a hundred galleons for each doorway." John's coughing started anew as the amount started coming to mind. That was the equivalent of ten-thousand pounds for each doorway!

"I say that because I may want more than just two where I can connect them all together, so if you can add a feature where new doorways can be added to pre-existing ones, I'll pay you a thousand galleons for the idea and even fund you as a secondary business so that you can keep your trunk shop as well. But I would _need _to have that feature for the doorways to work for my needs." Harry was just as pleased as John. If the doorways alone worked, then he could give some to the Weasleys, Grangers, Bones, Lovegoods and all the other families that were attacked after Voldemort came back to power in the previous time line. Especially to those who weren't allowed to fight back either because of the age restrictions or lack of magical ability in the case of many of the parents. Until then, however, it would be a safe route of escape for those he knew he could trust with entrance to his home, which was basically the families he had thought of by name. He still wasn't sure what he could do about Molly and Ginny, but felt he could keep out of it by admitting feelings for her as nothing but a sister, publicly, and romantic feelings for Hermione.

"M-Mr Potter! I am sure I can do that and I would gladly accept the funding!" Harry nodded happily.

"Very well. Then if you can figure that out, let me know and I will allow my account's manager at Gringotts know what you have to work with you." John nodded happily while they determined what Harry would be getting.

"Okay," John began several minutes later, looking over their notes. "You want two trunks. One with a very large library room that is large enough for roughly ten thousand books comfortably and table and chairs for up to ten people along with a reading nook so you can put in a false window later, and both trunks are to have a large living area, three good-sized bedrooms, large kitchen with storage space for food for a substantial amount of time, potions lab, storage room about the size of my building, dueling room, loo's in each bedroom and one for general use and a standard Hogwarts compartment that can be opened from outside to appear normal." Harry nodded.

He could tell John was a bit suspicious of the number of books, but when they were running around during what would have been his seventh year, Hermione had wanted to haul around every book they could safely carry and this would allow that, and comfortably at that. Plus, while he no longer needed a trunk like this since he wasn't staying with the Dursleys any longer, he was considering using it as a safe house for things he couldn't leave for anyone else finding, such as his work on the horcruxes. Not to mention, he wanted a place where he could get information from Death Eaters since the Order of the Phoenix had been worthless in his eyes the last time through.

"Alright. Then you want the new transportation doorways I mentioned and every safety and security charm I can possibly add. Also, you'll be wanting the feather-light charm and auto-sizing feature since your friend can't use magic outside of school yet ... Have I missed anything?" Harry frowned in thought before shaking his head.

"Just a muggle repelling ward for anyone not made away of it and that should be everything."

"Alright. Then for both trunks, rooms, charms and everything combined, it will come to one hundred and twenty-three galleons, fourteen sickles and two knuts," John explained, mentally shaking his head at the young boy who was spending as much as some magicals spent on their homes. Which made sense when you considered he was basically buying two homes in compact size. Harry handed the shocked clerk his Gringotts card and told him to add an additional ten galleons for his help. Smiling, John rushed to the door and turned the sign to closed.

"I'll be working on these all day, sir. You should be able to come by any time after noon tomorrow and pick them up. Is that agreeable?" Harry nodded. "Excellent. Then I will need two drops of your blood to set the security wards as I make the trunks. After that, you will be the only one able to add people to the trunks at any point."

"What about my friend's trunk?" Harry asked curiously. John held up a finger as he replied with a proud smile.

"You will either need to bring me a drop of your friend's blood some time in the next," he paused as he thought, "four or so hours so I can have it by the time I start on the second trunk as I'll be doing yours first, or allow yourself on it and then add her later. I'll have the directions written down for you regardless. That was what I planned to do and why I asked for two drops of blood instead of just one since you said it was meant to be a gift. My charms are some of the strongest around, legal blood magic that is actually a derivative of the work you'll find at Gringotts." Harry nodded.

"Alright, I'll just add her later. It would be a little hard to get her blood without telling her why first," he said. He was also thinking about how he didn't want anyone to have her blood when he was aware of what could be done with it, even if it was only being asked for to complete something he wanted. Besides, it was always good to have another person capable to open the trunk anyway.

"Very good then. Do you have any other business to complete with me today?" Harry shook his head and the two parted ways as Harry made his way towards a furniture shop to look at what was available to outfit Hermione's trunk with since they would be done with the next day and able to be filled. However, about halfway to the shop, he was tackled to the ground.

"Ack!" Harry rolled over and moved a little bushy brown hair over so he could look at Hermione's impish grin. "Hello to you too." Harry said with a happy smirk. Hermione smiled and helped him up as her parents walked up to them laughing.

"Now _that_ was funny!" Dan was still laughing when his wife whacked him on the shoulder and Hermione wrapped Harry in a proper hug now that he was up.

"Good morning Harry," Emma said apologetically. "Hermione couldn't sit still at home so we decided to come a little earlier. And as Hermione was so eager to point out, the owls should be able to find her here so that she will be close to get her things." Harry grinned at them all as he hugged Hermione back and released her. He was happy to note that she only let him go after he did first.

_'Ha! Progress!'_ He thought with a mental cry of triumph. He found he was looking forward to the day he could call her 'girlfriend'.

"Don't worry about it, Missus Granger. I just got done with the only thing I had to do today that I wanted to keep secret anyway," he said, eying Hermione from the corner of his vision as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"And just what did you need to keep secret, Mister Potter!" She mock glared at him and latched onto his arm as if daring him to try and escape. Harry simply burst out laughing and grinned down at her.

"Christmas for the most brilliant witch I know!" Whatever Hermione had expected, which was really anything when it came to Harry at this point, that was certainly far down on her list. Her face slackened and she blushed lightly as she realized she had been coming on a little strong again, even if it was only meant to be a joke.

"Oh." She said, surprised. Harry laughed and pulled her towards the book store, deciding to hold off on furniture for now so that it could be something he could try to get her to let him help her with later. Part of him was a little unsure about setting up all of the different situations to spend time with her. It was a little like he was playing with her emotions. But he had decided that, as long as he held no plans to hurt her and he wasn't just leading her on, that it would not be a problem as long as she was agreeable to it.

That ... and if they were together by next summer, which was the most likely time they could get furnishings for the trunk, maybe he could get reward kisses!

It was a very widely-grinning Harry that held the door open for the Grangers.

xXxXxXx

Dobby popped into the living room of the Potter home at Godric's Hollow and looked about. He could see where things had been taken from the home, probably by Dumbledore, and scorch marks along the walls that were faded with age. Dust and leaves were everywhere in the little cottage upstairs from a large hole that was in the nursery and let in through the obliterated doorway. He could feel charms and wards put up to keep bugs, rain and animals from coming inside.

Recognizing that there would be no house elves there with the amount of unfixed damage and dirt everywhere, he was about to pop away to the next location when he saw the crib in the corner. Curious, he stepped up to it, paying homage to the memory of what had happened there. Underneath the ratty and dirty pillow, he saw a brown piece of cloth sticking out. He picked it up to find that it was a stuffed animal; a stag, with its left antler nearly chewed through.

"You must have belonged to Master Harry," he told the still animal in his hands. "Dobby is knowing what to do. Dobby is fixing you and giving you to Master Harry." He turned away from the crib and began to walk out of the room so as not to disappear in a room with so much history, but stopped at the door and turned back to face the room.

"Dobby is thanking Mistress Lily for loving and protecting Master Harry. Dobby is not wanting you to worry. Dobby will always be protecting and keeping Master Harry safe now. This Dobby promises to Mistress Lily," he said quietly before turning and walking back to the living room. When he learned what happened to the other house elves, he would bring them back to fix the house as a surprise to Master Harry.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – August 30, 12:20 – The Leaky Cauldron**

"Harry! Our letters have shown up!" Hermione pulled off the two letters from the owls that had shown up on their lunch table in the Leaky Cauldron while Harry offered them some of the bacon from his bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich, which they happily took. Hedwig, who was resting on a beam reserved for mail owls in the rafters, hooted warningly. She had already eaten her fill of bacon from her human, but she would be damned if some other bird came in and took her human's treats!

"Everything look like it normally does?" Harry asked as she looked at her letter and handed him his.

"Looks that way, though it says we'll need rune etching kits and the angry little book that tried to take a bite out of the shopkeeper at Flourish and Blotts!" Hermione exclaimed, sounding properly scandalized. "They actually expect us to use that thing! It tried to take his hand!" Harry laughed at her. There were some things his future knowledge would be amusing for. And keeping the book from trying to eat his shoes again was one of them.

"Just stroke its spine before opening the clasp and that will calm it down." Hermione eyed Harry curiously for a moment. He seemed to know little things like this more and more in the past couple of weeks she had been spending with him. He spoke knowledgeably about the classes they shared, more than she had thought he knew before the summer had started and little things like this. At first, she thought it may have been something to do with staying with the Dursleys and them making sure he would not perform well, but that couldn't be the case anymore. There were just too many little things. He spoke with her about NEWT level transfiguration only four days ago! And it wasn't just the knowledge that was making her curious, so much as it was him keeping up with her in a discussion and, as far as she could figure out, it was as though he was thinking faster and in greater depth.

"How did you know to stroke its spine?" She asked curiously. Harry looked surprised she asked before shrugging.

"I was moving it around in my hand and did that without realizing it and the book stopped trying to get out of my hands." It was plausible, even possible really, but for some reason, she wasn't sure. "Anyway, I think we should go and get our things before most students show up tomorrow so we don't have to fight the crowds. What do you think?" Hermione nodded her agreement and the two went and purchased their things for the coming year.

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – August 31, 10:30 – The Leaky Cauldron**

The next morning, Harry and Hermione were sitting at a table in the Leaky Cauldron talking about their upcoming classes when a set of red-headed twins showed up through the floo system. Harry smiled as he saw them orient themselves and step away from the fireplace for the next Weasley to come through.

"Oi! Diabolic Duo! Over here," Harry waved them over as both grinned fiendishly at their new nickname. They walked over side-by-side as Ginny came through the flames.

"Well, if it isn't Mister Potter and-"

"Miss Granger sitting at breakfast together like-"

"A blissfully-"

"Wedded-"

"Couple!" Harry and Hermione blushed, though Harry decided to have a little fun with them. He scooted over to Hermione and wrapped an arm around her, not paying attention to Mrs Weasley coming through the flames.

"Why, dear gents, I'll have you know I have to wait until this radiant creature beside me is at least fifteen before I get to propose!" Hermione blushed a fierce red and squeaked indignantly as the twins broke out into loud guffaws. Mrs Weasley who had been just within hearing range went apoplectic.

"YOU WHAT!" Like an angry mother hen, she squared her shoulders and began stalking towards the group at the table. Harry decided to head her off before she got worked up over nothing. Well, nothing yet if he had anything to say about it.

"Missus Weasley, calm down. I-"

"CALM DOWN! YOU-"

"SHUT UP!" He quickly yelled, getting the shocked reaction he had hoped for and quickly began explaining in the surprised silence that followed. "There's no bloody need to start yelling. As I was saying, you should calm down because I was only playing along with what the Diabolic Duo was saying to make Hermione and I blush. I am not waiting for Hermione to turn fifteen to ask her to marry me." He realized his arm was still around Hermione, so he quickly pulled away and put both arms on the table.

"Hermione and I aren't currently together, so don't get worked up before hearing the situation or you risk making yourself look like a fool." Everyone around them was holding as still as possible as he finished, not wanting to become the new focus of Mother Weasley's ire. The twins, Hermione, Molly and Ginny who had overheard everything except Percy who was only now coming through the floo system were still shocked he had told Mrs Weasley to 'shut up'. Though, Hermione would recognize several minutes later that he had used the term 'currently', which was a very important qualifier.

"Ah, yes well," Molly turned red as she realized she had just been spoken down to by a thirteen year old. Harry, recognizing she was floundering about, gave her an easy out.

"No worries, Missus Weasley. I know you were just looking out for Hermione." Molly accepted the out as her husband, Arthur, came through the fire following Ron who came up to the table and plopped down, not noticing the silent twins and quieter-than-usual Molly.

"What's up, mate? How was your summer?" Ron, not noticing the tense atmosphere or awkward silence, pilfered a piece of bacon from Harry's plate and toast from Hermione's, not caring that they were cold and several hours old as Molly took charge once again and got everyone together to fetch their supplies.

"Good, Ron," Harry said. "Hermione and I got our letters early yesterday, so we already got our stuff. When you're done getting everything, head back here and we can catch up, alright?" Ron nodded as he swallowed the last bit of toast and followed his mother.

"You're going to tell him you changed classes?" Hermione asked, making Harry nod.

xXxXxXx

Not but after roughly an hour of waiting, Ron and his family showed back up in the Leaky Cauldron. The redhead in question made his way over to their table where Harry and Hermione were still talking, this time about transfiguring living materials to living animals versus non-living materials. While Harry was seeing things in a new perspective that even thirteen-year old Hermione saw, Hermione was exhilarated to be having a real conversation with one of her best friends on an advanced level.

As Ron sat down, Tom the barman brought each of them a hearty beef stew and butterbeers. "What's up guys? How'd your summers go?" Ron asked as he tucked into his food. Harry took a sip of his butterbeer before beginning.

"Well, the day after we got back, I got emancipated and left the Dursleys'," Harry began, causing Ron to choke on a carrot before swallowing it down.

"You what!" He gasped, making Harry laugh.

"Yea, they were as happy to see me go as I was to leave!" He took another sip of his drink before setting it down. "Anyway, I took up the mantle as Head of the House of Potter, so I got access to my inheritance and was able to live in one of my parents' houses and I've been there since." He shrugged, trying to make it off as unimportant, knowing how Ron's jealous streak came through at some of the weirdest times.

"I got a potion to help with the malnourishment from living with them and had been working out almost daily since I moved out and came here for the last week of break." He noticed Hermione eye him in confusion because of all of the information he was leaving out. He gave her a look she understood to mean he would explain later before continuing on again.

"Anyway. The big thing I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed my classes from Divination to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy." Ron's mind boggled at all of the information he just got. He understood that Harry was now legally an adult and could deal with that. It wasn't much different from how things were originally. Harry moving out was a huge change, though. That would mean he wouldn't want to come over as much as he used to. Before, he would always be willing to go to the Burrow for the whole summer, and now he probably wouldn't.

"I thought we were going to take Divination together? Why are you taking _those_ classes?" He turned to Hermione and glared at her for taking his best mate from their shared classes. "Did you put him up to this?" Hermione's jaw dropped as he accused her and her eyes narrowed, but just before she could begin her side of the argument into what was bound to become a loud row that Harry did _not_ want the other Weasleys eating at another table to hear, Harry interrupted them.

"Ron, I chose this," he said forcefully. "Think about it. Each year, I've been forced to fight Voldemort in some way," he ignored Ron's shuddering. Really, they had faced the blighter twice already in this time line! "In first year, after only two months, we fought a mountain troll. Last year, I had to fight and kill a bloody basilisk! Not to mention that we both had to stare down those acromantula," he said with a grimace.

"What acromantula?" Hermione asked, making Harry wince. He knew that tone. He was in trouble.

"Er, we'll explain later," he hedged. "Anyway," he looked nervously at the fuming Hermione before back to Ron who seemed to understand where Harry was heading, "in all of these situations where we just barely lived, or where Hermione's knowledge has saved our lives, we could have had much better odds of survival if we had only paid better attention in class and took things seriously like Hermione has always tried to tell us to do," Harry said, noticing Hermione's attempt to hide her smug smile. She felt so vindicated that he finally understood. "Divination won't help me if I have to fight against any of these things again. I don't have the Sight or the gift or whatever you want to call it, so I figure I may as well take something that may help me in the future."

"Each year so far, I've had to face the bastard-"

"Harry! Language!" Hermione chastised.

"Sorry Hermione," he said barely thinking about it. "But if I have to face him again this year, or something else weird or dangerous, I'd rather be better prepared. I would have told you sooner, but until two weeks ago, you were in Egypt, and I didn't want to try and make Hedwig fly that kind of distance. I'm not even sure if it would have been safe to try." Harry wasn't sure if she was still in the rafters or not, but he didn't want to risk saying he doubted her ability only for her to get defensive later. She was an oddly proud bird.

"It's alright. I understand," Ron mumbled before taking another bite of his stew.

"If you want, you can still switch classes. You have until two weeks after school starting before your choices are set." Ron grimaced. The whole idea of Divination to begin with was less work.

"That's okay, mate. You go ahead. I don't think those classes are for me." Harry smiled and clapped Ron on the back before digging into his own stew. Meanwhile, Hermione was rather pleased with the choices made so far.

Harry was beginning to show far more maturity and a caring insight towards her feelings that she had been longing for for two years. Well, far longer in all honesty, but only two years with any magical friends. It was the type of realization that she could honestly and safely say, with all certainty, that Harry valued her and her friendship. He was still just as nice as ever, nicer even, and he was not using her for help with homework. For two weeks, he had been asking her opinions and actually paying attention to what she had to say. While he paid attention in the past, he always had a sense of attempting to trying to not be obvious that he wasn't following her.

Hermione was really liking the changes in Harry.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Please look back at the "About" chapter if you have any questions regarding prices or how much a galleon is worth. Especially those who complained that I was ignoring Canon pricing, when I'd already stated in chapter one that I was doing so.

The story shall now pick up in speed! WEWTIES! (Update: That means plot, not update speed.)

**Bashing:** I am aware I made Dumbledore poo himself twice within an hour. This is not going to be a common occurrence. In fact, I don't plan to needlessly bash (much) anyone aside from maybe a little Ron/Ginny/Dumbledore/Draco/etc, but not much – Moderation, really. It will actually be mostly done through character interactions. In Dumbledore's case, most things like this will be based on his age and mental facilities (or lack thereof.) I won't say exactly if he will be good or bad or what, because it will be more fun this way, but don't expect me to go about bashing anyone horribly.


	6. We Meet Again, Arch Nemesis!

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter5** – We Meet Again, Arch Nemesis!

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**I have started a purely H/Hr/L fic** (and Neville/Susan Bones) called "_Darkened Paths_". It is going to have a much higher focus on the relationship and lemons than this, along with a more proactive and relentless Harry in regards to his enemies and intelligent Death Eaters and truly cunning Voldemort, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as this. Details can be found in the first chapter and on my forum (which is also where added details will be and you can discuss the plot and such with other readers and myself) like all of my fics. Harry will be MUCH harder on his enemies in that fic, and have no mercy for them or anyone who stands in his or his girls' ways to completing their goals. Time-manipulation for training, independent!Harry, Gray!Harry, agenda-driven!goblins, sleeper agents, double agents, goblin warrior training, etc.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Thoughts of Pudding" by Brian64 (H/Hr/L ship)

**xXx Previously xXx**

"_If you want, you can still switch classes. You have until two weeks after school starting before your choices are set." Ron grimaced. The whole idea of Divination to begin with was less work._

"_That's okay, mate. You go ahead. I don't think those classes are for me." Harry smiled and clapped Ron on the back before digging into his own stew. Meanwhile, Hermione was rather pleased with the choices made so far. _

_Harry was beginning to show far more maturity and a caring insight towards her feelings that she had been longing for for two years. Well, far longer in all honesty, but only two years with any magical friends. It was the type of realization that she could honestly and safely say, with all certainty, that Harry valued her and her friendship. He was still just as nice as ever, nicer even, and he was not using her for help with homework. For two weeks, he had been asking her opinions and actually paying attention to what she had to say. While he paid attention in the past, he always had a sense of attempting to trying to not be obvious that he wasn't following her._

_Hermione was really liking the changes in Harry._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Tuesday – August 31, 13:09 – Diagon Alley**

Harry quickly made his escape from the Leaky Cauldron, Ron and Hermione a little after one and made his way to John's trunk shop while many families were either finishing their shopping and going home for lunch or were yet to arrive and the crowds were thinner. As he entered, the bell jingled and John looked up from a parchment he was writing on and he smiled brightly.

"Ah! Mister Potter! Excellent to see you!" John practically bounced on the balls of his feet with each step he took as he ushered Harry towards the back room where he saw two trunks that were made of deep cherry wood and expertly carved, one a little softer than the other in its details, offering artistic carvings that seems to flow and sooth rather than the harder lines and sudden turns on the lines of the other.

"I take it you finished, then?" Harry asked as John walked up to the two trunks and presented them proudly.

"You bet, Mister Potter! I even got the doorways finished so both trunks are tied together," the ancient man said happily. "You now have an extra door in the kitchen area that leads to each trunk and can be locked, just in case you want to keep from going back and forth." Harry nodded happily as John finished.

"What about doorways with selective users?" Harry asked curiously, causing John to grimace.

"I was able to get the charms to work, but not where people or extra doors can be added later," he said somberly. "I based the work off of my security charms with the blood magic since you seemed focused on working with that girl who lives in a muggle neighborhood, which means she probably has at least one muggle parent?" Harry nodded to confirm the man's suspicions.

"Yes. This is in part for muggles. The over all goal is so she can keep her books hidden and maintain the Statute of Secrecy, while still able to allow them to come to my home whenever they want or need to and not anyone else who doesn't know about our world or who I don't want to have access to my home who may show up. I'm sorry I didn't think to mention that before." John waved off his concern with a smile.

"Don' worry about it. I thought about it, so it won't make me start over or nothin'. I'm jus' having trouble figuring out how I'm going to make it so that new doorways can be added to one that already exists without having to be physically next to one 'er putting the security charms you want at risk."

Harry thought for a moment, hoping he could help his new business partner out when an idea came to mind. "What about setting it up kind of like the floo network?" He asked. John shook his head negatively.

"Wouldn't work properly. My security charms work by sayin' that the person who donated blood can work that particular _system_ of doorways. If I set it up like the floo, then the security systems would be pointless since they could just say where they want to go."

Harry nodded sadly before a new idea popped into his head. "Well, what if you set each individual system as a single floo system accessible only to themselves instead of all doorways open to each other? That would keep them set up properly and still allow everyone to go to the correct place if they return home with mine, even if I'm connected to a bunch of different homes at once." John nodded thoughtfully.

"It could work. I'm not rightly sure," he said. "I'd need to set a keystone somewhere so new users can be added ... I'll work on it and see what I can find." Harry nodded before making a decision.

"Well, if you can figure out everything except for the security system aspects, I'm still willing to buy the idea from you instead of going into a partnership for," he pretended to think for a moment, "maybe twenty thousand galleons." Harry barely held in the smile as he saw John's eyes go from worried when he mentioned not going into a partnership to extremely surprised and a huge smile blossomed on his creased face. "I'd be willing to purchase this at any time from now to whenever unless you go public with the idea. I don't want certain people to learn of this quite yet." John worked his mouth silently for several moments before nodding shakily and motioning towards Harry's new trunks.

"I would like to try and work on them a little longer, but I will wait to go public until we've spoken about everything. But for now, let me tell you how to add people to your security systems here and how they work." Harry watched and listened with the kind of intensity Hermione was notorious for during her lessons before heading off to Quality Quidditch Supplies for Ron's Christmas gift.

xXxXxXx

John sat back in his silent shop and pondered his most recent customer; Harry Potter. Now that he had explained the security systems and given him a pamphlet with all the directions on it, he was alone in his shop. To be honest, he loved his business, his wife and his three children, even if they _were _adults now and out of his house with families of their own. God willing, he still had a good fifty years to live as long as he took care of himself and didn't get on the bad side of any of the wrong type. The wrong type like the kind the Potter boy seemed to be worried about, if his preparations to protect that muggleborn witch and her family were any indication, which did not bode well for the general populace if it meant anything.

John was not a fool. He dealt with enough shady clients wanting hidden compartments and the like to know when someone was planning ahead and when they were worried something would be approaching that they didn't want to be found out.

Like most shop owners in the Alley, he made a respectable living, but not what one may consider wealthy. He just did not get the kind of business needed to support his family and have much at the end of the year for frivolities. If it weren't for the added fees he could charge for hidden compartments, he wouldn't even have that much considering how long his trunks lasted for. John was able to provide a proper education for his girls and keep his wife happy, but not much else.

What the Potter boy was offering was not only twenty thousand galleons, or roughly two million pounds for when he ventured out into the muggle world with his wife, but security and peace of mind in his and his wife's remaining years, and something to let him help his children in their lives as well. He would be lucky if the Ministry allowed him to keep enough control over the doorways to make even a quarter of that by the time his life was over, leaving nothing to his children beyond what he would have managed to amass by then that he could leave in his will.

That was also assuming the Ministry did not just shove a bottle of Veritaserum down his throat, get their answers and then obliviate him of all knowledge and claim it for their own. John was not a man who believed the Ministry was as infallible as they tried to make everyone believe. He had seen that happen in the past, after all. His best friend had created the Remembrall and had been obliviated so thoroughly he thought he was six.

No. He would have to try and get the security system working on his own and try to get more out of the deal with the Potter boy and let _him_ deal with the Ministry's minions and such. John could tell the kid wanted it for more than what he was saying. He would have jumped at the chance to sell everything for far less than what he was being offered and the boy had to have known that. Even then, he seemed to want far too much security on the doors and the two trunks themselves. Known death eaters had not even asked for as much in the past. In fact, he could not think of anyone aside from an old, grizzled and paranoid ex-auror who had ever asked for such things.

The bell on his door jingled, signaling the rush of customers now that the lunch hour was over, so he put off his thoughts until later when he could really work on the spellwork necessary.

xXxXxXx

"We can not do it, Dumbledore!" Cornelius Fudge ranted as he paced back and forth in his office. He wanted to help Dumbledore reverse the Potter boy's emancipation, he really did. But it had somehow made it through all of the proper channels without being noticed by any of his people and now everything was done, magically and legally binding. But did that stop the Supreme Mugwump from showing up once each week to try and convince him to do it anyway? Hell no!

"Cornelius, please. I can not stress enough how important it is that-" Apparently not.

"I can't, Dumbledore," Fudge growled. "The paperwork is legal and was signed by the boy's guardians. Guardians which _you_ selected for him, I might add, if the paperwork is proper." Dumbledore winced slightly as Fudge's comment struck home. Dumbledore did not like his plans going wrong.

"Yes. I have since learned that they may not have been the best of guardians during these summer months. However, I have been his magical guardian since his arrival in the wizarding world and I was not consulted and did not sign anything to allow this." Dumbledore could not lose this chance to get Harry back where he belonged. While he could not erect the blood wards in place again, they _were_ still his family and he could still erect some very powerful wards in place that would be more than adequate.

"It doesn't matter, Dumbledore. The only thing you can do to negate his emancipation is to prove he is unfit to hold himself accountable as an adult. You know these things," Fudge sneered. "I don't know why you are pressing the matter when you know I have less power than you do and can't do anything about it."

Dumbledore sighed as Fudge finished. No, it would not have exactly been legal, but Harry could not be allowed to roam around unsupervised. It looked as though he would be forced to go to the Wizengamot. The same Wizengamot that Harry was now a part of and would be alerted to their assembly and _why_ they were being called together. It was merely a stroke of luck that Harry did not know anyone that Dumbledore did not know better and could coerce into his side of the argument if Harry was aware of his ability to call in someone to hold his chair.

"Very well, Cornelius. I will simply go to the Wizengamot to have his emancipation overturned. I am afraid I had hoped to have your support in this matter as I have helped you repeatedly in the past," Dumbledore spoke sadly, conveying a sense of hurt and disappointment. Fudge saw this as a loss of a potential, and strong, supporter of his office in matters that may come up in the future and immediately turned to sympathetic counsel.

"I do support you, Albus. I really do. But what you are asking for is beyond my ability," Fudge whined. "If the boy goes to the papers and says that we overturned his emancipation, especially as the head of an ancient pureblood line, it would be the end of my career and it would most likely need to be retracted and his emancipation given to him all over again to keep the people from anarchy!" Fudge dropped into his chair heavily, ignoring its creaks of protest.

"When you first told me about this a few weeks ago, I thought he had done something wrong with his paperwork or he was being a menace somewhere and I just hadn't heard about it. But he has done nothing wrong and every avenue I have tried to unearth comes to a dead end. I am sorry but, until he does something illegal or proves himself unable to take care of himself, there is nothing we can do. He's got more than adequate funds to take care of himself, so I'm not sure what you'll be able to do."

Disheartened, Dumbledore bid the Minister of Magic a good day and left to his office at Hogwarts where he would try to make new plans. Harry could not be allowed to run amok on his own without guidance. He was far too important to the inevitable war to come.

When Albus stepped through the floo to his office, he sent an immediate missive to Severus Snape. He needed a deft touch with his plans. Something Severus' Slytherin cunning has helped with immensely in the past and he only had that day to plan before the students showed up the following evening. After that, with his headmaster's duties, he would be hard-pressed to fix things.

xXxXxXx

Harry reentered the Leaky Cauldron with a happy smirk on his face, and the pockets on either side of his pants filled with the shrunken trunks he had just obtained from John and a Nimbus 2000 for Ron. He found himself incredibly pleased with himself after getting the Christmas gifts for Hermione and Ron. It was something that he had been noticing in the past couple of weeks as he spent time with Hermione and her parents.

The day he had gone to visit Hermione for the first time after the summer break had started, he had thought his excitement and nerves about meeting her had been because he was hoping to keep his knowledge a secret and because he had plans to, for lack of a better way of phrasing it in his mind that did not seem like he should end up in a psychiatric ward, woo her. He had wanted to get her thinking about him romantically, or try to, and thought he had done a brilliant job of it.

But each time something he was not used to came up, such as the elder Grangers showing up for dinner or times when he made sure to try and flirt with Hermione, he found himself reacting in ways that he would not have expected, or feel sensations like he would not have expected. Just like now.

Harry was getting his friends their Christmas presents, and felt like it was Christmas Eve instead of being four months away. And he had noticed similar situations coming up when Hermione's father would lightly tease him, or when he got flustered. He just did not handle them as well as he had handled similar situations when he was older before coming back in time. He was handling them as he had when he was this age the first go around, and it bothered him that he could not predict his own reactions.

By the time he got to the table where Ron and Hermione were sitting, his thoughts were pushed aside to be contemplated later and he sat down between the two of them after calling Tom to make up a bacon sandwich. His appetite from the potions had not fully left him yet, so he was constantly eating, still.

"So, Hermione. Are you wanting to take a look at familiars today?" He asked.

"Yes," Hermione said, beaming. "My parents let me look yesterday, but wanted me to wait until today to get whatever I decide so I don't have to leave it cooped up in my room the whole day until we leave tomorrow. They should be showing up in a little while after they've had lunch at this Italian bistro they found a few months ago." Hermione had finally been able to figure out what had made her father so happy the past couple of weeks, being more than intelligent enough to realize he was always happiest right after he and her mother had some 'alone time' together. While the initial reaction had been to take a long bath in nearly scalding water, she realized quickly enough that it was a natural thing for a married couple to do. She did not have to think about it too much, however, leaving her parents' plenty of time alone. Besides, she had been having a fun summer with Harry, so it worked out for everyone.

"You're getting a familiar, Hermione?" Ron asked, eying Harry's newly-arrived sandwich with a greedy eye, especially since Harry saved a few strips of bacon, wrapped them in a napkin and put them in his pocket. He had just floo'd back from the Burrow where he had eaten with the rest of his family, but there was always room for more.

"Yes, I am. I'm planning on getting a cat!" Hermione nearly hopped in her seat in enthusiasm. She had strongly been thinking about getting an owl so she could communicate with her two best friends more often or getting the cat, but Harry had suggested the cat and explained his reasons in glowing terms, just about making the decision for her after she read his letter. Ron, however, saw a fatal flaw in her plan, quite literally, in fact.

"Hermione!" He exclaimed, looking as shocked as he sounded. "Cats eat rats!" Whether it was with conscious thought or not, he placed his hand over his pocket protectively, covering Scabbers. "What if it goes after Scabbers?"

"Oh, honestly!" Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry snickered through a mouthful of sandwich. Had he not been in the middle of a bite, he would have laughed outright, but did not think that she would appreciate the food everywhere. She never did with Ron, at any rate. "Familiars tend to be more intelligent than the average animal, Ronald. I'm sure cats would be perfectly safe around Scabbers."

Ron looked to Harry for help, but when he saw Harry's red and smiling face, he knew he would not get it. "A cat is a cat, Hermione," he grumbled. He would have to keep an eye out for any bloodthirsty felines. "Scabbers hasn't been looking too good anyway, so I'll go with you guys and we can make sure to get one that won't eat him."

While he struggled to maintain only a slightly amused appearance, Harry was laughing maniacally in his mind, knowing that Hermione was going to get a cat that would take any opportunity to get a good bite into Scabbers. He would probably have to set up a few cases where it may very well happen. Making sure not to get caught, of course. "Well, it's nearly half past one now, so Dan and Emma should be here soon."

"Actually," Ron said, pointing towards the entrance to the Cauldron, "they're already here." The group looked and saw Hermione's parents looking around for their daughter before their eyes alighted on them and they came over quickly, enveloping Hermione in a quick hug each. Hermione was a little annoyed that her father still had that bloody grin on his face.

_'Honestly! Don't those two _ever_ get enough!'_

"Did you two have a good lunch?" She asked, ignoring the glance they threw at one another before nodding.

"We did," Emma said. "Now, are you done eating? We can go to that animal spot if you've already decided what you want."

"I already knew what I was getting," Hermione said as she got up, the two boys following suit, "but you wouldn't let me get one yesterday." She mock-glared at her parents, both of which smiled amusedly.

"It wouldn't be very nice to keep it cooped up in your room now, would it?" Her father asked as he mussed up Harry's hair with a wink when the boy got within arm's reach. He had originally done it the first time after Harry caught on to one of his jokes and then played along, thus flustering his wife. When Dan saw how happy it made him, he found excuses to do it a little more often and eventually, the new habit became a way of greeting for them. And if Harry cared for Hermione as much as he seemed to, then it would be good to have a close relationship with the boy so the threats of bodily harm for hurting her would come across that much stronger, after all.

Oh how Dan awaited the day he could put the fear of puberty into Harry Potter!

"No, I suppose it wouldn't," Hermione sighed. The wait had been maddening up to this point, and now it was even worse. The knowing that they were only moments away and the slower they moved, the longer it would be.

"Do you mind if we follow?" Harry asked. "I'd like to pick up some things for Hedwig."

"Yeah, and Scabbers is looking worse today than he has for the last week. I wanna have the clerk take a look at 'im," Ron said, hefting the squeaking rat up and not seeing Emma blanch; she hated rats with a fiery passion; rats peed on everything! Harry could not be sure, but the rat seemed to have a lot of bald spots that either had not been there the last time around or he had not noticed. But then, he did not have any interest in the rat the last time around until he found out it was Peter Pettigrew, either.

"Not a problem, boys. It's a public place, after all." Dan ushered the two after Emma and Hermione through Diagon Alley, unconsciously keeping his hand on Harry's shoulder as the green-eyed boy pointed out various things of interest.

Minutes later, Hermione's grin threatened to scare a little child as she entered the shop full of familiars and her eyes began to dart about gleefully for the perfect one. "Excuse me, Ma'am, but where are your cat familiars?" She asked the middle-aged woman behind the counter who had a strange, green canary-like creature on her shoulder that was about the size of a kiwifruit. Hermione looked closely and saw that it actually _was_ a canary. Very cute, but rather odd.

"Off in the far wall, over there," the woman at the counter said, pointing them off to the wall on the right side from the door. Hermione took off like a shot while her parents smiled in good nature. Seeing their only daughter act like the child that she was had been something they had been missing for a long time now. Seeing her so enthusiastic for something as simple as a cat filled them with a sense of contentment that was different from the way they felt when she showed her incredible intelligence and strong sense of independence. That sense of independence and intelligence had been as bad for her as it had been good, but in the end, it kept her as a strong, young woman who eventually found two great friends. Dan would have preferred they were not boys, but compromises had to be made.

Ron, not too keen on the idea of a cat coming into the picture, went up to the counter and ignored Hermione's cooing over the fluffy buggers. "Hi. This is Scabbers and he hasn't been looking too good for the last week. Can you look at him for me?"

"Set him up on the counter and we'll see what we can do," the woman said, eying the unkempt rat with well-hidden disdain. The thing looked like it was just pulled from a trash bin. Smelled like it, too. "Hold him still."

"Here you go," Ron offered Scabbers to the woman by holding him in place on the counter since the rat was trying to run off. The woman behind the counter began running diagnostic spells with a frown while Hermione frowned at the cats she was looking at as Harry came over to her.

"See anything that calls to you?" He asked, watching a few kittens tussle with each other, batting at each others' ears and tails. They were cute little buggers.

"Call out to me?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry inquisitively as he nodded.

"Yea. I felt an immediate pull when I saw Hedwig for the first time. I don't know if it was because Hagrid had already bought her for me or if we were meant to be together, but I definitely felt something." He motioned towards the cats that were looking at the two who invaded their sanctuary with curiousity, but only the kittens seemed to pay them any real interest. There were loose _strings_ on their sleeves!

"No," Hermione said, shaking her head, "nothing like that."

"That's good," Harry mumbled to himself without realizing it.

"What?" Hermione looked at Harry carefully as his eyes widened slightly. While it was difficult to know what he said for sure, she had heard it well enough to wonder what he was on about.

"None of these seem to care one way or another," he batted the kitten that was pawing at his pocket with the bacon away gently. "I just didn't think any of them were the right ones." He shrugged as a way to try and make the situation seem less tense, though it did not seem to work.

"Crookshanks, no!" The loud voice of the woman at the counter who had just tried some diagnostics a third time caused both Harry and Hermione to look towards Ron who squealed in a high-pitched voice and spun away from a messy ball of orange fur that had just launched itself at Scabbers who was now safely clutched in Ron's hands.

"Crookshanks, that's the last straw!" The woman behind the counter picked up the spitting feline and put it into a nearby carrier, locking it up as Harry and Hermione came up to Ron.

"What happened, Ron?" Harry asked as he winked at the cat that simply titled its head to the side in response.

"That bloody cat just tried to eat Scabbers! That's what!" Ron yelled as he glared at the cat. Harry took a quick glance at Hermione who was looking at the cat speculatively.

"Sorry about that," the clerk apologized. "Crookshanks has been here for a few years because no one wants him. He's always been a menace, but the owner can't find it in her kind heart to be rid of the beast." Dan and Emma, who had been keeping off to the side so that Hermione could roam about freely spoke up for the first time.

"If the cat is a menace, why not just keep him locked up?" Emma asked.

"Cats are too large to keep in their carriers for more than a few hours or they get sick," the clerk shrugged as if she did not really care at that point. The cat had been on her bad side since day one. "Anyway," she said, changing the subject as she turned to Ron, "your rat isn't sick, just very old. All of my scans came up with odd results aside from that, so I'm not sure about much else. For some reason, I kept getting inconclusive readings."

Ron nodded sadly. "Yea, he's been a family pet for twelve years now, actually."

"Oh," the clerk said, looking surprised. "That's a rather long time. But, we do have some energetic black mice over here." The clerk motioned towards a few cages that held speedy little mice that were covered in sleek, black fur and playing about.

"Nah, they're just show-offs. Scabbers is fine, so I'd rather keep him anyway." Ron gave a last glare at the caged and hissing Crookshanks before turning to Harry. "I'm waiting outside to keep Scabbers away from that killer. You wanna come?"

"You think Scabbers really needs the counseling, then?" Harry asked with a grin. "Yea, I'll wait. I can see what Hermione gets when she leaves. That okay?" He asked, turning to Hermione who looked away from Crookshanks for the first time.

"Yes. I should only be a few more minutes." Hermione watched the two boys leave before turning back to the cat carrier and taking a good look at the cat who was now staring right back at her. He was just a bit larger than the average cat and just as furry. His legs were a bit longer than looked proper for his body and were really quite bowed out and the cat had the flattest face she had ever seen on a cat. Even its nose appeared to have been squished. It was easy to see why Crookshanks had not been purchased for so long.

It was easily the cutest thing she had ever seen.

Outside, Ron was looking Scabbers over with a critical eye. "I'm telling you, Harry, that creature should be put down for the good of all rats."

Harry laughed good-naturedly to get Ron's attention before jerking his thumb at the store. "I dunno, Ron. I liked him." Harry's amusement was obvious in his voice, but the flustered redhead had apparently not noticed it because of the words themselves.

"You wouldn't!" He asked with an expression of absolute horror over his face.

"Your birthday is coming up, after all. I could always get you a new rat and _then_ get the cat," he said teasingly. Ron just scowled.

"Prat," he said, causing Harry to laugh. It probably would not have been as funny if Harry did not hold a grudge against the animagus.

"Well, yes. Yes I am," Harry said, still amused. Moments later of a comfortable, though boring, silence, the door opened and Hermione walked out carrying the very same ragged-looking fluff ball from earlier. A fact Ron was quick to catch.

"Hermione! You bought that killer!" He asked furiously.

"Yes, isn't he just so cute?" She cooed into the cat's fur as she hugged him, causing the cat to purr as he kept a curious eye on Harry.

"He's a killer! He tried to eat Scabbers!" Ron yelled.

"Oh, honestly Ronald! He's just misunderstood. The lady said he's been here for ages and no one has offered to buy him, so she gave him to me for a very good price." She said, sounding exasperated.

Harry walked up to the cat and held out his hand, close enough for the cat to sniff him and get his scent. Crookshanks slowly and hesitantly moved his head forward, somewhat leery of the human and sniffed closely for a few seconds before rubbing his nose against Harry's fingers, showing his acceptance. It may have also been partly because he smelled his new master on the boy's hands, but that just meant she was willing to let him touch her.

"Misunderstood!" Ron screeched as he neared Hermione. "What's to misunderstand? He tried to kill Scabbers!" Crookshanks reached out and swiped at Ron's arm, giving him three long, red scratches as he flattened his ears and hissed at the human who would dare yell at his Human. It was oddly effective, even though he was inside Hermione's arms and held tight. Ron glared between Hermione and Crookshanks before shaking his head and turning away. "I'm going back to the Burrow. I need to get Scabbers away from that ugly murderer. See you guys in the morning." And with that, he stomped away as Hermione huffed.

"Crookshanks is _not_ ugly, Ronald!" She yelled back after him, feeling he got what he deserved for being so nasty to her new familiar. Crookshanks hissed at the departing redhead, giving his own kitty last words in. Harry pulled out one of the two strips of bacon he saved from his sandwich and offered it to the suddenly affable cat. The boy may have smelled of something ancient, but the bacon was fresh.

"Well, I think you made an excellent choice," he said. "But why aren't your parents out yet?"

"Well, the lady actually gave Crookshanks to me for a knut," she said with a light blush as she readjusted her hold so the cat could eat more comfortably. "My parents are getting him food, a bed and the like." As she finished, Crookshanks held onto the bacon in his mouth and hopped into Harry's arms, purring, and continued to chew on the heart-clogging goodness.

"Wow," Dan said as he and Emma left the store with two small bags each. "I can't believe she gave us such a good deal on all of the supplies!"

"Well, she _was_ in a really good mood," Emma said with a smile. She hoped the cat knew better than to risk using the bathroom on any of the furniture, but hoped that he would grow out of that before Hermione showed up later while at Hogwarts.

"Crookshanks is not a bad cat," Hermione said sounding annoyed, causing the three with her to laugh. "Though he did seem to choose Harry over me." She eyed her new familiar with a frown as he looked at her innocently and mewed.

"That's 'cause I fed him first," Harry said with an impish grin. "I've got a second piece of bacon in my pocket when he's done with this one that you can feed him. He'll love you instead all over again." Almost immediately, Crookshanks finished the half-chewed piece and hopped to Hermione who yelped and barely caught him.

Surprisingly agile for a fluff ball.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 1, 10:58 – Hogwarts Express **

The next morning found Harry, Hermione and the whole Weasley brood scrambling to get onto the train with only a few minutes to spare before it took off for the school. Harry had tried to get everyone to get ready and leave earlier than they had, but had always been rebuked with 'we have plenty of time' over and over again. Now, they were barely getting onto the train with only a few minutes to spare, and even that was because they finally got fed up with his pressing. How the hell had they made it the first time?

"Here's one," Hermione said, showing them a compartment with only one man inside who was currently sleeping. "Everywhere else was full." They quietly stowed away their trunks

"Who do you suppose he is," Ron asked.

"R.J. Lupin. He's probably the new Defense teacher," Hermione said confidently. Wide-eyed, Ron turned to Harry.

"It's scary how she always knows everything, Mate!" He spluttered. Harry laughed as Hermione rolled her eyes.

"It's on his briefcase," Harry said, pointing at the offending item. He was so amused, he did not think to let Hermione answer as she had in the time-line he remembered. Hermione simply raised an eyebrow at Harry as she took a seat next to Ron across from the new teacher as Harry sat next to him. While the old Harry was not likely to catch details like that, she was pleased to note this one did. Harry wanted desperately to wake the man up and begin chatting like crazy, but knew why he was so tired. He decided to let Remus Lupin rest and pulled out the book Lora gave him to read from.

"Uh, Harry?" Ron asked, sounding a little unsure. Harry looked up at him confusedly and saw the redhead shift in his seat. There was an odd feeling of déjâ vu from the train ride home.

"Yes, Ron?"

"What're you reading for? We haven't got to Hogwarts yet. Wanna play some Exploding Snap instead?" He asked. Hermione rolled her eyes and spoke quietly before Harry could reply.

"Honestly Ronald! You can not play a game with loud explosions three feet from a man who is probably our new DADA teacher, meaning he is probably very good with his wand," she stressed, "and is currently asleep and would wake up possibly hexing first and asking questions later." When she saw Ron had paled sufficiently, she nodded resolutely and settled back to read her own book.

"Er, right." He looked at the man next to Harry who's face was currently hidden under a hat. "So, what are you reading there, mate?" Harry eyed Ron for a second before hefting the book.

"I'm just reading up about ancient runes. It's one of the subjects I don't really have a basic understanding of and I've been using the past couple of weeks to read up on it so I could try to memorize the symbols and definitions and the like. This book is very detailed and explains them really well." Harry answered. Ron grimaced and held up his hands in a surrendering fashion.

"I am definitely happy I didn't take that class," Ron deadpanned, not at all pleased with the thick book, or the idea of reading it. Harry chuckled quietly while Hermione rolled her eyes and followed Harry's example with her own books, though hers were the school texts instead of the more complete and thorough writings Harry had. But then, his did not have the specific information that would be related to his classes in the book he was reading as she did.

An hour and a half later, Harry was engrossed in his book having become used to the interesting subject when he first started and only just barely registered the compartment door opening. He looked up from his book and repressed the evil smirk that threatened to spread across his face. He had been waiting a month for this event and had been practicing like a man possessed to make it just right.

"Hello Potter!" Draco Malfoy smiled imperiously down at his arch nemesis, flanked by his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle. "Still traveling with the mudblood and Weasel, I see?"

"You aren't really very bright, are you?" Hermione asked with a smirk and pointing at the still-sleeping Lupin next to Harry. "You would do well not to start something in the presence of the new professor." Draco paled as he saw the older male next to Harry who was still thankfully asleep. Harry, knowing Draco was about to leave quickly cast a wandless glamor charm over his eyes to make them glow a very bright green from his irises and to numb his muscles of his throat and jaw enough to be sure he would not smile and so it would slightly alter his voice and make it sound deeper. He looked up and directly at Draco, who noticed almost immediately and took a quick step back as his face contorted to one of fear and confusion.

"Wh-what the hell?" Draco asked to no one in particular. Curious, Ron and Hermione looked to where Draco was and saw Harry's eyes glowing, even from the sides as the glow grew in intensity. Then Harry spoke.

"_Beware, Serpent Prince, Fool of the Den. The tiny warriors approach and demand your respect. Take heed of this warning or lose yourself to their relentless assault. Do not anger the tiny ones or you will perish."_

Terrified, Draco quickly spun around and left, slamming the door shut. Harry canceled the charms and smiled to himself as he sat back in his seat, noticing Hermione and Ron both staring at him. Ron looked like he was about to follow Draco's lead and Hermione looked worried.

_'Whoops. I forgot to let them know about this. And Hermione could have probably helped me with something better to say, too.'_ Harry thought sheepishly. He smiled and scratched the back of his head in a disarming fashion.

"Sorry about that, guys. I forgot to mention I was planning on doing that." He laughed nervously as both of them calmed and Hermione glared at him.

"What exactly did you do? And who are the 'tiny warriors'? What are you planning?" Hermione stared at him until he began to fidget and look everywhere but at her. Hermione realized she was doing the same thing she had done in Diagon Alley the day they met up and got their supplies, so she leaned back and crossed her arms with a huff. She had plenty of time to figure it out if he did not crack first.

"Well, I thought it may be interesting for him to not understand what happened and worry about little creatures that may come out of nowhere and try to attack him if he isn't careful," he said slowly, not sure what kind of trouble he was going to get in to with Hermione. He did not want to tell her that he had every intention of following his father's footsteps now that he had a chance to and, with not knowing if Snape or Dumbledore would be able to get into their heads, he did not want to say anything about his plans. Especially knowing that Ron had absolutely no occlumency training.

"That's bloody brilliant!" Ron exclaimed happily. Hermione thwacked Ron on the back of the head and pointed to the man who was somehow still asleep.

"Ronald! You'll wake him up!" She hissed. "And watch your language!" Harry laughed and settled into his seat, glad that they took his excuse at face value. While it was not exactly a lie, it was not the whole truth, which upset him slightly, but he felt it was for a good cause. He had a name to live up to, after all. And all things considered, this was the best year for the Marauders to make their return, even if it was only in spirit.

Five hours and a pleasant assortment of goodies from the snack trolley later, Harry, Hermione and Ron were reading, though Ron's book was simply a Quidditch magazine, when the train shuddered to a stop. All three looked out the window in confusion, though Harry remembered what was happening almost immediately.

"This can't be right," Hermione said mostly to herself. "We can't have arrived this early." She looked out and saw the sky had darkened with black clouds and rain came down heavily.

"I think someone's coming onto the train," Ron said, seeing large shadows boarding two cars down. Almost immediately, the rain over the windows began to frost and ice over.

Harry had thought long and hard about this particular meeting with the dementors, almost as much as he had thought and planned for his one-sided prank war against Draco. However, what he had not planned on was that he was still used to taking control the moment a dangerous situation had arisen and his instincts were still to eliminate a threat before it got too close, and the past two months of emancipation and control over his life had only reinforced that without his realization. Unbidden, those very same instincts from the past two years of war to Harry's memory came to the forefront of his mind and he reacted before thinking.

"Moony!" He barked out as he grabbed his wand, not paying attention to the man or the two teenagers next to him who nearly jumped out of their skin and look around in wide-eyed shock to the suddenly different Harry. "Dementors," he said, motioning out the window as Lupin pulled out his own wand and nodded.

"How-" Remus began, thinking he was seeing the younger version of his best friend, James Potter, before Harry interrupted him, his voice hard and commanding authority.

"Later, Remus. Patroni on three." Harry took a brief moment to lament his complacency as he raised his wand. His original plan was to mention how he had read up on dementors and practiced the Patronus spell over the summer and make sure the undead creature stayed as far away from him as possible so he could try to keep the year mostly the same until he wanted to change it. Not long after Dumbledore died, he had learned that Dementors were drawn to him because of his scar since they wanted the soul fragment stuck in his head and he still despised the things.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, scooting slightly closer to where Harry was standing. She was getting colder and beginning to feel an overwhelming sense of dread and fear. When he looked at her, she let out a soft gasp as she saw his eyes look at her before turning away to look back at the door. She had known Harry for two years, now, and his eyes always had a gentle presence and calming affect. The eyes that looked at her just now were different some how. They did not scare her, as she knew Harry too well to be scared of him, but she had never before seen those eyes on Harry, and it sent a shiver down her spine. She was not sure what the exact cause was, but it was most certainly something that she would not forget for some time.

"Just stay behind me, Hermione. They won't get close," he said, turning back to her and smiling, his old eyes back and shining at her. "I promise."

Moments later, the door handle began to slowly turn and then the door opened, letting each person within get a clear glimpse at what looked like a skeletal figure that was wrapped in gray paper for skin underneath of torn black robes and a thin haze rising from its skin as it cooled the area around it.

"Expecto Patronum!"

"Expecto Patronum!"

A brilliant silver stag erupted from Harry's wand and rammed its way into the cloaked figure in the doorway, causing it to let out a shrill, bloodcurdling scream before flying down the hall, being chased by Prongs and getting hit with his antlers, only stopping when the patronus corralled others with it. Beside him, Remus Lupin's wand released a bright silver wolf that left the opposite direction and pushed another dementor towards the others.

Once the stag made it outside behind the dementors with the wolf following and keeping them from escaping into the train again, it radiated a bright light and pulsed once, running off all of the dementors before looking around and disappearing in a dissolving mass of sparkling light motes along with the wolf.

Harry looked behind him and saw both Ron and Hermione were shivering in cold and from the mental affects the dementors had on them. He sat down next to Hermione and pulled out two pieces of chocolate from his pocket he had for this purpose and gave them to his friends. "Eat this, it will help you feel better."

Both began to eat it immediately, trusting him in what he said without hesitation. Hermione leaned into Harry's chest as he wrapped his arms around her, trying to comfort and warm her. He unconsciously began to stroke the side of her head, running his fingers gently through her hair and moving his other hand in very small circles in the middle of her back. It was a technique he learned just a short time after Ron left the two of them during their hunt for the horcruxes. She had been nearly inconsolable when he left, feeling like he was abandoning them, even though that was technically what it was, and Harry had learned after her second night without sleep that it calmed her down. They had not slept apart since then, always taking comfort in their shared embraces. She was soothed by it, and Harry found he did not have nightmares from Voldemort during those nights as well.

How had he missed out on all of those feelings the last time around? Were love potions truly that strong?

"Harry," Ron began after finishing his chocolate and feeling better. "What the hell was that thing that you did?"

"The Patronus spell," Harry said, honestly paying more attention to Hermione after remembering how Ron had treated them both when he left the last time around, accidentally making his voice a little harder than normal, though no one noticed, thankfully. "It's a spell that's created from happy memories and the incantation 'Expecto Patronum' and fights off dementors and lethifolds and can be used to communicate."

"Wuh?" Ron looked absolutely flabbergasted.

"It also takes a really powerful wizard to create one, Harry." Remus Lupin said from the door. He was completely confused about how Harry knew his Marauder nickname, but decided that he and his friends had had enough excitement for the day and he could ask him later.

"Nah," Harry said, waving off the man's praise. "It's as much about the emotion used as it is the power. The memory makes it happen, but the power is really just to determine how strong it will be." Remus blinked at the strange answer.

"Must have been one hell of a memory," he said, causing Harry to think back on the memory he used and blush lightly.

"It was."

"What the hell kind of memory can make that thing?" Ron asked, feeling like he was out of the loop. Harry squeezed Hermione lightly, knowing she was listening to the whole thing, but felt answering would do no harm.

"Just a day I had about three weeks ago," Harry said evasively. Remus raised an eyebrow as he saw the nervous boy look away from them.

"What happened three weeks ago?" Ron asked, not being in a position to see Hermione blush, though Remus certainly could.

Harry looked at Ron and spoke in a clear, but sombre voice, "a sparkly eye thing." In his arms, he could feel Hermione tense slightly, but said nothing as Ron shook his head to clear it of the stuff that did not matter. Harry was a little curious about why Hermione reacted so poorly to the dementors' presence this time around. The last time it happened, it had not affected her nearly as strongly. She had fussed over him the entire ride to the castle once he had woken up. Remus decided that, while it was not the best way to meet his best friend's only son, it was certainly an amusing way.

"You three stay put. I'm going to get the driver to start moving the train and check on the other students," the older man said, hurrying out the door and to the engine car.

As soon as Remus left, Hermione pulled away from Harry, but not out of his arms. "Where did you learn that?" She asked softly, still trying to decide what his comment meant and what was actually happening between the two of them. She could realize there were more than just simple comments coming from him, but honestly had no clue if he was aware of it, or if it was honestly just this new Harry coming out and was unsure of how to find out.

"I practiced it over the summer," he said, not technically lying. "I heard about Sirius Black escaping and that dementors were looking for him. I got curious, so I found out some stuff about them and decided to learn to protect myself in case I ever met one since just being near one is painful."

"You got that right, mate." Ron said as she shivered in phantom pains. Hermione ignored Ron for the moment and kept her attention on Harry.

"Can you teach us?" She asked.

"Of course," Harry said, sounding surprised she would even think she had to ask. "Spend the rest of the day trying to remember your happiest memory. It has to be something that can make you feel happy or good just by remembering it, so nothing like a favorite book or location unless it's something that made a huge impact on you, like the first sight of Hogwarts or something, alright? Once you get that, the rest will be much easier." Hermione nodded, letting him know she understood as she cuddled into his chest. She had a strong suspicion she would be trying it out later in the evening with the same memory Harry said he had used himself. It was certainly one of the first that came to mind when the term 'happy memory' was used.

"Alright," she said. Harry looked at her a moment before snorting softly in amusement.

"Fine. If you're going to try it out later, just remember to use whatever memory has strong, good emotions and let it fill you before you try and cast it," he said, knowing she would not wait until he tried to show her. Her reddening cheeks proved him right.

"Hey, Harry," Ron asked from beside them. "Got anymore of that chocolate?"

xXxXxXx

Minerva McGonagall watched the train pull into the station with her trademark scowl firmly in place. She could not understand why Albus had allowed the Ministry to let those bloody dementors stay near the school when they were obviously so dangerous. She had received a letter from Remus Lupin that they had stopped the Express and subjected the children to their horrible presence. The truly remarkable thing, however, was that Mr Potter was able to perform a fully corporeal Patronus if Remus' letter was to be believed.

Originally, she was going to balk at such a claim, but the man making it was not one who would embellish or lie about such matters. That made the situation even more amazing.

As the students began to unload themselves from the train, she saw the three students she had been looking for an immediately strode over to them. "Mister Potter, Miss Granger, Mister Weasley. It's good to see you again. Are any of you suffering affects from the dementors, still? Do any of you need any chocolate?" She watched them carefully as they each told her they were fine, though Ron accepted the chocolate.

"Good. Then Miss Granger, Mister Potter, I'd like you to accompany me to my office so we can discuss the details of your classes for this year. Mister Weasley, you may go ahead to the Great Hall and they will be with you shortly." Ron blinked at her a few moments before nodding.

"See you guys in a few minutes," he said glumly and got into a carriage. Harry and Hermione followed McGonagall into her own carriage, which left immediately for Hogwarts so they had a few extra minutes to talk before she was needed for announcing the first years.

Once they were seated and on their way to the castle, McGonagall looked at the two children across from her and noticed that they were sitting up against each other, even though there were several inches on either side of them. She would have to get to the Weasley twins as soon as she could and up her bet. "Are the two of you really alright? Dementors are horrible creatures," she said.

Both children shook their heads as Hermione turned her head to look at Harry, "No Professor. Harry and Professor Lupin drove them off as soon as one of them opened the door." Silently pleased that Hermione confirmed what Lupin had told her, McGonagall looked to Harry.

"Is this true, Mister Potter? You are able to produce a corporeal Patronus?" She asked, getting a nod in return as they neared the gates of Hogwarts.

Harry simply stuck his wand out of the window and called out, "Expecto Patronum," causing an immediate burst of silvery light to come out of his wand and form into Prongs all over again. Harry pulled his wand back and smiled at the shocked look on McGonagall's face as she watched the stag trot beside the carriage as an honor guard rather than disappear once Harry stopped focusing on it.

It was something he had never read directly from any book that a person's Patronus should disappear once the focus that created it was gone, so neither he or anyone who had seen him use the spell longer than a few seconds had ever noticed that it would remain. McGonagall, however, knew this to be the case and was doubly shocked to see it happening. She would have to speak with Albus about this later. A Patronus remaining and acting independent of the caster's thought was a sign of true mastery of the spell.

"Very impressive, Mister Potter. Where did you learn such an advanced spell? Most adults don't even know how to create one." She watched his cheeks redden slightly as Hermione looked at him carefully.

"He said it wasn't so difficult if you had a good memory for it," she told her favorite professor, wondering which to really believe. It would be a very Harry thing to do to say he cured aging and say it was nothing.

"It's not," Harry complained. "As long as you have a strong enough memory to use, the power that you need isn't so bad."

"I'll admit," McGonagall began, "that the power of the memory does indeed play a large part of success or failure, but I've never actually seen any reports or papers written on the power being related to the memory itself," she said, sounding almost accusing. Simply put, Harry did not really like it.

"It's true. The first time I got any results at all, I had a memory of my parents from the Mirror of Erised. I couldn't get anything more than the misty shield until I had a different memory," he said, turning his head to look at Hermione for a quick moment before looking back at McGonagall. "Anyway, I used a memory that made me happier and got better results."

McGonagall noticed Hermione's face flush brilliantly just before the girl turned her head to look out the window and hide her face with her hair. _'I am going to have to triple my bet with the Weasleys,'_ she thought.

"Perhaps you can do some tests and write a paper on it, then. I'll give you extra credit." McGonagall almost flinched as Hermione's head whipped around to look at the older woman in shock. "Miss Granger, if you would like to help him with it, you may. You could be part of the control group, perhaps." McGonagall almost let out a relieved sigh as a momentary feeling of dread left her. That girl could be frightening sometimes.

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione said, pleased to have something she could work on already. Harry chuckled lightly before looking at his Head of House.

"What about my classes did you want to talk about, Professor?"

"I just wanted to confirm that you still wish to take the electives you owled me," she said as the carriage came to a stop and they began to exit. "It'll be more work and I wanted to ensure you were up to the task."

"Of course, Professor. I've thought about it and made my decision," he said resolutely. "I'm perfectly happy with them now." McGonagall offered a small smile, honestly proud of the boy and whatever Hermione had done to get him to think ahead.

"Very good. I only have one last question for you before you head to the Great Hall," she said. "How did you manage learn the Patronus spell over the summer and not receive any warnings for the use of underage magic?" She watched as he turned to her with wide and shocked eyes.

"I thought Dumbledore would have told you," he said. "I emancipated myself just after the summer started and became immune to the underage magic restrictions. Even then, Potter Manor has protective wards on it that would have allowed me to practice underage magic if I were so set on it and not exempt from the rule."

McGonagall blinked and stared at Harry blankly for several moments, trying to figure out why Albus had not told her about it. But at least now she understood why he used Fawkes to communicate with him "No, he didn't, but it isn't his place to tell me every little thing, either," she said, defending the headmaster in front of the students while plotting the best way to yell at the man later. "So, you're living at Potter Manor now?"

"Yes, I am," Harry said, smiling. "It's a lot better than the Dursleys' home."

"Very well, then. Thank you for telling me," she said. "You may head to the Great Hall. The others should be here shortly. I will speak with Miss Granger and you should have her shortly."

"Not a problem, Professor. Take all the _time_ you need," he said, unable to resist slightly emphasizing the one word he knew they would be discussing. He smiled innocently as McGonagall eyed him with narrowed eyes. Had she told Hermione about it, she would have thought the girl would have told him, but she had not told her anything about the time-turner yet.

"Thank you, Mister Potter. You may go now," she told him stiffly.

"See you soon, Harry," Hermione said, finally seeing a place where she could enter the conversation.

"G'bye Hermione." Harry offered her a smile and began to walk away, smiling brightly. He paused outside of the doors to the Great Hall and waited until the two women turned a corner to McGonagall's office before pulling a letter out of his pocket. "Dobby!"

"Yes, Master Harry?" The house elf asked as he appeared with a soft pop.

"Can you please find Peeves and give him this note?" He asked, handing the paper to Dobby.

"Yes, sir! Dobby is doing that, Master Harry!" Quickly, he took the paper and popped away as Harry heard the rumble and excited chatter of the first group to come with the carriages.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Thanks for reading.


	7. We Are Legion

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter6** – We Are Legion

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

Added disclaimer (for the whole of the story): I do not own Thundercats and am willing to take names if anyone has any that are better for the creatures you will read about roughly three quarters of the way through the chapter (or so.)

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "To Stand Against the Darkness" by Muggledad (H/Hr)

xXx **Previously** xXx

"_So, you're living at Potter Manor now?"_

"_Yes, I do," Harry said, smiling. "It's a lot better than the Dursleys' home."_

"_Very well, then. Thank you for telling me," she said. "You may head to the Great Hall. The others should be here shortly. I will speak with Miss Granger and you should have her shortly."_

"_Not a problem, Professor. Take all the _time_ you need," he said, unable to resist slightly emphasizing the one word he knew they would be discussing._

_[edit]_

"_Dobby!"_

"_Yes, Master Harry?" The house elf asked as he appeared with a soft pop._

"_Can you please find Peeves and give him this note?" He asked, handing the paper to Dobby._

"_Yes, sir! Dobby is doing that, Master Harry!" Quickly, he took the paper and popped away as Harry heard the rumble and excited chatter of the first group to come with the carriages. _

xXx** STORY **xXx

**Wednesday – September 1**

Hermione followed her Head of House to her office and tried to think back on the scene she had just recently witnessed. Harry had suddenly become someone ... not different, really, but more profoundly Harry. His presence seemed to suddenly fill the room and impress upon her to listen and obey. The Harry in that compartment radiated command and authority that had made Hermione lose her breath and caused all of her rapid thought processes to simply end and command her to stare and follow him, wherever he led her. It had been a frightening and thrilling sensation to come to the realization that the Harry she had witnessed come forth on several occasions in the past, but restrained and muffled by abuse, innate shyness and fear of being visible and failing, where any faults could be seen, had seemed to suddenly break free of its restraints and take its proper place.

While she knew that Harry absolutely loathed his fame and that people seemed to deify him as some savior, and she certainly knew who Harry truly was inside, the side that the wizarding world thought he was had its place inside of him as well.

This had been that side of him, and it absolutely thrilled her to see it. It thrilled her to _experience_ it.

It also confused the hell out of her. Harry had called Professor Lupin 'Moony', which was most certainly not on the man's briefcase or any identifiable places on his person and yet the man answered, but appeared confused to be called that, meaning Harry had not met him over the summer. Then there was the fact that he was capable of an extremely advanced charm. The Patronus, according to two professors, was not something the average third year should be capable of. And not only does he say it's nothing, but says the very foundation of what they know about it is wrong. All of this, along with everything she had been learning over the summer in correspondence with him, was making Harry one odd enigma. As a rule, Hermione tried to solve puzzles when she was presented with them.

"I must say, Miss Granger. I am thoroughly impressed with your influence on Mister Potter," McGonagall said as she sat in her chair with a hand to the other for Hermione. "The way he speaks, holds himself and, if our ride to the castle was any indication, his mental aptitude has risen greatly. I can only hope to see this continue into the coming year."

Hermione blushed at the ill-gotten praise her Head of House was offering before shaking her head. "Oh, no Professor. Actually, Harry seemed to suddenly be different at the end of last year and we only exchanged a few letters through the summer until recently when I've been spending time at his home. We've had discussions about our essays and general theories of magic, but not much else. Everything is Harry's doing, Professor."

Minerva blinked with a blank expression over her face for a few seconds before frowning and placing her arms on her desk to brace herself as she leaned forward, closer to Hermione. "Are you telling me, Miss Granger, that you had nothing to do with the changes in Harry? He simply made the decision to change so drastically on his own?" The reasons Harry had given in his letter were easily strong enough to understand the changes Harry had gone through, but such drastic changes were simply not heard of in children this young. Well, not such drastic changes in a good sense, anyway. Still, though. A twelve-year old boy facing off against a sixty-three foot basilisk on his own, with a nearly dead girl on the ground and wielding nothing but a sword was probably one of those things that was likely to change a person.

"Yes, Ma'am. Throughout the whole summer, we talked about pretty much anything we could think of and he had a much deeper view and understanding of just about everything as if he'd been going as in depth as that in the past. You should read his essays, Professor! They're absolutely incredible!" Hermione's voice expressed her disbelief and shock by the end, her hands waving about wildly in equal exasperation. McGonagall was intrigued, but far more amused at the young witch's antics and used the experience she had long-since obtained from the Weasley twins' antics to withhold her laughter.

"I shall take note to read his Transfiguration essay, then. Now, about your schedule for this year," McGonagall said as she pulled out a small cherry wood box. "Dumbledore went through a lot of trouble to get this item for you to allow you to meet the classes you had expressed to me you had hopes of getting into."

"Ma'am?" Hermione asked. She had asked McGonagall before the previous year had ended multiple times about scheduling conflicts between Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Divination and Muggle Studies. She had heard from McGonagall that Divination was just about the worst possible class she could hope to get into while she believed Muggle Studies was only a little behind modern times when Hermione said she was excited to learn how the wizarding world viewed the muggle world.

After Harry had explained what he learned about the classes, she had gone to Diagon Alley and looked at the books for Muggle Studies and had been horrified that, not only was much of the information inaccurate, but nearly a hundred years old unless it was material that also directly influenced the wizarding world, such as Hitler and his work with Grindelwald. Even then, the information was minimal or showed the muggle side of events in a poor or foolish light.

It would not have been a problem any longer if it would not have meant separating from Harry and Ron during their classes. They were, for all intents and purposes, her only real friends. She could count Neville and Ginny, of course, and the rest of the Weasleys, but she had a strange sense of 'mine' when it concerned Harry and Ron. They were _her_ friends and most importantly, she was _their's_ as well.

That had been her primary focus in taking Divination, in particular, after McGonagall had advised that it was a nearly meaningless class to take. Making sure to look after her two boys was sometimes a time-consuming job, but one she felt she had to take. It was her duty to help them as her closest and dearest friends. She kept them in line, usually, after all.

"Within this box, Miss Granger, is a highly restricted device called a time-turner. It allows a person to go backward in time for up to a maximum of thirty-six hours or multiple people going much shorter distances back," McGonagall said, watching Hermione's widening eyes carefully.

"Time travel?" Hermione squeaked. "I didn't think that was even possible!"

"Yes," McGonagall nodded, "it is. However, there are very strict rules governing the use of these devices, which is why I am going to ask that you never tell anyone, even Misters Potter and Weasley, that you have this device. Do you understand me?" She asked, staring intently at the girl in front of her. "If you feel even the slightest doubt you can do this, or use this properly, let me know so we do not start something we should not. I can understand any hesitancy to keeping secrets from your friends, but I must stress how it is important that no one knows about this."

After a moment's thought, Hermione nodded. "Yes Ma'am. I won't say anything unless they figure something out. After all, Ron is going to be in some of the classes with me while Harry is in the others. It may be best to let them know at some point, or they will talk and say I'm in both of their classes."

"Yes, Mister Potter changing his schedule will complicate the matter a bit as Dumbledore had obtained this device before he requested his changes, but I feel they could maintain the secret if needed, but we should endeavor to only bring them into the loop if necessary, yes?" McGonagall asked, getting a nod in return.

"Good. If you feel one of them is suspicious, you may bring them in, but do try to get my assistance first. Now, the rules are really quite simple. Under no circumstances should you allow any younger versions of yourself to see any older versions as most who have done so have gone quite mad in attempts to figure out what they will need to do in order to make everything the same as they saw it from their younger version's point of view. Also, no matter the cost, you cannot go back in time to change something to happen differently than you know it already happened as."

"Is this the paradox theory? That it would create an infinite time loop that would be impossible to break or possibly unravel the fabric of time?" Hermione asked with a sinking feeling in her stomach. McGonagall sighed before nodding.

"Those are a a few of the prevailing theories, yes. There are a few others as well, but all have the exact same warning to never change anything that you already know happens a specific way. To do so could spell disaster in a way that we cannot even begin to fathom. Do you understand?"

"Yes Ma'am. I do."

"Excellent. Now that the most important rule is out of the way, a few of the smaller rules are to not use this device needlessly as it raises the risk of causing problems and you do age at your normal rate as you physically go back. Also, it has been shown that those who use the device for an extended number of uses in a short period of time will sometimes cease to exist. While you don't have to fear that for your schedule, since it has only been shown in those who abuse the power ridiculously, I mention it to make sure you understand some of the dangers inherent in abusing this power."

"Yes Ma'am," Hermione said, nodding. "I understand."

"Very well, Miss Granger. Then I will show you how this device works now and you may look up more information in the library at your leisure or come to me at any time to discuss it as you need."

"Ma'am, shouldn't we be getting down to the Great Hall? You'll be late for sorting the first years and ..." Hermione trailed off as McGonagall held the silver and gold hourglass in her hand with a slightly bemused expression on her face. "Oh."

"It has the power to send two people short times back instead of one person further, so we shall be fine, Miss Granger." McGonagall's smile widened slightly as Hermione blushed and made a noncommittal noise. Setting the device down, she began to go over the remaining rules and functions of the necklace.

xXxXxXx

Harry waited for Dobby to leave and then smiled in the sadistic way he had been practicing for his encounters with Draco for the coming years, though he would never admit to staring into the mirror to make sure he got it just right. He had plans to have many a cause to offer such a smile to the youngest Malfoy and many of the Death Eater sympathizers. He turned and left the classroom before heading straight to the courtyard where the students would arrive so he would not be forced to be singled out yet again.

Looking out at the series of carriages that had students coming out of them for his wayward redheaded friend, he had time to stand there, alone and unobserved and had a reflective moment and took note of some of the faces he had known and had come to know in the years before being returned to his past.

He saw Cedric Diggory, laughing with another Hufflepuff as they got out of the first series of carriages; a benefit of being older and bigger than other students. Harry could still feel a pang of guilt and sorrow when he remembered watching the brave boy take guard over Harry when both were spirited away in Harry's original fourth year during the Tri-Wizard Tournament where he was killed without a second thought.

Cho Chang, the girl he thought he had fancied at one point, though it turned out to be an unwitting potion-induced fling, and who had even slapped him silly when he left their date in Hogsmeade when Hermione had told Harry she had needed him. In retrospect, though, he probably should have tried to appear less pleased to have the opportunity to have left Madam Puddifoot's. The teashop was amongst the things that had haunted his dreams during his better nights, sometimes.

That was an experience he was hoping to avoid this time around, even if it were with Hermione.

He saw Draco Malfoy, turned death eater during the summer after their sixth year after Snape had killed Dumbledore in front of Harry, even though Snape did not know Harry was hiding under Dumbledore's disillusionment charm. Malfoy's two cronies were at his side, both now and then, and would probably remain there.

Harry saw a shock of red hair that turned out to be Ron when the crowds thinned enough for Harry to see the boy and he set out immediately to catch up with him before he saw a small shimmer of blonde hair, walking alone about half way between them.

Harry remembered this girl, too; Luna Lovegood. She had been one of the oddest people Harry had ever known, but turned out to have always been fiercely loyal to Harry and his friends. During his original fifth year, Harry had gotten to know the quirky Ravenclaw. It had been almost frightening how badly she had not only wanted friendship, from anybody, but desperately craved it. Harry was not above admitting that it was just as bad as he had been when he first came into the wizarding world. The only difference, however, was that she had gone four years in Hogwarts not only without friends, but being mocked, ridiculed and tormented during those years, by her own house mates more than anyone else, no less. Not once during the entire fifth year had she complained about them, but he had learned at the end of the year how they had always stolen her things and hidden them about the school, even making her walk around barefoot during the winter months.

_'Oh hell no. That isn't happening this time around,'_ Harry thought. His whole purpose was to make things better than they had been after being given a second chance. To kill Voldemort and make the right choices this time around. She had proven to be a loyal and valuable friend during his last life, even admitting to him after a DA meeting once that she had loved the group so much because it was 'what having friends must feel like'. If that was not a plea for friendship and help, Harry did not know what was. He had allowed his own insecurities and uncomfortable feelings to influence how he interacted with her, not wanting to stand out more than he already did the last time through, almost ignoring those silent calls for friendship to leave her just as alone as she had always been. She had been hurting. And he could help her. Screw what the world thought.

"Hey. It's Luna, right?" Harry asked, realizing he was already walking beside the blonde girl by the time he had made his choice. The girl in question turned to him and blinked her silver-gray eyes slowly before smiling serenely and nodding once.

"Yes, it is. Welcome back, Harry. It's good to see you again." After smiling again, she turned to look forward as both continued on, though Harry's eyes had widened considerably.

"Erm, 'again'? Have we actually met before?" He asked, absolutely terrified. The girl had always shown a frightening ability to be where she had been needed during his fifth year and seemed to hold back when he had needed to talk and was either on the outs with Ron or did not feel comfortable talking with Hermione. Especially regarding the loss of Sirius, since she had dealt with the loss of her mother. Harry had toyed with the notion that Luna was a Seer or something similar, but had never truly believed that to be the case. Now? Now he was not so sure.

"I don't believe so," Luna said, frowning in thought. "But it felt like the right thing to say at the moment. We must always trust in our instincts, don't you agree?"

Harry had to admit, Luna was an odd cookie, but she was unique in her own way. "Yes, we do," he agreed while nodding. He simply attributed her comment to being either her odd personality coming through or referring to returning to the school. "Anyway, I had a few reasons I wanted to talk with you about. First, I'd like to order a subscription to The Quibbler. Second, I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find some books, scrolls or other archives on Snorkacks, wizarding bedtime stories, fairy legends and folklore and, lastly, I was wondering if you wanted to join Ron, Hermione and I for breakfast tomorrow."

Luna stopped walking suddenly and turned to look at Harry with her head cocked slightly to the side. Harry almost felt uncomfortable, but had remembered her doing this the first time they had begun speaking. It was something of a defense against people who were being nice to her only to trick her later, but she could detect no such motives in Harry, which confused her greatly. Even worse, he _felt_ different than the average person. It was not his power. She had always been able to sense his power from almost anywhere in the castle, though it was absolutely massive at the moment. But his very life energy felt different. Almost denser, if such a thing were possible. As if he were more solidly within the world. It oddly reminded Luna of her mother.

"I'm sure I can get you a subscription. My father owns the newspaper, after all. Most other things can be found in either Flourish and Blotts or Hogwarts' library, though there is no known information on Snorkacks, I'm afraid," she said. "I'm saddened to say that the Ministry dictates what we are allowed to have access to."

"Yes," Harry nodded, "they do. They're a bunch of bigoted and power-hungry people who are out for themselves and would rather ignore something they don't understand than to admit that it exists."

Luna continued to look ahead as they walked towards the Great Hall as the third wave of carriages was unloading and tried to figure out the boy walking along with her. It was odd to be approached by someone who was not planning to be mean or nasty to her, and she did not really expect such things from Harry Potter. While she did not subscribe to the notions of him being the hero the wizarding world proclaimed of him, she did know that he was truly a hero in his own right. Just because of the boy he was. And knowing who he was, she decided to take the risk.

"Agreed. I suppose I can sit with you in the morning if you're there before I am so long as you think Hermione and Ronald wouldn't mind?" She asked, wondering what his two friends thought. Harry remembered their original reactions to her and, while Ron was certainly not happy, Hermione was friendly enough, and was only thrown off guard by the blonde's thought processes. She had made fun of Luna a bit, even calling her names, but it had always been when Luna wasn't around. And he couldn't say he wasn't a party to that. He had been just as bad, which was something he regretted. But at least now he could fix it.

"They'll be fine with it. Hermione is just as intelligent as you are, but has a very literal mind, so she may feel out of her element, but you'll like her, I believe. Ron is a bit crude and rash, but mostly a decent guy. He just doesn't think of other people's feelings before his own. He's a good friend though, and comes to his senses pretty quick."

Luna did not believe Ronald Weasley was as good of a friend as Harry thought, but was not about to risk alienating a new, though unexpected, friendship over it. She had learned to deal with far worse than a thirteen-year old boy's cruelty and ignorance. "Very well. I'll see you in the morning, Harry Potter."

"Great! See you later, Luna!" Harry said happily with a final wave before heading to where he had kept an eye on Ron while Luna puzzled over the curiously warm feeling in her chest.

xXxXxXx

"Welcome students, new and old, to another wonderful year at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said from his place behind the podium on the teacher's dais. "As you all have noticed, no doubt, Hogwarts is playing host to dementors, which would normally be guarding Azkaban. However, with the escape of Sirius Black, they will instead be guarding Hogwarts now. Please remain within Hogwarts' grounds at all times and do not provoke them, as they are quite deadly and will not see the difference between an enemy and student if attacked or provoked in any way."

Harry frowned on his bench as he looked out at the students around him. The faces he looked at ranged from outright fear to confusion and one unconcerned Ravenclaw who was batting her radish earrings back and forth. He wondered why Dumbledore had allowed the dementors onto the school grounds, or if he honestly did not have the authority to say no to the Minister. He had always assumed Albus Dumbledore was basically the most powerful person in their government, but could not think of a single reason Dumbledore would allow the soul-sucking beasts to remain when he remembered the old man been emphatically against their placement there. At least, that was what he remembered, but he could never really remember the old man actually saying as much. Just that he knew Dumbledore hated them.

"I ask that any student who needs to go outside to not do so alone, but in pairs if not more at a time. We do not want to have any accidents occur." Dumbledore wanted to scare the children enough to get them to realize the true danger the dementors posed to them, but not so much they had needless worries from those who would be overly terrified.

"Now that the real dangers are discussed, the usual start of term announcements may be made. Mister Filch has once again updated his list of contraband items, which may be seen on his office door. The Forbidden Forest is off limits to everyone with no exceptions. There is to be no magic use in the hallways between classes..."

Harry tuned out the Headmaster as he looked at Hermione from the corner of his eye, her face flushed with excitement as she played with the chain around her neck, repeatedly touching as if to make sure it was still there. She had walked in only moments after he and Ron had, coming from the side door with McGonagall rather than the large, double doors the students normally used. He was somewhat amused at her excuse of McGonagall wanting to discuss her Transfiguration essay for being taken by their Head of House when Ron had asked. He had felt a brief moment of shame when he realized he had originally bought the excuse as readily as Ron had. McGonagall hadn't even received their essays yet, and no essay would be worth the inconvenience of missing her duties required by the sorting.

There would be a lot more reading this time around.

As Dumbledore's voice faded and the food appeared on the tables with the wood groaning and creaking in protest, Harry pondered on his plans. For the past two months, his primary focus was first on doing the very things Lora had told him to do, basically being to get his body healed with a growth spurt and nutrient potions, train for strength and physical prowess and get established in his new home and life while developing his mental defenses.

On top of that, he had focused his mind onto a few smaller areas where he wanted to get up to speed in. He had worked on silent spell casting and wandless magics, read up on horcruxes and how to destroy them and read as thoroughly as he could on his two new classes; Runes and Arithmancy, since those were really the only subjects he had no clue about, and then on the most important things he wanted to change for this coming year. He wanted to try and catch Wormtail, but knew he had to let the rat live so that he would not totally ruin the time line he was expecting more than he already had and he wanted to give his Godfather and Moony a reason to be happy with their Godson. Or was it to follow in their footsteps?

His plans for Draco and the coming months would probably do both, so perhaps semantics did not matter so much.

The problem, however, was he had not truly figured out what he was going to do during the year beyond playing the role of his third year self and perhaps starting the Defense Association a little earlier than before. It was going to be needed. There would be no doubts of that when things got serious.

And now, after 'meeting' Luna all over again, he decided he would make a point of befriending her and several of the others he knew would be worth getting to know. People were younger and had not yet embraced the darkness as fully. Or the light. If he could catch some of them now and stop them, or get some spies of his own, then it would only help.

He had a brief and revolting moment of insight of Dumbledore thinking those very same things when Ron's voice broke him out of his reverie.

"Hey Harry, where'd you learn to cast a Patronus, anyway? That's a hard spell to learn," Ron said through a mouth full of food, seemingly having forgotten the very same question being asked on the train earlier. It had also been where he got his current information, since he hadn't heard of it until that very day. Hermione quickly moved her plate slightly away from the hungry redhead with a frown, not wanting the splattered food from his mouth to get onto hers.

"I learned it a little while ago after some practice," Harry said with a shrug. While not exactly a lie, it was grossly understating the truth. "I'm actually planning on showing you guys how to do it."

"That would be wicked!" Ron said after swallowing. "Can you imagine? Being able to do such a powerful spell so young?" He smiled brightly as he took a big bite of his chicken leg.

"I can imagine, yes," Hermione said. "And I am looking forward to learning the spell. When do you plan on teaching us, Harry?"

"Well, I was planning to teach you next weekend after we get our schedules and back into the rhythm of our classes and the like," he said before noticing Hermione's scowl. "Er, of course, I c-could always make this weekend available?" He stuttered nervously. It was strange how a twelve-year old girl scared the crap out of him. Even if it _was_ Hermione.

Hermione beamed at him before turning to begin cutting up her chicken breast. "Good idea. It will make things _so_ much safer," she finished with a pointed look right at him, hinting it was safer for him than those learning the spell if the way she held her knife was any indication.

"Er, right then." He pulled at his collar and cleared his throat. "Well, I've invited Luna Lovegood to have breakfast with us tomorrow. Is that okay?" he asked, hoping to change the subject to anything else.

"Loony? You're having us sit with Loony Lovegood?" Ron asked incredulously, splaying his mashed potatoes over his plate in shock.

Hermione frowned slightly to herself, wondering why Harry wanted to invite another girl to their breakfast. "Who's Luna Lovegood?" She asked.

"Only the battiest girl you'll ever meet!" Ron spluttered. "Why are you inviting _her_ over?"

"_Luna_ Lovegood," Harry emphasized with a glare at Ron and pointing towards the girl in question who was blissfully eating a spoonful of pudding, "is a second year Ravenclaw who is ostracized from her house mates and always called 'Loony' by people who don't really understand her and-"

"What's to understand?" Ron interrupted. "She's barmy! She's always talking about creatures that don't exist, her dad writes in a newspaper about things that don't exist and she's always saying weird stuff! She used to play with Ginny at the Burrow all the time, mate. Trust me, she's absolutely nutters."

Harry frowned and turned to look and speak directly to Hermione. "She does talk about creatures that no one knows about, but that isn't to say they aren't really there and we just can't see them. I mean, we know that most creatures wizards know about are things muggles believe to not exist, after all. And her dad owns a newspaper called 'The Quibbler' that he writes about many of those creatures and a bunch of conspiracy theories, like a muggle tabloid."

"She's been almost completely alone since her mother died a few years ago and, because of her oddities, the other Ravenclaws either have nothing to do with her or torment her, even stealing her shoes at times so she walks around barefoot." Harry leaned a little closer, even though a disgusted Ron was now no longer paying nearly as much attention to them and lowered his voice.

"She is a lot like I was before I met you and Ron. She has no friends, and those that might befriend her are warned off by others to stop it from happening, she's mocked and tormented and she needs some friends." Harry looked Hermione directly in the eyes and tried to convey the full impact of what he was wanting to get across.

"She's almost as smart as you, Hermione, and just as nice. She _is_ a little odd, yes, but I think you could like her if you're willing to look past her oddities, which are probably so strange because she's been alone for so long, and get to know her to make your own judgement."

Hermione was not sure what she should be feeling as Harry spoke so highly and with so much conviction about a girl she did not yet know. Especially when he looked at her with those eyes that basically begged her to accept the younger blonde. She could not recall really seeing the girl before, or hearing anything about her. Ron obviously had poor things to say about the Ravenclaw, but he had many such bad things to say about her as well, and usually right to her face. There was no telling what he said about her _behind_ her back. But that just simply meant his opinion was not worth nearly as much if anything Harry had to say was correct.

"We can meet her, Harry. If nothing else, we can at least give her a chance to be a friend."

Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and squeezed it gently, rubbing his thumb over the top of her hand in a gentle caress to convey his appreciation. "Thanks, Hermione." He let her hand go and both began to eat in silence while contemplating their own thoughts.

xXxXxXx

Harry looked around the dorm room and listened for the distinctive sounds of each boy's snores. After assuring himself that he was the only one awake, he silently slipped out of his bed and into his Hogwarts robe from earlier that very day and grabbed his invisibility cloak. He carefully made his way out and through the common room, making sure no one was around as he went into the hall and quickly took off to an empty classroom not far from the Gryffindor tower where Peeves was waiting, muttering about crazy students before he noticed Harry.

"Alright, I'm here! The elf gave me this letter," Peeves said petulantly, thrusting the letter out to Harry, "and you said you had presents for Peeves! Peeves wants his presents!"

Harry smiled and waved the excitable spook down as he took a seat. "Peeves, I have a very large box that is absolutely full of fun little items that will leave you pranking happily for several months, if not most of the year. Are you interested?"

Peeves narrowed his eyes as he lowered himself to appear to be sitting across from Harry and pretended to think about it. "What would Peeves have to do for these items?" He asked suspiciously.

"There would be three rules that you have to follow, and they're all yours."

"And what rules are those?"

"Rule one is that I don't want you to prank myself, or a very small list of my friends; Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, the Weasleys, Neville Longbottom or Susan Bones, as we really don't want her aunt to get upset, and we don't want to prank any first years. While your pranks are usually quite hilarious," he said, buttering the poltergeist up a little, "we don't want to risk them getting hurt or upset. Also, you don't want to prank any of the faculty except maybe Snape and Filch or you're likely to get into serious trouble."

Peeves thought for a few moments before nodding. It was not going to be as much fun as pranking the whole school, but worth it if the box of goodies was as good as he said. "I can do that. What else?"

"Rule two is if you see my friends or I in the halls, you don't rat us out and, if we're about to get caught, maybe distract whoever it is to let us get away or warn us if someone is about to come. If we get caught, then there is less of a chance that I can get more of this stuff in later and you get to play with it when I do. I know you like to get students in trouble and get them caught, but pranking is more worth it, but the third rule is going to make you very happy, I believe."

Peeves wanted to be upset about the second rule, but his attention span was really quite small, and the way Harry finished the rule left him unable to think about anything but figuring out what rule three was, even if he agreed blindly to rule two. "What's rule three?"

"Do you agree to rule number two?" Harry asked.

"Yes, yes! Now what's rule three and why will Peeves like it?"

"Rule three is my personal favorite, actually," Harry said with the fiendish smile he had been practicing, exciting Peeves even more. "I am going to supply you with all sorts of prank items, but I would like you to find out what Ravenclaws, in particular, keep taking Luna Lovegood's things, and letting me know so that I know, but so that we can make plans to create a massive prank against them and possible some Slytherins. And along with this, I want you to focus at least one prank a week on Draco Malfoy. Do we have a deal?"

Peeves' mist-like eyes lit up in an unholy glee as he realized what he was being offered. Prime prank materials for who knows how long. And all it took was following rules so easy, even _he_ could not forget them! "If Potty's box of goodies is as good as he says it is, then we have a deal!"

Harry smiled again and pulled out his old, school trunk, miniaturized for ease of transport, and set it on the ground before turning back to Peeves. "Actually, I'd like to add one more rule, but it's not something that will make things any less fun for you," he said, watching Peeves pout petulantly.

"Rules, rules, rules! Why more rules? Fine! What rule?" The ghost asked with a huff, crossing his hands over his hazy chest and sticking his tongue out at Harry while crossing his eyes.

"If you ever see me, my friends or the Weasley twins out and about and we ask for help with a prank, consider helping us out. You don't have to, but just think about it, at least."

Peeves sighed dramatically and tossed his hands up into the air. "Fine, fine. If you can't prank on your own, Peeves will think about helping. Now what's in Potty's box?"

Harry smiled and enlarged the trunk as he began to list items off. "We have the usual nasties that I all but bought out the pranking shop like dung bombs and the like. But I took the liberty of getting you a bunch of new toys to play with as well from the muggle world."

"Oh?" Peeves asked, peering into the trunk that he idly noticed no longer had Harry's name on it, meaning he could not leave it as evidence as he had thought about. "What things can muggles do to prank with?"

"There is powder in here that can cause a person to begin itching after several minutes that won't show up with magical scans, there are over ten thousand paint balls, which are little balls about the size of a large marble that are filled with paint and explode when they hit something, I got a slingshot for you to fire them off, with," Harry said with a smile.

"There are about a thousand balloons, Snapping Dragons, which are little noise makers that make a loud pop, chocolate candies that are filled with laxatives and a whole bunch of things that will keep you entertained for a while."

Peeves was giggling over a canister of itching powder when Harry looked back at him. "Oh, Peeves likes! I think this will go quite well in the Slytherin bog rolls!"

Harry's face betrayed his horror at the concept of itching powder placed on something that would come into contact with such a sensitive area. "Peeves ... You're a bloody genius!"

Peeves cackled madly as he raised into the air and twirled about happily.

"One last thing, Peeves," Harry said right before leaving the room, causing the spectre to hover in the air with a balloon over his head like a plastic bag.

"Mmph hmph?"

"There are going to be a lot of tiny creatures walking the halls soon. They're going to be part of a prank I'm pulling for a little while. Don't hurt them, alright? They're going to torment anyone who isn't nice to them."

Peeves nodded before suddenly acting as if he could not breathe and was suffocating. Harry simply shook his head and left the room, leaving Peeves to die in peace.

xXxXxXx

Nearly an hour later, Harry had transfigured the last of a hundred different pebbles supplied by the Room of Requirement into tiny little creatures of his own design. They were humanoid in shape, but had tails like cats or foxes, depending on his mood at the time of transfiguring them, and ears to match. He had also given them whiskers and cat-like eyes, all with brown eyes except for a few that he had wanted to be gold, blue, pink, red or silver out of amusement.

He had created them with different colors of fur for their ears, tails and the fur on their cat-like heads; white, brown, black, white that hinted at pink, blue or silver, depending on his mood at the time and now all were standing at attention in lines in front of him like tiny, furry soldiers.

Taking a moment to look over his handiwork, he stepped back and began to wave his wand in large, slow sweeps across the group of animal-like creatures ahead of him and began to mumble and picture within his mind the parameters of the spell he was planning to force out through his wand, using it like a battery to store all of the information he was adding into the spell.

He envisioned personalities, quirks, voices, missions and every aspect of the faux life he was hoping to give them, pushing every single iota of power at his control and every aspect he came up with into his wand, which began to glow and hum as it gained more power, pulsing with each new command given and stored within.

The spell was something he had found within the book Lora had given him in the dueling section, normally used to animate battle dummies so that they could fight their creator with real tactics rather than sitting still and reflecting curses, much like the dueling dummies the Room of Requirement had originally given him and the defense group during his fifth year. The spell was meant to create an animated dummy that had traits placed into the spell, and actually used the caster's own mental structure as a foundation, simply creating a copy of the mind with the tweaks requested and putting it into the target. This would normally create an animated dummy that was nearly identical in mind to the one who cast the spell. Normally, that would give the caster an opponent who fought with their own ability and power, but using different tactics.

However, this was not normal.

The spell was originally intended for one target, not nearly a hundred. Harry had come to use it constantly during his practice duels in the large expanse of yard behind his family's home. It was Harry's belief that he had enough power, and thus would be able to shorten his casting time by a hundred times, if he cast it in a wide arc over all of his creations at once. It was not, however, meant to be used as such.

And it was certainly not meant to be cast in a magical room that became whatever the user needed, or required, either.

The Room of Requirement, sensing Harry's intentions and methods, realized a new requirement for itself, based on Harry's needs at that moment, just before he cast his spell. It sensed each of those transfigured creations were meant to be sentient and have the ability to make their own choices and take their own actions and effectively become his servants and everything that Harry placed into his wand to be commanded over the large group was taken by the room.

By the time Harry had thought up every single thing he wanted his creations to contain, his wand was glowing with the intensity of a Solaris spell, pulsing quickly and humming loudly as if a tiny sun was fighting wildly to escape his hands. Had Harry's attention been on the outside world and not on maintaining the powerful spell in his hands, he would have realized the wand was in fact vibrating within his hands and the power escaping every half a second was washing over him, causing his robes and hair to flap about madly.

Once he was finished with the details, Harry released his spell in a chaotic rush from his wand, causing a literal wave of magic to wash over the tiny creatures in front of him and enter each one, silently directed and altered by the room itself.

As the last vestiges of power drained from his hands, Harry fell to his knees in sudden exhaustion, panting heavily. He looked up to see the mass of creatures in front of him looking around in wonderment and confusion before putting their attention to their master, aligning themselves to his will.

As one, they spoke. "We are Legion."

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – September 2, 06:15**

Albus Dumbledore, Leader of the International Confederation of Wizards, the Wizengamot and Headmaster for the school of Hogwarts leaned back in his private tub and pondered the situation he found himself in.

On one hand, he was enjoying a nice and, although longer than he originally intended, long, leisurely soak in his private bathing chamber before heading down to breakfast. This bathing chamber was one that no one but himself and his Deputy Headmistress could enter, the latter only in the case of emergencies.

On the other hand, some little creature and his two even littler compatriots had just ran off with his towels and, if he was not mistaken, another had his sack of lemon drops over his shoulder like he were holding Santa's toy sack and all four of the little buggers had threatened to shave his beard during the middle of the night if he tried to stop them.

Had he not been absolutely confused about the little creatures' existence to begin with, he would have had the forethought to summon his precious lemon drops back to himself, but they were already gone before he had even come back to his senses.

_'I do believe it is time to get a cat.'_

xXxXxXx

Harry yawned as he walked into the common room, still setting his Hogwarts robes to rights. He had been up for an additional two hours the night before, just giving his newest prank, though he wanted to call them minions, their orders. While they already knew most of what was expected of them, Harry had wanted to be absolutely sure everything was set straight with them and had not been disappointed.

"Good morning, Harry. Did you sleep well? You look exhausted," Hermione greeted from the couch where she had been reading as she got up and walked over to him.

"Once I got to sleep, yes. I slept rather well. Good morning to you, too." Harry reached down and petted Crookshanks, who was rubbing against Harry's leg and purring furiously. It suddenly made him realize he had not even been bothered with knowing Peter Pettigrew had been in the same room the night before with his mind so preoccupied.

"Where's Ron," she asked. "He's normally down right with you."

"He's still getting ready and said to go ahead," he said as they walked towards the portrait hole. "I don't think he fancies sitting with Luna at the moment. So I figure you can get a chance to meet her without him for a few minutes. Might be a bit less awkward."

Hermione decided not to respond, being more pleased about not watching Ron eat than meeting a new person. However, as they were walking down the hall, she noticed a tiny little fur person, perhaps a foot and a half tall, running down the hall away from her and Harry, followed momentarily by a second one. "What in the world are those?" She asked, more to herself than Harry.

"I'm thinking of calling them 'Thundercats'. But I'm not sure," Harry replied with a self-pleased grin before thinking, making Hermione look at him through narrowed eyes.

"You're 'thinking about calling them' that? What do you mean?"

Harry nodded and smiled at the bushy-haired one. "I made them. There are about a hundred of them, and they're going to serve a few purposes. I'm going to use them to keep an eye on the school, especially to keep an eye out for Sirius Black," he said, not hinting at exactly why he wanted to keep an eye on the escapee, "and they are totally harmless, unless you are mean or rude to them, at which point, they'll prank you. If you're kind, they'll be very friendly."

Hermione blinked at Harry as she thought over what he had just said. Some was understandable, some was a little weird. But one thought was more prevalent than the rest. "You _made_ them? How? What are they? And why are you calling them 'Thundercats', anyway?"

"They _were_ pebbles, but I transfigured them and used an animation charm that I use for dueling practice to animate dummies to fight back with. I can set their personalities. They won't harm anyone, but they will prank people if they aren't shown respect or kindness. And I called them 'Thundercats' because there was this cartoon called that that Dudley watched for a little while about humanoid cats from some planet somewhere. Thundara, or Thunderific or something like that."

Hermione sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as it began to click together. "Let me guess. These are the 'tiny ones' you told Malfoy about?"

Harry just grinned impishly at her.

xXxXxXx

Harry and Hermione had sat at the Gryffindor table and filled their plates when a petite blonde girl stood across from them on the other side of the table, holding a furry little friend in her arms as one would hold a baby. The little creature was purring loudly and had its eyes closed in a euphoric bliss as the girl scratched it under the chin. "Hello," she said simply.

"Hey Luna, take a seat," Harry said with a smile and gestured at the spot in front of himself and Hermione. Hermione looked at the furry creature as it grabbed Luna's hand as she tried to sit and pulled it back to its chin, prompting for more scratching.

"Thank you, but I'd much rather sit, if that's alright with you?" She asked as she did so. Harry cocked his head to the side and appeared to think for a moment as Hermione blinked at the girl in confusion.

"Yes, I suppose that would be more comfortable, wouldn't it?" He asked, making Hermione's head turn to face him so quickly her hair flew across her face. Harry ignored it, even though he found it amusing that Luna took his comment as stealing the bench, making a joke out of it, and pointed to Luna and then Hermione in turn. "Hermione, this is Luna Lovegood. Luna, this is Hermione Granger."

Hermione reached across the table and shook the blonde's hand, even as the fur person mewed pathetically for attention. "Hello. You're a second year, right?" She asked, remembering what Harry had told her the night before and wanting to break the ice.

"Yes," Luna said as she put eggs and bacon on her plate to form a smiley face with one hand and idly scratched behind the furry's ear with the other. "I was sorted with Ginny and used to play with her and Ronald, though he never liked playing with us too much, I don't believe. He much preferred to fly about."

Hermione nodded her head and grimaced slightly. "Yes, he does prefer flying to much else, doesn't he?" She asked needlessly. They lapsed into a short silence as they ate slowly before Hermione could not hold in her questions any longer. "Why are you holding that thing like that?"

"Fuzzy? I caught him trying to drag all of the second year girls' under things out in a giant sack out of our dorm room and decided he was cute. He's been quite agreeable so far," Luna said, feeding the tiny creature a piece of bacon as it imitated playing Peek-a-Boo to appear cuter. She did not feel it was worth mentioning that he had three friends who managed to finish the job.

Hermione turned to face Harry with an accusatory glare. "All of your underthings, huh?" Harry pulled at his collar and coughed as his throat suddenly felt thick.

"Oh no," Luna said with wide eyes. "He only tried to take everyone else's. Mine were still where they belonged."

"Why would he do that," Hermione asked both Luna and Harry, though directed more at Harry.

"A small step to setting things to rights, mostly," he said after swallowing a sausage. Hermione understood the unspoken comment that it was against those who treated the younger girl badly and not just random. She glanced at Luna and pondered her own thoughts and feelings as she watched the blonde smile and feed Fuzzy. Just as Hermione was about to comment, Ron sat down heavily on the bench next to her and grabbed for the food with a mumbled 'hello'.

"And a bright and cheery good morning to you, too, Ron," Harry said cheerfully, though putting the happiness on a little thick.

"Good morning, Ronald," Luna said airily.

"Yea, morning." Ron ignored the others, even the furry creature in Luna's arms, and continued to eat, still miffed about being anywhere near 'Loony Lovegood'.

The four sat and spoke of trivial matters for several minutes until four of Harry's creations came running into the hall as if death were on their heels. Stopping just a few feet inside the room, they searched for Harry and quickly shot out after him.

"Quick! Take these!" The smallest of the group said out loud, its voice high and frightened. "They're after us!"

"What?" Harry asked confusedly. "Who's after you? Why are you running?"

"Devils!" The creature hissed, laying its ears back while the others around him, including the one that just hopped out of Luna's arms, did the same and prepared to run. "Death on swift legs! Creatures of the darkest nights! They're after us! Take the damned bag already!"

Up at the staff table, the teachers were listening with growing fear as the creatures spoke in the almost deathly silent room. They had no idea what the little creatures were, either, but they had not yet harmed anyone and there were more than enough to cause plenty of harm and damage if angered, so it was best to let them coexist temporarily. But if something were coming into the school that had them terrified...

"Too late!" The creature yelled out as all five of the Thundercats looked at the door where no audible noise had come from. "They're here!" Immediately, each creature took off towards the large, double doors as a small gaggle of cats rushed in from the side entrance where the doomsayer and his partners in crime had rushed in from. Each of the cats had Harry's new creations in sight and picked up noticeable speed as they tried to run from the carnivorous felines.

As Fuzzy and the four newcomers exited the hall, Luna deftly flicked her wand and a Slytherin first year accidentally spilled a pitcher of pumpkin juice in front of the mewling cats, who were suddenly more focused on staying dry than catching their prey.

"Where in the world would thirty cats have come from?" Hermione asked as she tried to spot her own cat in the herd. It wouldn't do to have him spending time with such ruffians!

"They aren't real," Luna stated. "They're conjured."

"How can you tell?" Hermione asked as she turned to the second year.

"They feel like the Headmaster's magic and too strongly to have just been compelled," she said as she turned to Harry. "What was in the little bag?"

Harry shrugged and opened the cloth bag to find Dumbledore's prized lemon drops. His eyes widened as Luna snickered. Quickly, he looked around to see that the majority of the students were still paying attention to the cats or had gone back to eating. Not wanting to get caught with the spoils of his creations' apparent theft, though he would later claim prank, Harry tied the bag closed and set it on the table in front of Ron, where it was sure to disappear. Oddly enough, the boy still had not asked what the little fur people were or where they had come from.

"That won't turn out well," he told them with amusement as the Headmaster came into the room, looking about for his bag as he followed his cats in the direction of double doors. He saw his cats, but none of the smaller ... cat things ... or his baggie of sweets. Frowning, the old man sat down.

"Harry," Hermione hissed. "You've got to give them back to-" she stopped abruptly as she realized the bag of candy was already gone, and Ron's mouth was stuffed and clacking as he looked rightfully pleased with himself. "Weren't there more than a handful of candies still in that?" She whispered to Harry.

"Yea," he whispered back, but loudly enough for Luna to hear. "But Ron loves candy. He doesn't care where it came from. It's why he always falls prey to the twins' joke candies." He smiled at Hermione as she tried to figure out why Ron was so silent, and had apparently gone for candy that he knew came from a questionable source, and why this promised to be a year to top the other two.

Dumbledore stepped up on stage and to his podium, deciding to head off all the questions he could.

"If I could have all of your attention, please. Thank you. As I am sure many of you have noticed, Hogwarts seems to now be playing home to yet another new group. I cannot say that they are good or bad, but please do nothing to antagonize them. There are a good number of them and we do not need any unfortunate accidents."

"I have spoken with our new Care of Magical Creatures professor, Professor Hagrid, and he has never before seen their like," he said, not seeing a reproving look from Hermione to Harry, or Harry's hand carefully point towards the ceiling. "So please do nothing that can-"

He was cut off by a dark and sinister laughter, coming from the charmed ceiling as the lights dimmed and light from the windows lessened. Where normally, it showed the sky outside, it now showed dark thunderclouds and lightning, with two glowing, green eyes staring down at the suddenly worried children below.

"Hahaha! Do not fret, little children. The Thundercats will not harm you. My pets will merely roam the halls, looking for those who are a blight upon humanity and all that it stands for," the voice said, its eyes looking as though it were smiling.

"Do not anger the tiny warriors, for they are great in number and strength," the voice taunted, chuckling again. "Be prepared, Hogwarts. The spirit of the Marauders has returned! Meet the newest member, **Bolt**!" As the voice called his name for all to hear, thunder clapped loudly, the charmed ceiling flashed brilliantly, and then the whole thing was back to normal, appearing almost as if nothing had happened.

"Potter!" Snape bellowed out as he stalked towards where Harry was sitting. A tiny first year saw his face twisted by rage and nearly wet himself.

"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked innocently.

"What do you think you're playing at!"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, Professor," Harry said as the majority of the school watched on and Dumbledore was looking at the ceiling with a twinkle in his eye.

Both the twins and Lupin looked as though Christmas had come early. Very early, stacked with several birthdays and shares of Zonko's on top.

"The ceiling, Potter!" Snape snarled. "Don't think I don't know it wasn't you!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Professor. Whoever that mad genius was, I'm sure he's hidden his tracks exceedingly well," Harry said with a sickeningly sweet voice. "I do hope you catch that vandal and let him know activities like that will not be accepted!"

One of the twins, Harry was not sure which, fell backwards from his seat and the other was biting down on a biscuit to keep from laughing. He would have to remember to get the Marauder's map from them, later.

"Potter! I'll see you expelled for this!" Snape hissed out dangerously.

"Thank you for the compliment, sir. I'm not sure I could have pulled something like this off, but you give me something to shoot for."

Harry watched in amusement as Snape's face began shifting through colors as McGonagall came up and rested her hand on his shoulder, her eyes suspiciously bright.

"I'm sure we can perform an investigation into this, Severus. Let's eat our breakfast."

"It was him, I know it was!" He said as he was led back to the table. Harry caught Lupin's eye and winked.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** -

I do know the Thundercats came from Thundara (though it may have been spelled differently.) But doubt Harry would have remembered. Either way, I am willing to take another name for them, but have another reason for using this, so won't be taking different names unless you come up with a really good one.


	8. Because We're Friends

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter7** – Because We're Friends

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language, Violence, Hazing

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Hermione's Schedule**: To be sure it's clear, the scheduling is ridiculous in Canon. I'm using the HP-Lexicon as a base for the scheduling and am basing the calendar dates on that, but dates things happen will be slightly off. For example, Ancient Runes was never really shown on there, so I figured I'd just add it in.

**Quicksilver**: An older name for mercury, the liquid that's put in thermometers, poisonous fumes and highly toxic. It also beads and has a higher surface tension than water, but acts much the same, but will try to bond with itself into one mass.

**Highly Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Partially Kissed Hero" by Perfect Lionheart (H/Hr/L/S Bones/H Abbot – Going harem, but currently acknowledged as only H/Hr/L/Su/Han. Susan/Hannah come into the fray around chapter 50-ish, and haven't really become a major player yet, but give him time. The author's a bloody genius.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

"_Do not anger the tiny warriors, for they are great in number and strength," the voice taunted, chuckling again. "Be prepared, Hogwarts. The spirit of the Marauders has returned! Meet the newest member, **Bolt**!" As the voice called his name for all to hear, thunder clapped loudly, the charmed ceiling flashed brilliantly, and then the whole thing was back to normal, appearing almost as if nothing had happened._

_[edit]_

"_I don't know what you're talking about, Professor [Snape]. Whoever that mad genius was, I'm sure he's hidden his tracks exceedingly well," Harry said with a sickeningly sweet voice. "I do hope you catch that vandal and let him know activities like that will not be accepted!" _

_[edit]_

"_It was him, I know it was!" He [Snape] said as he was led back to the table. Harry caught Lupin's eye and winked._

xXx **Story** xXx

**Thursday – September 2, 07:40**

"I don't know how you did it," Hermione said as the majority of the students began to chatter excitedly amongst themselves about the spectacle they had just witnessed, and the Weasley twins looked to be ready to start a cult following, "but if you get caught for this, I'm going to ask to supervise as Filch forces you to clean the toilets with your toothbrush."

Luna giggled as she cut into a pancake, which hadn't been there before, causing Hermione to cast a pointed glare, before speaking amusedly. "As Harry said, I'm sure that 'mad genius' was clever enough to cover his tracks. It may even have been these 'Thundercats' as well. They do seem like mischievous little things."

Harry grinned brightly at the Ravenclaw and quickly finished the last bite of his breakfast before wrapping a handful of bacon in several napkins and putting them in his pocket. "Good luck with Divination, Mate. I hear Professor Trelawney predicts a student's death every year. Maybe sit in the back?" Harry suggested to Ron with a smile and making sure not to bring any attention to the fact that he was headed to Arithmancy where he shared the class with Hermione, who was going to end up being in Divination with Ron.

Ron grimaced and shuddered lightly. "Easy for you to say. You won't be there," he said, sounding almost accusing as he tucked into his eggs.

"Oh, honestly! Professor McGonagall says no one has actually died even though she's been predicting deaths left and right for fifteen years!" Hermione huffed. "You would think Dumbledore would realize that and get rid of the woman."

Harry nodded, letting Hermione rant and handed Luna a galleon. "That's to cover the subscription for however long it will last for. When can I expect the first edition?" Harry asked, referring to his request for _The Quibbler_ he had told her about the night before.

Luna pocketed the galleon with a nod. "I'll owl Daddy and you'll have the weekly subscription for two years with this."

"Alright, thanks. See you at lunch then, yea?" He asked, ignoring Ron's dismayed expression as Luna agreed after a moment's thought. "Excellent. See you then and see you two," he said, looking at Hermione and Ron, "in Transfiguration. I've gotta make a quick stop."

Absolutely curious and not about to let Harry out of her sight, Hermione gathered her books and got up. "Want some company? I'm done and still have questions about these 'Thundercats'," she told him accusingly.

Hermione felt it was her duty to do what she could to protect Harry, and figuring out what he was planning was key to that. Most people saw it as being bossy and overbearing, and while she would admit that it was partly true, at least, it was also because Ron and Harry were the only ones who were ever willing to stand by her. Even after Ron said horrible things about her, Harry had come for her when he knew a large, dangerous troll was loose and that she was alone and unknowing in the loo. He came for her. Protected her. _Saved_ her! She knew about life debts. McGonagall had told her about them, knowing magic would enforce her to obey him at some point if it deemed something he told her as valid, forcing her to equalize the balance between what he had done for her and what she could do for him.

She didn't really care. Hermione knew that, for as long as Harry was her friend, there was little she wouldn't do for him. She had already followed his unlucky butt through rather dangerous situations. But she was going to make damned sure no one could take him away from her! Snape, Dumbledore, magic and little bitty fur people be damned!

"Sure. I'm just going to keep my promise to Fawkes," Harry said with a careless shrug.

The two left Ron to continue eating, as he had arrived later than they had and generally ate more than them, and left the Great Hall together, not seeing Snape seethe as he compared Harry's antics to his father's or the curious expressions of Remus and Dumbledore.

Once out of the Great Hall and into the next series of hallways, Hermione finally had enough of Harry's silence and sighed. "Alright. You win," she said, amusedly. "They're cute, I'll give you that. But why are they really here? You aren't the pranking type."

Harry smiled at her and gave her a quick hug with his left arm that he held around her shoulders and his right swept the air in front of them grandly. "Ah! But that's where you're wrong, my sweet Hermione," he said, playing the part of the loquacious protagonist and missing the girl's blush at his name. "My father, my godfather and my sort-of-an-uncle were all pranksters, so it's in my blood, my god-blood and my sort-of-an-uncle blood," he said magnanimously. "Quite the reputation to uphold."

"But, you're right," he said, taking a slightly more serious air. "They aren't just for pranking. I have roughly a hundred of the guys running around the school to act as scouts and informants."

"What?" Hermione asked, sounding as surprised as she looked. "What on earth for?"

"Well, think about it. In first year, we had a teacher that roamed the halls at night and ran into the Forbidden Forest to kill unicorns and searching for the Stone without being suspected or caught by anyone but Snape and McGonagall wouldn't believe us when we tried to warn her and basically told us to shut up and stay quiet, thus leaving the Stone without any additional guards or defenses," he said as he guided her around the next corner with his arm still around her shoulders.

"In second year, we had the basilisk that roamed the halls freely when simple monitoring charms could have alerted Dumbledore to its presence, not to mention the portraits that will report anything to him, that fop Lockhart who did more harm than good any time he pulled out his wand and a possessed student running around, writing in blood on the walls. And then this year we have dementors and an escaped convict, the first of which guard Azkaban because they not only kill anything they're allowed to, but because their mere presence makes those same inmates, the worst of the wizarding world, suffer just by being anywhere near them and they are now massing around this school, full of children, many of whom have very fragile and developing minds still."

"I suppose that makes sense," Hermione replied almost immediately. When the hell had Harry learned to make sense? "And this is supposed to be one of the safest places in all of Britain, but we've been in life-threatening danger each year, so far. And more than once each time."

"Exactly," Harry agreed with a soft smile. "We don't know much of anything about this new Defense teacher," Harry said, feeling like he was lying even though they technically did not. Only he knew anything, not both. "We don't know what the students might be up to, or the faculty or the monsters the Ministry thought to be a smart idea to put in a school full of children. I wanted a little back-up," he told her honestly. While the bits about Remus and Sirius were not exactly true, they were not lies, either. He did want to be able to keep an eye on them and maybe help them, particularly Sirius, out, without being seen.

"And the one that tried to take the Ravenclaws' knickers?" She asked, an accusatory tone and glint in her eye. She was glad Harry was growing up, but was rather displeased with the idea of him turning into a raging pervert.

Or a cross-dresser.

Harry scoffed and rolled his eyes as they neared the gargoyle, removing his arm from around her. "They deserve it. Luna's a good person and has been teased like we were in primary school," he said unthinkingly.

Hermione did not stop or slow, and in fact, did not make any outward change in appearance. Inside, however, she felt a sudden shock of fear, doubt and hurt. While she and Harry had not really spoken much about their lives before Hogwarts, he had hinted with unrealized slips and comments that he had suffered greatly in his time before magic. She, however, had taken great pains not to mention anything about her life up to that point that held any risk of such admissions. Her friends had never asked and she had never told.

She had not even spoken about her parents beyond basic information until Harry had met them and learned about them himself, not even their names. That Harry would automatically assume that she had been so alone, or worse, if she had been that easily read with all of the careful steps taken to try and hide her previous life, was quite scary.

She didn't realize that he was speaking from conversations the two shared while they were alone in the tent for three months after Ron left them during the Horcrux hunt. They had spent a lot of time during the winter months hiding out in their tent and huddling together in each others' beds for warmth, sharing more together than they had ever before.

Then she frowned as she realized Harry was not paying attention to what he said and actually thought about it. If Luna were truly that alone, and being treated so poorly in her own house, then she could try to get to know the girl, first and foremost, and then make her judgments. "How do you know the Thundercats won't just start picking on students?" She asked, deciding to work out how he knew about her pre-Hogwarts life later.

"Because I made them specifically to the effect of being very respectful and honorable creatures," he said simply. "But just like real people, if you don't offer that to them, then they will set for retribution, but nothing dangerous. Just pranks and tricks, for the most part."

He refused to look her in the eye.

"Then why steal knickers?" She asked again. "That isn't a prank or trick and I doubt you want them for yourself." She still eyed him speculatively, just as she considered it while confirming her suspicions that he really _didn't_ want them for himself. He had changed a lot over the summer. But her doubt was only momentary. Give or take.

Harry smiled at her for a moment before looking forward again. "They steal her things, forcing her to dress in outlandish outfits and sometimes wear two left or right shoes at the same time. I know what that can do to a person's feet, especially in the long term. It isn't funny, it's cruel. They take her pillows and I think I recall hearing about itching powder in her sheets and knickers once," he said with a scowl, not mentioning that this was something he and Luna had shared during his original fifth year. He actually missed those open-hearted discussions with the blonde. They had meant a lot to him and he knew it was much the same for her as well.

"Then why doesn't she tell Professor Flitwick?" Hermione asked, shocked that it was really that bad. Sleeping in itching powder throughout the whole night would cause rashes and burns all over her skin, causing the simple act of wearing clothing to be painful! Not to mention the boils it would cause from chemical burns! That a girl could quietly deal with all of that and possibly worse was a horrible thought. "Surely he would do something about it!"

"You remember how that worked in primary school. What can he really do?" Harry countered. "Monitoring charms? Illegal in dorms, especially controversial in a female's dorm room. Have people look out for her? That both draws attention to the problem and there's no way to know who to really trust to help and could cause resentment in both Luna and whoever is playing the older sibling role. Search everyone's things?" Harry snorted. "That would only mean worse retribution and only a moron would keep stolen things in their own stuff; it's hard to deny knowledge of it at that point." Remembering his fifth year and how Luna had said they always showed up when needed, he cursed the Ravenclaws mentally. "And they're in a house created for their intelligence. Likely as not, they already have plans on what to say and do if any of them should be caught. You don't do stupid things without an alibi. Bad Guys and Villainy 101, you know."

"I suppose you're right," Hermione growled out, knowing he was right and ignoring any references to classes on how to be a proper villain. "That's exactly how bullies operate." Unbidden, Hermione had a multitude of flashbacks to her own days in primary school, but she knew it was nothing like living with your tormentors. Even Malfoy was not as bad as some of the girls who tormented her in primary school.

"Regardless," he finished as they came to the stone gargoyle, "I know how to help her. It means going into the spotlight a bit, but I've decided that someone needs to step up in this damned place. If the teachers can let Snape give false detentions, take points wrongfully and let people like Malfoy abuse others right in the Great Hall in front of everyone, then they will have to change," he finished ominously, the tone of his voice sending shivers down her spine. Whether it was in worry or awe, she was not sure. But the Harry that was on the train was back for that brief moment.

"Do you know the password? We left Dumbledore in the Great Hall," Hermione suddenly realized she had no clue how they were supposed to get in.

Harry smiled at her with one side of his mouth as he looked the gargoyle in the eye. He had taken the subtle advice of the goblins and looked into the rights of ownership to their school. He owned it, and everything that was deemed as property of the school, which was everything that didn't belong to the students and faculty. Anything confiscated, the library, the hidden vaults below, it was all his. Even things left 'to the Headmaster of Hogwarts' were officially his. It was amazing how specific you had to be in magical contracts and oaths.

The original Founders had given the Ministry the right to oversee the school near the end of their lives to keep the school focused on aiming for certain standards, which was what had prompted the creation of the Board of Governors. They were meant as an advisory board to assist the Headmaster, but the school had always remained 'in the family', so to speak, with the lines of each Founder able to work together to have absolute authority regardless of what the Ministry said or did. Unlike schools in the muggle world, Hogwarts had been a collaboration of ideas between her four creators and people went there to learn in a safe environment that continued, but had never actually become a part of the government. Just like in the Middle Ages, everything was actually owned by those who built the structure. And its defenses kept anyone from taking it by force. The castle was a Ravenclaw relic that had been added upon and built upon by the Dwarves, Centaurs and other magical creatures who were being granted permanent residency in the protected realm of the Forbidden Forest. The Ministry would have attempted to gain control, but there was nothing they could legally do and they had long-since lost view of what power they really had over the castle. That was why they had the High Inquisitor position. It had originally been created as a liaison position since it didn't have any true authority within the castle's outside walls.

In exchange for assistance to learn from masters of their crafts and protection of their Forest in hunts to destroy any dark creatures that existed within their home, the magical creatures had a standing agreement to protect any wandering students who found their way inside and escort them back to the castle. They would also be free of any form of control from the outside. Reneging on that deal is why the Centaurs disliked the humans so thoroughly.

For a group of four people whose children had grown and who had passed the point of childbearing years, the castle and the small world around it had become their baby, being set up and nurtured to protect it and make it as capable of working in the future as any parents attempted to do for their children. That's why the castle was sentient and why there were such incredible wards surrounding it. To protect it from those who would steal its virtue, so to speak, or would wish her harm.

But Harry was considered the castle's only remaining parent. Let that bitch Umbridge try her educational decrees in fifth year again. He would show her exactly what happened. Still, every child was taught to obey their parent's orders.

"Hello. Will you open, please?" Harry asked, having read that the gargoyle was meant to keep out those who weren't authorized in the control-center of the school's wards. Harry was, of course.

A moment's hesitation later, the gargoyle slid to the side to Hermione's surprise. She followed him up the stairs as she pondered his words, wondering why Harry was so different. He had never been so devoted before, or so outspoken. Last year, he would have been perfectly content to just stand in the shadows and be out of everyone's way. Now he wanted to go around protecting some new girl that he apparently knew in some way that he would not explain and wanted to suddenly seem to rule the school! If he didn't make so much sense, and wasn't obviously right, she would have been worried.

As they entered Dumbledore's office, she suddenly stopped thinking as she saw Harry walk up to the most gorgeous bird she had ever seen. Its red plumage practically glowed it was so vibrant. His gold eyes, she realized, actually _were_ glowing and she could feel the purity of the creature as it gazed at them curiously. While this was the same bird she had seen before, it seemed to have come into its own between now and when it had brought those letters from Dumbledore and McGonagall during the summer.

"Hello, Fawkes. This is Hermione Granger. Hermione, this is Fawkes, the phoenix that chose Dumbledore as a companion in life. Sorry I didn't introduce you properly before. I hadn't really thought about it at the time with the letter and all," Harry said while indicating both other living creatures in the room before pulling out a polished bronze box from his pocket that he enlarged on Dumbledore's desk.

"Hello," Hermione said with a tentative wave as Fawkes trilled lightly back at her in greeting, amused at the girl's actions. She would have loved to have petted the fiery bird, but he seemed larger and somehow more intimidating this time around. She definitely had not felt that kind of power coming from him in Harry's library wing. Hermione had not realized the phoenix was a month out of his burning day when she saw him during the summer.

"It took me a little reading, but I found out that, even though you're an elemental creature of fire, you absolutely adore frozen foods."

Fawkes visibly straightened and Hermione could have sworn his feathers truly began to glow.

"Now," Harry said, pulling out a handful of fruits, "I know I promised you plums, but I decided to bring some peaches, strawberries, blueberries and apricots as well after reading a few books about phoenixes. Is that okay?"

Fawkes trilled loudly and crooned over the box that had been magically expanded on the inside and charmed to keep anything within it fresh and ice cold. With an oddly graceful fall, that Harry thought was supposed to be a headfirst dive, Fawkes began eating the frozen treats rapidly.

"You know," a voice came from behind the duo, causing both to turn and look at Dumbledore's shocked face. "I never really thought he was such a glutton." Mentally, he was questioning how they had entered his office.

Harry smiled and pointed at the visible tail feathers; all that was sticking out of the bronze chest. "I promised him some plums if he helped me out, and I was curious if he would like them or other fruits more."

Dumbledore watched in morbid fascination as the tail feathers seemed to simply lower themselves slowly as Fawkes ate his way down, chasing an errant apricot. It appeared far more savage from the outside, however. "I see. I don't suppose you could tell me how you managed to get inside of my office when I had not given you the password? The wards on the door alerted me to someone entering even while the castle failed to report your passage." Dumbledore looked at both teens as Hermione paled drastically and Harry shrugged.

"I just asked the gargoyle to let us in, Headmaster," Harry said distractedly before turning to face the older man. "Anyway, feel free to keep the box until Fawkes has had his fill. I had the same number of each fruit in there and it's charmed to tell me what was taken first so I know better next time. If you'll excuse us, though, we need to head to class or we'll be late." He motioned Hermione through the door with a wave of his hand as he held it open for her and followed her out before giving the headmaster a chance to stop him and ask further questions.

Dumbledore sat behind his desk several moments after the kids had left his office and sighed heavily. Something was very much off about young Mister Potter. The way he carried himself, spoke and interacted with both himself, his peers and the whisperings he had heard over the summer about a few meetings held with the goblins all raised flags in the headmaster's mind. Harry Potter, not but three months ago, had been a shy, introverted boy who was practically terrified of being noticed, much less taking any form of control over a situation that was not immediately dire.

Even more, the school had allowed the boy unrestricted access to his office and had not even warned him! If it weren't for his own wards placed on the doorway to let him know who was on the other side of the door, he would not have known anyone was there. There were items within that office that would have horrendous results should the boy have handled them improperly. A few of them, Harry would have been lucky for a quick death. Being a school, students brought in all manner of items, some as dark as you could get. All of those items were stored in a room that was connected to his office, labeled and organized both for the repository of magical knowledge and history the school stood for, and because he was quite terrified about those items ending up in the wrong hands, even at the Ministry. Or just simply being sold on the black market. It was also a magically-binding requirement from faculty that any confiscated items be sent to a vault-like area accessible from only the Headmaster's office if they were not to be returned to the student.

That the school allowed him entrance and failed to warn him meant that either Harry Potter had forced his way in using a method that was both fast and discrete enough that Miss Granger failed to notice, and therefore almost impossible, or the school allowed it. And that thought was even more terrifying for the old man.

The school would do so again, if that were the case.

Frowning at the smacking and burping sounds coming from the bronze chest on his desk, Dumbledore made a note to himself to store and lock his valuable items, hiding them from plain sight. Harry Potter could not be allowed to grow outside of his power to control.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – September 2, Second Class of Day – Ancient Runes**

Harry practically quivered in his seat next to Hermione as the majority of the tiny class, mostly Ravenclaws and a few Hufflepuffs, filed into the room. This was Ancient Runes, a class he had not taken his last time through the time line, or any other that he was aware of, and one of two classes he would have in which he was not already familiar with the topics being covered. Him and Hermione had just come from Arithmancy and Harry was disappointed to learn it was basically a math class, albeit with all sorts of randomness thrown in that he knew he would soon be learning about. It, however, didn't hold nearly as much interest as this did to him.

Beside him, Hermione quirked an eyebrow as she observed her friend, amused as he looked around disapprovingly for their not-even-tardy teacher. This was an interesting and amusing change in him. Especially while she was the calm and collected one. Harry had quills and parchment out, books open, his runes etching kit being touched every few seconds in anticipation and looked ready to track their teacher down if she did not show up within moments.

"Harry, calm down. You're making _me_ jittery just by being near you," she said without hiding her amusement.

Harry blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Hermione. It's just that I've been reading about this all summer and am really looking forward to it. I mean, runes have been used longer than wands and you can do a lot more with them! If you make seal arrays with them, then they become far more than plain symbols like an alphabet or something! You can make those to do an entire, complicated ritual just by writing everything out or make a bunch of things happen all at once!"

Hermione laughed and put her hand on Harry's shoulder, trying to get him to sit still as a voice spoke up behind him. "You're quite right, Mister Potter. But seals and seal arrays of that complexity are all covered beyond OWL level studies. You are not likely to be working on those too soon, and I don't want to see you doing so in my classroom, either."

"Good evening, class," the relatively young woman said, walking to the front and standing by her desk. "I am Bathsheba Babbling. I'll be your Ancient Runes instructor and we'll be working on runes and runic histories in this class."

The professor touched her wand upon a rune on her desk, attached to a seal array just as Harry had mentioned, and a disillusionment charm faded away from several items hidden in the corner that the students had not approached in thanks to a disinterest ward, also written in runes. "These are a sampling of items that runes are used for. We have glow spheres with simple light-emitting runes with an on-off variable structure, plumbing fixtures that conjure water or remove wastes with waste baskets that have the same runes as you find in your loo and protection runes that guard against fire, water, breakage and a whole host of other things."

Hermione smiled at the utility of the new subject and took a glance at Harry, who's quill was scribbling furiously as it automatically kept pace with the professor's speech and mentally noted to get her own auto-notes quill after borrowing Harry's dictated notes to be perfectly thorough. Interestingly, he was already making notes of various ideas and questions on another parchment. _'I guess he really is into this class.'_

"Runes are a subject that is as useful and beneficial as the person using them is capable of. Anything you can envision, you can use runes for, _if _you know how to write them out." Professor Babbling went on to explain how runes could do anything that could be done with a wand, but without as many restrictions. There were fewer laws against them, as well, as they could be used on their homes to protect against fires or breaking windows and even as third year students, they were allowed to add them, with their parents' permission of course. Magical households even used runic cushioning charms on things with harsh edges to protect the soft heads of waddling toddlers and clumsy people who may accidentally drop them. The Marauders even made a pact to never let Lily know they had dropped Harry once. Or twice. It was hard getting them to talk about it, but they all looked extremely guilty whenever it came up. But because of those same cushioning charms, held in place by Runes, she was never the wiser.

They could even be written in such a way as to be timed so that an entire ritual could be programmed into runes, or the majority of one so that the person or persons could do other parts for themselves. That was why so many rituals used to empower their bodies or give themselves additional abilities had runic diagrams written all over the floor on the more complicated rituals; they helped like nothing you could believe. They took dozens or even a hundred steps and turned them into only a few, easy-to-do ones. It was also why every enhancement ritual required those runes and runic diagrams, to be fully precise and perfect in their creations.

Harry fell in love.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – September 2, 11:20 – Start of Lunch**

"You are only delaying the inevitable," Snape said smarmily, his oily voice quiet as he watched carefully for Harry to make some kind of action for a detention during the lunch time feast. "Soon, you will be in my dungeon, and I'll have you cleaning chamber pots instead of cauldrons." Feeling something suddenly off, Snape's eyes flickered to his left where Flitwick was watching him with a look of shock plastered over his face.

"You're a few bubbles short of a potion, aren't you?" Flitwick asked.

"He is his father's son," Snape defended himself. "This morning just proves that he is soon to follow in his father's footsteps," Snape narrowed his eyes as Potter caused the Lovegood girl and Granger to laugh. "He'll screw up soon."

Meanwhile, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Luna were sitting at the table, Ron and Harry talking about the upcoming Quidditch teams and try-outs while Hermione talked with Luna, learning more about the quirky blonde. She had already learned that Harry only spoke to her for the first time the day before, so she was rather curious to find out how much of what he knew and told her was accurate, trying to be delicate enough not to mention the bad stuff in the off chance that it was correct.

Hermione found it odd that the girl corroborated Harry's story as far as she was willing to admit to, but that Harry had explained a lot more than she was getting out of Luna. That meant that Harry had learned either in some way other than by Luna, or that Luna lied and had actually known Harry longer than since just the day before.

That wasn't too likely, as she was with Harry almost anywhere he was at. Granted, there was all of the time she was petrified, but Ron had been with him and seemed shocked and dismayed that Harry knew her. That meant he either hadn't met her the year before or had chosen to hide the friendship from the redhead.

That was as likely as Harry turning dark.

Speaking of her intriguing friend, she glanced over to where he was sitting to see a blank spot and Ron looking behind her. Confused that Harry got past her, he was apparently getting sneakier, she looked around and saw him approaching Professor Flitwick as Professor Snape was leaving the Great Hall.

She watched the two converse for a few moments and eventually both nodded before Harry came back to sit down. Frowning, Hermione asked, "what did you want to speak to Professor Flitwick about?" She was beginning to worry about not knowing what Harry was planning before he took action. She had been rather upset over the summer because he was doing things without consulting anyone. Some of the things he was doing was worrisome. He could easily overstep the line and do something dangerous, foolish or risky just because he wasn't paying attention.

Hermione was worried and scared for her friend. And he wasn't allowing her to help him.

"I was talking with Professor Flitwick to get a conversation with him just before dinner so we can discuss him sponsoring the dueling club where I can teach the Patronus to you guys and whoever wants to join so that as many people can learn it as possible. I figure, since the dementors are surrounding the school, then giving anyone the chance to defend themselves is probably good. And I know just about anyone can do it if they try."

With a non-Hermione-like squee, Hermione wrapped Harry in a tight hug. "Oh! That'll be wonderful! You're one of the best at Defense and it could even promote house unity!"

"Sod unity!" Ron scoffed. "Harry wouldn't teach any Slytherins just so they could come back later to hex us in the back!"

"I'll teach whoever shows up as long as they aren't disruptive," Harry replied, wondering if he shared the same view at that point in time as Ron showed. Somehow, he thought he did. "Dementors will kill anyone. While I don't expect anyone to have to worry, it's still too risky to just let students run around freely without being able to protect themselves. They'll be good or I'll kick their butts out, but this isn't about house affiliation."

Hermione smiled brilliantly while Ron shook his head in disgust. "You can't trust Slytherins, Harry. They'll hex you in the back as soon as you turn around. I bet Malfoy would come just so he could learn what you know and then use it against you."

Harry rolled his eyes. Malfoy had become rather bad, he would admit, leading Death Eaters into the school so they could kill and enslave the students in his sixth year, but when it came to actually killing Dumbledore, he had choked and Snape had been forced to do the actual deed. Right now, he was nothing more than an annoying little brat.

"He isn't known to be a model student, Ron," Harry said with a suffering sigh. "But, it isn't as if I'll be teaching everyone how to be excellent duelers, just some practical stuff."

Luna scratched one of Harry's Thundercats below the bench where it had attached itself to her leg in hopes of table scraps as she turned to Ron. "It isn't as though all Slytherins are evil. That is like saying all Hufflepuffs are loyal and hardworking, but Lockhart was a Hufflepuff, and he was loyal to no one but himself and certainly didn't work hard at anything. And not all Gryffindors are good, or Sirius Black would not have been evil enough to betray Harry's parents."

Luna's eyes shot over to Harry, trying to judge his reaction. Thus far, they had been ... _odd_, to say the least. He winced any time something bad was mentioned about Sirius Black, he occasionally glared at Scabbers and his life force was still becoming more ... _more_ than he had been the year before. She wasn't sure what it was, but something beyond natural had happened to Harry Potter, and she was trying to figure out the puzzle. She wanted to trust in him, desperately and with everything she was, she wanted to believe him to be her friend. But everyone had always only been her friend so they could make fun of her or lead her into something.

She learned not to trust the people who tried before Christmas of her first year.

Even now, mentioning how Sirius betrayed his family, Harry winced and seemed upset by hearing it, but she was only talking about what everyone knew. And they had talked about Sirius before, so it wasn't that it was a taboo subject, so she knew she would not alienate him by bringing it up.

"Everyone's got a bad seed," Ron waved off Luna's comment, trying to ignore her presence.

"Regardless," Harry said, his voice becoming a little firmer to show he was tired of the subject, "I'll teach the charm to anyone who wants to learn it. Why don't you see about a Quidditch club? Maybe even get pickup games every now and then," Harry suggested, trying to give Ron something to do so he wouldn't feel left out of everything. Simply put, he wouldn't help Harry in any way with planning the club and would only be a hindrance, trying to tell Harry to not allow the Slytherins.

"That's a great idea!" Ron said, looking invigorated. "I'll talk to McGonagall about it later, after I've got some ideas for her!"

Hermione nodded, thinking furiously. "You could ask about making one night a week devoted to each house, with the fifth for the houses to change out and each weekend could be filled with half days on the pitch for each team, letting each one get all the practice they wanted while playing against those who aren't on a team so they get practice, but the rival teams don't get to watch all the newest moves."

Ron shook his head, wondering how Hermione could think so simply. "Nah. We'll just take the weekends that games aren't being played on, or maybe Fridays, or ... Hmm." He trailed off as he began to think things through, continuously changing and discarding plans.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – September 2, After Lunch**

Harry arrived a few minutes later to Care of Magical Creatures than he had the previous time he remembered and saw Neville's book leap from his hands and start trying to chase the boy across the field. With a smile and a silent stunner, the book fell silent while the majority of the other students laughed.

"Thanks Harry," Neville said in relief. "That's the second time it's tried to get me today."

"Not a problem, Neville. Just stroke the spine before you unlatch it and that'll calm it down," Harry said, looking around for the hippogriff that had been nice enough to listen to him vent after his godfather died in the previous time line.

"'Ello students!" Hagrid called out, leading a feathered horse into clearing. "T'day, we'll be learnin' about hippogriffs! This one's name is 'Buckbeak'."

Several students backed away from the large creature and took in its horse-shaped body, taloned feet, bird-like head and large, feathery wings with a good dose of fear. Harry was the only one who was close that stayed where he was, with Hermione having come back next to him after gaining some confidence from the bespectacled boy.

Though she made a point to keep him between her and the hippogriff.

"Now, hippogriffs are very special creatures," Hagrid said. "They're very noble and dignified and won't take any disrespect. If they feel you aren't showin' 'em the proper respect, they'll get powerful angry and show you they're place above you, jus' like they do fer any other animal in the wild."

Hagrid smiled brightly at the students, most of whom had taken another step back at the large professor's warning. "Now! Who'd like ta ride 'im?"

Stepping forward, Harry followed Hagrid's advice and bowed to the large creature after getting to a respectable distance. After a moment's observation, the creature bowed back and Harry stepped up to him, petting him on the head and scratching in a way he knew Buckbeak enjoyed. "Hello. May I fly with you?" He asked, getting a quick nod from the hippogriff who decided he liked the human and his scratchy fingers.

With a grin that most would say wasn't reserved for the sane, Harry jumped up and maneuvered so Buckbeak could get under him really fast before Hagrid had a chance to help him up and then the horse-like creature took a running start and leapt into the air.

The bushy-haired one was not amused. "HARRY JAMES POTTER!"

Minutes later, Harry slid off of the winged beast, giggling like a school girl. He had forgotten how incredible it was to ride on Buckbeak. Like the Thestrals from his fifth year, there was some kind of magic that attached him to their backs so he didn't shift or fall, but hippogriffs were too heavy to fly of their own accord, so rather than ride air, they rode the ambient magic of the earth itself, and he was able to feel it just as the horse-like creature had while in the air, and it was incredible.

"Good job, Harry!" Hagrid bellowed. "Yeh rode it like a professional!"

"Big deal," Draco scoffed, angered that Harry was getting so much attention and that he lost a bet to Crabbe of a galleon that the boy would fall and die. Without considering and having long-ago decided that beasts were all stupid, he walked up to the hippogriff to ride it himself and show anyone could do it, his entire stance radiating confidence and issuing challenge to the beast to be alpha. "It's a stupid horse and anyone can ride a tamed animal."

"Draco, don't!" Hagrid rushed to intercept, but it was too late, and Harry had realized it was happening too late to offer any help since Hagrid was already there.

As soon as the challenger stepped within battle distance, Buckbeak reared and whinnied in challenge before Draco realized what was happening, and the beast hit him with its front claws as Hagrid pulled him back, causing a large gash to appear in the boy's right arm.

"Buckbeak! No! No, Buckbeak!" Hagrid put his own body between the hippogriff and Draco to shield him and calmed his newest pet down before ordering Draco's two cronies to drag the crying boy to the hospital wing while he put the creature in its pen and ended class early.

As they were walking up to the school, Harry ignored Ron praising Buckbeak and his attack on Draco to berate himself for not being prepared to stop the whole confrontation. He _knew_ it was going to happen and could have stopped Draco from getting an innocent animal killed because of his own idiocy and desire for revenge. Now, not only would he have to make sure Buckbeak was saved again, but Hermione would spend unreal amounts of time looking through magical law in an attempt to save him at his trial because of the kind-hearted girl she was.

All because he was caught up in the feelings of euphoria and joy that came from riding the hippogriff and because he didn't keep his wits about him. Moody would be turning over in his grave.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – September 2, Beginning of Dinner**

"Let me get this straight, Mister Potter," Flitwick said in his office where Harry had met him before dinner for their discussion. "You came to me to support you for a student-sponsored dueling club where you hope to teach the Patronus charm to _anyone_ who wants to come and learn from you and you are coming to me instead of your own Head of House because I was a dueling champion?

Harry nodded happily. "And because I may ask for advice from you, and McGonagall already has additional duties as Deputy Headmistress that I didn't want to cause her any added stress of more."

Flitwick nodded and thought carefully. "And you say you'll coach Ravenclaw's Seeker?"

Harry grinned. "To make sure that my requests are considered, at the very least, yes. My track record here has shown that I've never done anything not deserving of the trust I'm asking for and I've already offered to allow any faculty to sit in and observe at any time they wish, but they can't force me to teach anything. Realistically, I think I'm not asking for anything that I shouldn't already have in the situation, or an older student to mentor through the whole thing if I sound too presumptuous."

Flitwick waved off Harry's concern. "No, no, my boy. You're absolutely right. I'll sponsor the club myself and agree to your stipulations. Just to be safe, though, we'll say I'm the official one in charge and that I'll take responsibility for your actions. I trust you and you're not asking for authority to give detentions or take points, just kick people out if they're causing a ruckus and making sure they listen to you. I think you're perfect for the job. Let's go to dinner, then I'll announce you and give you the floor."

The two walked into the busy Great Hall where the massive number of students were chattering away until they began to notice that Flitwick and Harry were standing in front of the teachers' dais and the noise level dropped considerably while Professor Flitwick shot sparks from his wand, gaining the attention of those who weren't quite as observant.

"Attention, everyone! Attention if you please! Mister Potter here has requested that I sponsor a student-taught defense club and I have approved it. While I am the official sponsor and will be attending each, if not most, meetings, he will be my voice and has the authority to kick anyone out if they cause disruption. If you'll listen, I'll let him give you the details. Mister Potter?" Flitwick asked, motioning outwards with his hand to indicate the student body.

Nodding, Harry stepped forward and looked out at each of the students. "With the dementors surrounding the school and the full knowledge that they will attack a student if either antagonized or if they feel they can get away with it, I've decided to offer lessons to anyone who wishes to learn how to cast the Patronus charm. I'm also willing to teach how to duel properly with Professor Flitwick's assistance for those who find it useful to learn the charm."

Looking around at a proud and beaming Hermione, distracted Luna, furious groups of Slytherins and a few others in various states of contemplation or doubts of his ability, he continued. "No one is currently banned from these meetings, but I want to say that those who cause disruptions or any kinds of problems will be kicked out. We can't risk the safety of others because of one or a few people who don't want to play nice."

"And who are you to teach it, Potter?" Malfoy asked from the back, not believing of the rumors that Harry had cast his own Patronus. The spell was massively difficult, after all, and any one of these fools would think it were him just to kiss his bottom. "Why are you teaching it rather than our new Defense teacher or Flitwick, the Charms master?"

In response, Harry drew his wand and flicked it, causing his brilliant stag Patronus to come out. This one different from his previous one in that it was far more dense and looked to be made of water instead of mist, but still glowed brightly. Wanting to get his point across, Harry commanded the creature to protect the grounds while letting the charm feed automatically from his core and it began to radiate feelings of joy, happiness and hope outwards in waves from its body.

Students and teachers around the room gasped as the emotions projected outwards and hit them, many being overcome with a sense of peace, of safety, protected in the embrace of the light creature and felt the desire to rise above everything and protect everything they loved and cherished.

Harry let the Patronus stop its broadcasting, having always felt the emotions and not noticing any changes or that not a few of the students had to keep themselves from tearing at the incredible emotions they had felt. At the Gryffindor table, a dreamy-eyed blonde hugged herself tightly and smiled, assured that Harry was a true friend and gave herself fully to that friendship while her house mates at the Ravenclaw table ceased all ability to think and simply felt. At the Slytherin table, several female students had to repress the shivers that went through them, saddened beyond anything they could remember that those wonderful feelings would cease and they would be back amongst those who never showed even an ounce of such selfless thoughts. At the Gryffindor table, the students who knew Harry simply basked in the feelings and could tell, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was the emotional essence of the Harry they knew and at the Hufflepuff table, several students couldn't stop themselves and accepted the incredible feelings within them and aspired to grow to match them.

Without seeing any of this, Harry put his wand away as the stag walked over and nuzzled Hermione and some of the other students, allowing it to pet them. One quirky Ravenclaw even offered it some pudding. "That is why I am going to be teaching this, Malfoy. My views on the Patronus are less limiting than what the adults think of it, so Professor Flitwick is allowing me to teach it to see if I am right, or if it really is the way they believe it to be."

The others in the Hall all quietly mourned the loss of the wonderful feelings and were silent, which Harry took as proof positive that they accepted seeing the stag Patronus as his right to teach it to them. It also wouldn't be until the next day that the dementors would be back on the Hogwarts grounds. "We'll be having the first lesson the day after tomorrow after dinner since Fridays are usually more available. Anyone who wants to learn to do that can show up, or just anyone who wants to watch. But you all need to think of your happiest memory, or some kind of an event that you know will make you happy. It can _NOT_ be anything self-serving. This means the memory has to be something good. You can't think of someone's harm, or ruling the world or anything like that. It has to be a sincere emotion to make it work. Take all of tomorrow to think it over so you have an idea for what you can use tomorrow to make this work."

"What memory did you use?" An upper-year Ravenclaw asked, wondering if he could use the same one.

Harry shrugged, having gone back to the memory he had used when he did the same thing in third year, knowing it could get such a response rather than the one he used on the train of Hermione and when they went clothes shopping. Not to say this one didn't involve her as well, of course. "I imagined how happy I would be once I had a family," he told them as the stag disappeared, along with the pudding it had eaten from a surprised Luna.

Being done with his speech, he walked down to the Gryffindor table and sat next to Hermione to load up his plate as the talking began again. Where he thought it was about what they would be learning Friday, they were actually discussing how thoughts of eventually having a family could inspire the feelings they had felt. Many of the girls began thinking of the advantages of such a desire while the boys, for the most part, were more concerned with the power aspects of thinking of their own families.

Excluding bratty little sisters, in Ron's case. She just took a bread roll before he got to it.

"That was impressive, Harry," Luna said as she fed a mewling pack of Thundercats that had settled around her and begged for fried chicken. "I look forward to learning how to cast a corporeal Patronus."

"Too right!" Ron agreed, ignoring the source of the previous statement. "Imagine being able to do it so young!"

Harry smiled and set to change the subject by asking Ron if he had thought of anything for a Quidditch club. He didn't really want to discuss his plans in the Great Hall since he didn't really have much beyond the Patronus and possibly trying to gain new friends and allies.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – September 2, 21:20**

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione cried happily as their talk once again switched to Harry's club while they worked in the common room. "It's going to be so wonderful to learn to do that! Can you give us some pointers now? Or maybe show us again?"

Harry chuckled as the twins perked at hearing her requests and rushed over. "No more until tomorrow night. Just try to think of something that makes you happy. It doesn't even have to be a real memory, but it has to be something that inspires happiness and goodness in you."

Smiling, Harry turned to the Weasley twins. "Sorry, Diabolic Duo, but pranks aren't likely to work."

They pouted as one and began in unison. "And we had the perfect one, too."

Having been curious for a long time, Harry considered them for a moment. "Out of curiousity, are the two of you able to speak telepathically to each other, or do you just know each other that well?"

"Tell-a-whatsit?" Fred asked.

"What does topography have to do with anything?" George asked.

"He said 'telepathy'," Hermione corrected, now curious herself. "It's the ability to speak to each other in your minds."

Fred and George looked at each other and shrugged. "Not that we know of. Otherwise, Mum wouldn't have caught us talking about our plans so often," Fred said.

"What about you two?" George asked. "You two always seem to say stuff without saying it."

"What?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"We know how each other thinks," Harry said with a shrug. "Sometimes I think I hear her voice, but it's usually my conscience, telling me not to do something stupid."

"Oh yes," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "That's worked _so_ well in the past."

"I still don't like you letting in the Slytherins," Ron said from where he had been listening. He wasn't too pleased that Harry would just let anyone show up.

Harry once again rolled his eyes. "Then don't show up. I've already said if they start anything, they're out, so it isn't a big deal."

Hermione smiled before putting on her thinking expression, nibbling her bottom lip and knitting her eyebrows together. "Is it going to hurt anything to try the spell?" She asked, getting an immediate negative.

"Nope. Not at all. You could potentially tire yourself, but that's about it if you just wanna try it."

Hermione nodded and thought of Harry's description earlier and decided to imagine passing every single one of her NEWT's with complete O's and cast the charm. "Expecto Patronum!" There was an immediate display of nothing, causing the girl to scowl and glare at the tip of her wand. "Why didn't it work?"

Harry shrugged. "It did the same thing on my first attempt. What were you thinking about, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Passing all of my NEWT's with full marks."

Harry considered her for a moment and had an interesting thought. The Hermione he had shared a tent with for three months alone had shared a lot with him. The two had been forced to cuddle together late at night in order to keep warm and sleep had been a luxury for both, so they simply talked about basically everything, including each other. Knowledge hadn't become the most important factor in her life, but her friends did. She had shared with him that learning and knowledge had always been wonderful for her, but it was also a crutch to lean and fall back on considering a near photographic memory. When she learned the trouble Harry kept getting in to, she continued learning more for his sake than anything, even though she still loved knowledge.

To that end, would her tests really mean anything to her? In comparison to everything else?

Speaking slowly as the thoughts drifted through his mind, Harry considered her for a moment before leaning in to whisper into her ear so no one else could hear. "Think of something fully non-academic, Hermione," he said, making her swallow thickly as she felt his breath on her ear. Hormones were of the bloody Devil, she was sure! "Think of something in your past that really affected you emotionally, or something in your future that you want to experience with everything you have."

The two teens ignored the twins and Ron who tried to lean forward to hear any nuggets of additional advice while Hermione shivered lightly as he pulled back. Looking at him with hazy eyes, Hermione had a very good idea of what she wanted in the very near future and imagined it, softly saying, "Expecto Patronum."

A sudden rush of mist burst from her wand and convalesced into a vaguely recognizable shape that was just barely out of being fully corporeal, but also still attached to Hermione's wand at the tip where it apparently had a tail.

Hermione shivered and finally gasped after only a few seconds as she released the spell from strain. She gulped in air, feeling like she had just run around the castle as Harry engulfed her in a happy hug.

"You did great! I can't believe you got that far on your first attempt!" He said happily. He was shocked that her Patronus would apparently be different this time around, however. It had looked like it would be some sort of cat-like creature instead of the playful otter he had come to know. But still, this fully proved his theory. She had taken over a month to learn to do that much in her fifth year in his memories.

"Second attempt," she said. "Does it always seem to stress you so much?"

Harry shook his head. "Only until you get used to the power it takes. It varies depending on the memory, too. I can cast it with different memories, but a memory that doesn't mean as much takes more power and isn't as strong since the emotion behind it isn't as powerful. Plus, something imagined instead of real means it isn't an emotion you experienced, but something you want, which generally means it needs more power rather than something you actually felt. It's hard to feel a powerful emotion over a concept instead of something definable."

"Bloody hell," Ron whispered in shock. "That was brilliant!"

Hermione smiled proudly as several others in the common room decided to show up for sure. Lavender and Parvati planned to tell people Harry had taught Hermione to do the spell in only one night. They would be the center of the gossip-hub for some time with this.

"What did you think of?" Fred asked after prodding from his brother.

"Yea, you seemed to just kind of stare off there for a second," George said, backing Fred up.

Hermione blushed slightly, but her mind thought up an answer quickly. "I took Harry's idea and thought of family." Granted, it had been a sudden thought of being in a loving relationship with Harry, or at least a certain aspect of that relationship considering how he had spoken to her, but she wasn't about to tell anyone that. Especially when she couldn't be sure it wasn't because of the influx of hormones the odd situation had somehow caused. The boy had been flirting with her ever since the summer had begun. She wasn't really sure if he was aware of it, but his attentions had been causing her mind to think things it hadn't done before. At least not like this.

"Expecto Patronum!" Ron called out gleefully, pointing his wand at the twins who dove to the sides out of reflex more than realization of anything else. To the surprise of only him, nothing happened. "Hey! I thought about my family, too! What the hell?"

Harry frowned, knowing what was wrong already. "Were you thinking of them in general, or how they make you happy or how you love them or anything?"

Ron scratched his head. "Uh, I just kind of thought of them and said the words."

Harry shook his head. "It can't be a general idea from what I've been able to tell. When I think of having a family, it isn't just thinking of that, but imagining my happiness of my wedding, teaching my first kid to fly a toy broom while my wife threatens to hex me to bits if it falls, a home; things of that nature that actually mean something to me. If I just imagine family, I can shove a bunch of magic into it, but I wouldn't really get much. I tried the first time by thinking of getting my first broom and could barely even get any mist."

Ron grumbled and walked towards the stairs. "Well, I'll think of something. I'm knackered, so good night."

Hermione looked to Harry and offered him an apologetic look as well. "Trying to cast that actually took a lot out of me, too. I think I'm ready for bed as well."

"Good night, Hermione," Harry said, giving the girl a firm hug and holding it for a full second rather than immediately letting go.

"Good night, Harry," she said through a yawn as she stumbled up to her dorm, followed moments later by a pair of rabid gossipers she shared the room with. They saw the hug and sensed weakness in the sleepy one.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – September 3, 19:40**

Harry looked around at the full Great Hall two days later with a small amount of shock. There may have only been a handful of students who had decided not to show up while the rest stood in groups of house affiliation where their tables would normally have been located. Even the teachers had shown up to watch the proceedings, though they were there more to see how the first session would go and observe Harry's methods of teaching.

"Alright everyone, since we're almost all here, it can get loud really fast. So, if you have a question, raise your hand. First, is anyone capable of a fully corporeal Patronus?" Harry looked around, getting a series of negatives as people looked around themselves. "Okay. If any of you looked the charm up, forget pretty much everything but the incantation. If you have an idea for a memory that really means something to you where you were happy, go ahead and try casting. The words are 'expecto patronum' and wand movements don't really matter. On three; one, two, three!"

The sudden explosion of students saying the spell made Harry jerk back as various levels of mist and light filled the room. Impressively, however, a second-year Hufflepuff had a half-formed animal as big as she was try to crawl its way out of her wand.

The little girl squawked and dropped her wand in surprise while several upper-years gaped in shock.

Harry smiled and tilted his head back for a moment to whistle loudly, lowering in pitch as he had done as the previous year ended. Almost immediately, everyone was silent. "Good news and bad. Bad first, no one got it on their first try, but the good is, to everyone who got at least a little wispy bit of smoke and light did better than I did on my first try, which was most of you, so you're already moving faster than I did."

Harry's grin widened as the air in the room charged with the people who prided themselves in having gotten further then the Boy-Who-Lived in such a hard spell. "To those who didn't get anything, you probably had the same problem I did at first. I wasn't using a good memory. I tried using the one of my first broom, but I had to put everything I had into it just to get a spark of light, and then I was exhausted. So, try thinking of another memory, maybe a birthday or Christmas, and see what works for you."

He looked around to everyone and cautioned, "if you feel you're getting tired, don't keep going. This is a spell that can drain you pretty quick. If you don't get a result with one memory, try another one. I'll walk around and give you guys some pointers and help, but if you find a memory that works better than another one, try to remember which ones you used and then spend the next couple of days working on seeing how they're different. That may help you figure out another memory to use or you can think up something to aspire to like I did two days ago and we'll try them out Sunday night."

Harry stepped down and met with Hermione and Ron who were happy to see him. "I noticed you got some mist, Ron. Good job."

Ron's face pinked, embarrassed after seeing a first-year student get twice as much mist as he had. "Yea, I'm gettin' better. Got any more pointers?"

"None that I haven't already given you before showing up. Where's Luna? I thought she said she was really looking forward to this, but I haven't seen her in the crowd."

Hermione and Ron shrugged, not really sure. "I don't know, Harry," Hermione said, looking around hoping to spot her newest friend. She was odd, but very nice. And it was wonderful to have someone else who enjoyed talking about magical theory so much.

Harry frowned and nodded, wondering why the girl changed her mind and had a niggling thought in the back of his mind that was just under the surface about the whole thing. "Alright. Well, if you see her, let her know I'm looking." With that, he disappeared into the crowd to begin giving group attention to those around him.

By the time they had spent an hour working at it, three students had copious amounts of mist while the majority of the others were getting minor wisps. The second-year Hufflepuff that had nearly gone corporeal had tired after her second attempt which had barely been a blast of light before she was too weak to continue, but many of the upper years had seen it and had been spurred on to try harder.

Harry had also been interested to note that no one had caused any forms of havoc or mayhem. Not even the Weasley twins. It appeared the chance to protect themselves from dementors was more important to them all than anything else. Even some of the nastier Slytherins had remained quiet, though Harry also noticed Malfoy watched the events, but didn't participate.

"Think you're pretty great, don't you Potter?" Draco sneered as Harry came up to the Slytherins, happy to note they were willing to listen. Harry quickly took in the Slytherin's wand arm in a sling where Pomfrey had commanded him not to use magic for at least a week until she had a chance to look at it. He was actually supposed to be in the Hospital wing as it was, but was given permission to come down and see the lesson.

Even if it was being taught by his arch nemesis, it was better than being subjected to Madame Pomfrey's care, so he was gone before the woman had even finished her conditions.

Harry shook his head, wondering if he could try a different set of tactics this time around. In the life he remembered, Draco had insulted Ron, Harry's first friend, almost as soon as they had met, and Harry hadn't taken to it well. But, he was wondering if he could stop a lot of the events to come if he tried things differently, and was willing to put it to the test. It certainly couldn't hurt anything. "Not really, no. I just think the Ministry of Magic is run by a bunch of pompous fools who do whatever the person who gives them the most gold wants or whatever they think would make them look good," Harry admitted, much to Draco's surprise. He hadn't expected the Golden Gryffindor to say bad things about anyone.

"The Ministry is full of morons and dementors are stupid to have in a school full of children, so I figure we may as well do what we can to create a defense against them. Some of the people in this school suck hairy arse, but they shouldn't die because of someone's idiocy."

"What?" Draco asked, more shocked that Harry hadn't insulted him yet than Harry's actual speech.

"Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta find someone," Harry said, turning and walking towards Hermione and Ron who were still towards the front of the Great Hall while the others were filing out.

"What'd Malfoy want?" Ron asked as he eyed the confused blonde boy with disdain, getting a sneer in return once the Slytherin realized Ron was looking.

"Nothing, really. Just wanted to know if I felt I could really do this," Harry said with a distracted shrug. "I haven't seen Luna and I've been looking for her, have any of you seen her?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, sorry Harry. Perhaps she didn't come because of homework or something. We can ask her tomorrow."

"Mister Potter," McGonagall said happily as she approached, stopping Harry's response. "I am delighted to see that we were indeed wrong. We rarely have anyone above seventh year who is capable of as much mist as you have managed to get everyone to emit. I must say, I can't imagine why we've never focused on using different memories based on emotional responses before."

"I agree," Professor Flitwick said. "Our texts always proclaim to think of your happiest memory and speak nothing of the actual emotions behind the Patronus. Professor McGonagall has told me she asked you to write about your theory; would you be willing to allow me to have a copy when you are finished?"

Harry nodded and agreed. "Not a problem Professors. If you'll excuse me, I've got to run."

With their farewells done, Harry approached the Weasley twins and brought them over to a quiet area. "Guys, I'm sorry I'm doing this. I hadn't planned to ask, but I need to borrow the Marauder's Map. Can I borrow it tonight?"

Looking as shocked as they felt, both twins looked at each other and then back at Harry. "How did you know?"

Not wanting to play games, as he had suddenly remembered what that nagging memory was that had been bothering him all night, Harry said, "my father was Prongs, a stag animagus. But I need to borrow it, if you don't mind?"

Silently conferring, the two pranksters looked at each other and nodded as one. "Alright. We suppose it's yours by right anyway, so-"

"We'll just nip up to our dorm and-"

"Get it for you."

"Thanks guys, I really appreciate this," Harry said.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – September 3, 21:10 (Ten minutes after curfew)**

Harry looked at the closet door on the seventh floor with disgust. There was a fifth-year locking charm and silencing spell on the door to keep people out, or in this case, someone in, that was freshly cast. Looking down at the map in his hands that showed the position of everyone within the castle in real-time, Harry sighed as Luna's name showed as alone in the little closet. He cleared the map and then pocketed it.

Using the skills he had learned over the summer about minor wards from the book Lora had given him, Harry disabled the silencing spell and the locking ward rather than casting the counter charms and opened the door, seeing Luna sitting in the very back, pressed up firmly against the corner and rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her legs. It was very obvious she had been crying and her hair looked a fright. He glanced down at her hands and saw they were red from where she had pounded on the door for only she knew how long.

"Hello Harry," Luna said quietly, barely registering that anyone had actually come and embarrassed to have been found as she had. He recognized the signs that showed she had nearly screamed herself hoarse, probably trying to call for help. Harry was furious anyone would do this to such a kind girl. He had learned during his fifth year during talks with the girl that this had happened. Whoever had locked her in had done so and left her there the entire weekend. They had let her out in time for classes, but she had missed them thanks to spending time in the hospital wing to get her throat fixed.

"Hi Luna," Harry whispered warmly. "Do you want to come out?" He watched as she stayed silent and still and his heart ached for her. Not wanting to force the girl, knowing from personal experience how she was feeling, he instead asked, "do you mind if I come inside, then?" Without waiting for an answer, he stepped inside and closed the door, lighting his wand and sat next to the girl.

They were silent for nearly a minute before Luna's voice asked, "how did you find me?"

Harry smiled warmly. "Magic," he told her simply. Remembering that it had helped her in fifth year on occasion, he slowly put his arm around her shoulders to comfort the girl, making sure she had plenty of time to tell him to stop. Instead, she simply leaned into his side and began to cry. She couldn't help it. No one had comforted her like this since her mother had died four years ago. Her father had, but after she had stopped crying each night, he stopped with hugs and began to explain how everything that happened in life was because of the creatures he wrote about. It was why he was always hunting them down, so people would know how to protect themselves from things that made them sad, confused or angry.

And Harry was her friend. Something else she hadn't had in such a very long time.

So Luna cried. She wrapped her own arms around him and squeezed just as hard as she could as Harry lifted her to sit in his lap and cuddled with her. He knew why this had happened. Several students in Ravenclaw had learned how a group of Slytherins had locked her in the dungeons during her first year and how she was terrified of small, dark places, which only increased after spending a day alone in the dungeon cell where she had developed claustrophobia. Thinking it was funny, they left her here, but longer than the day she had spent downstairs in the dungeons.

"Who did this?" He asked after several minutes after her sobs died down to the occasional hiccup, wondering if she would tell him. She hadn't when she told him about it in the past. All she told him was they had taken her wand and it was outside the door when they unlocked it two days later.

Luna shook her head into Harry's chest. "If you tell, it'll only get worse," she mumbled. "And I don't want you to get in trouble for me."

Harry wanted to deny it, but knew it was true. His own experiences told him as much, and they allowed a hell of a lot more to happen in Hogwarts than they did in muggle schools. Deciding to try and start some of those talks early, especially since it would let her know he empathized with her, he decided to share some of his own history. He had already told her once, so it was easier this time around, even if she didn't remember it. "I've been locked in a cupboard before, too," he said simply, running his fingers through her hair in a way he knew calmed Hermione.

"Really?" She asked, wondering who would do that to him.

"Mhm," he nodded. "The Dursleys are who I used to live with. My aunt is Petunia. She's my mother's sister. Her husband Vernon and their son, Dudley. They hate magic so, when I went to live with them after my parents died, they kept me in the cupboard under the stairs until after my first year here. It was actually smaller than this closet was," he told her, looking around. "I was locked in when I was sent to bed and any time something happened that I got in trouble for. Sometimes it lasted for days. But, I just wanted you to know that this type of thing hasn't only happened to you."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence as Luna nuzzled into Harry's chest some more in comfort. Before, she had been sure something was going to get her in the closet; lethifolds, boggarts, one of the dementors roaming the school or any number of other things. Now, she felt safe and warm, and didn't want it to end. Once it did, she would have to go back to Ravenclaw Tower and back to the others.

"Why did you come?" She asked him after several minutes of contented cuddling. "How did you even know to find me?"

Harry didn't stop stroking her hair or hugging her as he replied. "You said you were looking forward to the Patronus lessons, and I didn't see you there, so I thought something was up. The dementors just came back about midday, after all, and I knew you wouldn't have not come without a good reason. So, I looked for you because we're friends. And friends are always there to help each other when they need someone there for them."

She was amazed at how incredible that final statement made her feel. It had been so very long since she had friends...

"I'm sorry I missed your lesson," she said quietly, wondering if he would hate her for that.

Harry chuckled and used his wand to open the closet door. "Accio Luna's wand," he said.

"That won't work," she told him. "They probably have it in another room in Ravenclaw Tower, and we're too far away for it to show up."

Harry smiled and squeezed her comfortingly. "I can summon things from one end of the castle to the other without any troubles," he told her. Almost as if on cue, her wand flew into his hand. He handed it to her with a grin. "Wanna have a private lesson?" He asked her.

Blushing lightly, she nodded against him, looking at her wand carefully. She knew it took a massive amount of power to summon things from those kinds of distances, but she hadn't even felt the release from him. Especially when it had to go a random path to get past any walls and obstacles.

Harry wrapped her in both arms after she maneuvered herself so that she sat with her back against his chest where he rested his head on her shoulder. He knew she loved hugs and cuddling, but he hadn't expected her to stay in his lap. He closed the closet door part way and cast confundus charms in the hallway so anything that was alive would want to go elsewhere, just in case they saw the light. "Okay. Now, I want you to think of your happiest memory, or a memory that makes you happy and fills you with intense emotions. Then, you can just say 'Expecto Patronum' and you should have a Patronus come out, or at least some light. Not everyone gets it right on their first try, I didn't and even Hermione didn't, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen. We've already proven that the memory plays a big part of it."

Luna listened to his explanation and then nodded, deciding to use the recent memory of him opening the door and sitting with her. That had been the happiest she had been in a very long time. "Expecto Patronum," she said, causing a large white cloud to come from her wand. It was nothing more than a basic shield, much like his first successful attempt with Professor Lupin before coming back, but it was far more than he had accomplished in anywhere near that much time. It was wonderful what having the memories of teaching that same charm nearly two years ago in his own mind did for his teaching now.

"Wonderful, Luna!" He said, hugging her tightly enough to make her squeak. She quickly decided they were her most favorite hugs ever. "It took me months to get that far along!"

She smiled shyly and looked into her lap after letting the spell end. It was somewhat tiring, but she would be willing to do it a lot more.

"You did wonderful, Luna," Harry said again, hugging her once more and then releasing her. "But, it's well past curfew. We need to get you back to the dorms."

Luna sighed sadly and got up. She hadn't been scared of the closet at all while he had been there, she noticed. "You should go to your dorm or we both risk catching Filch."

Harry smirked and grabbed Luna's hand, casting the disillusionment charm over her head and then his own. He decided he would start carrying his cloak as a matter of course from this point forward. "As long as we're holding hands, we won't trip over each other and this way, I can make you visible again before you go in so no one is the wiser."

Luna blinked where he couldn't see, even though he was looking at the space she would have been, and nodded. "That is certainly better than detention."

"You bet your bottom it is," Harry said happily. While it was a common phrase, the entire night was more friendship than Luna had experienced in years, and she wasn't prepared to handle it very well, even worse than Harry when he first arrived to Hogwarts.

Blushing, and happy he couldn't see it, Luna squeezed his hand during the entire walk as they started out from the broom closet. "Thank you, Harry."

xXxXxXx

Harry thanked the creators of the disillusionment charm as Filch passed him to chase down Peeves as the spectre pelted the man with paint balls. He had taken Luna back to her common room and received one last good night hug before he left her to head back to the seventh floor to the Room of Requirement. He was just so _angry_ that someone had done that to Luna and that he hadn't even considered trying to protect her from it. It was also partly anger at himself, though. He had known what was happening to her in his previous life and had not wanted to be singled out or put in the spotlight than he had been, so he had left her to her tormentors, all because he didn't want to handle the school thinking he was friends with her.

And that knowledge _hurt_.

Now, he was befriending her earlier and planned to make up for all of the shite that he had allowed to continue, all because he was being an ass. He had laughed at her just like everyone else until they started their talks, but even though he stopped making fun of the girl, he never really became more friendly than those discussions and had never stopped it from happening, which he was ashamed to acknowledge.

_'Not this time,'_ he thought to himself.

Moments later, he began to pace in front of a blank space of the wall and thought, _'I need a room to practice dueling in for the coming years,'_ and on his third pass, a heavy metal door appeared. Harry quickly opened it and stepped inside to close the door before turning to look at what the room provided him with.

On his left were rows of various weapons, all bladed, he noted, and a book shelf filled with information on proper dieting and exercises. On the right, he had various training dummies that looked almost real and had numbers that varied by difficulty.

And in the center, was another Harry, looking right back at him. This one, however, was covered from neck to feet in a black bodysuit of some kind that was molded to his body and looked like it was made of black leather and black metal with runes etched into the entire structure. At his hip, where Harry had sheathed the Sword of Gryffindor, the new Harry had a sword that looked like quicksilver that was somehow holding its shape.

"There will be no mercy," the faux Harry said, much to the real Harry's surprise. "Defend yourself!"

Harry's eyes bulged and he dove to the side as a cutting curse hit the door. Harry jumped up and protected himself with a shield spell just before a bludgeoning hex caught his shoulder, making it rebound with a loud gong and then he went on the offensive.

"Bloody magic always trying to bloody kill me! AH!" With a battle cry, he cast a chain of spells and tried to get to the center of the room where he had more room.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Next chapter, Dumbledore comes to conclusions of Harry's new confidence and abilities and, when faced with a boggart, what does Harry fear most?


	9. Vengeance Flies on Swift Wings

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter8** – Vengeance Flies on Swift Wings

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language, Abusive Pranks/Hazing

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Luna's birthday isn't actually given, thus I will state she was born Oct 31, 1980. As Hermione was too young by a mere two weeks to start Hogwarts one year earlier than she did (and thus, joined Harry's class,) Luna was born two months too late to start at the same time as Harry, but is only three months younger than he is.**

**To all Anonymous Reviewers**: If you ask a question, please give me a method to respond. Dobby's expense account will be explained in chapter 14 (give or take one, around Christmas.)

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Potter and the Manipulator of Destiny" by Wheezy1 (H/Hr, Nev/Lu – And it's COMPLETE, TOO! HUZZAH!)

**xXx** Previously **xXx**

"_You bet your bottom it is," Harry said happily. While it was a common phrase, the entire night was more friendship than Luna had experienced in years, and she wasn't prepared to handle it very well, even worse than Harry when he first arrived to Hogwarts. _

_Blushing, and happy he couldn't see it, Luna squeezed his hand during the entire walk as they started out from the broom closet. "Thank you, Harry."_

_[edit]_

"_There will be no mercy," the faux Harry said, much to the real Harry's surprise. "Defend yourself!"_

_Harry's eyes bulged and he dove to the side as a cutting curse hit the door. Harry jumped up and protected himself with a shield spell just before a bludgeoning hex caught his shoulder, making it rebound with a loud gong and then he went on the offensive._

"_Bloody magic always trying to bloody kill me! AH!" With a battle cry, he cast a chain of spells and tried to get to the center of the room where he had more room._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Saturday, September 4, Very Early Morning**

Harry awakened the next morning with a groan of pain as the wind-up alarm clock he had purchased over the summer jingled away, stuck to the post of his bed inside of the curtains which were automatically silenced when closed so it wouldn't awaken his friends. He had learned the first morning back that they were very angry early risers. He wasn't sure which one did it, or what it was, but someone had even launched a hex at him when he took his time turning the little bugger off.

He had decided to keep his early morning workout schedule so he wouldn't lose the benefits of the entire summer's workouts and just simply took his workout clothes of shorts and a T-shirt that he normally shucked about half way through his routine and his day clothes to the Room of Requirement, which would provide him a shower afterwards where he could change into fresh clothes and Dobby could take the others to be cleaned.

Stretching as he made his way into the common room, he saw Twinkle, the only Thundercat he had created with silver eyes as the Thundercat leader, standing on the top of the couch. After the events of the night before, from both finding Luna locked in a closet where she had nearly screamed herself hoarse and the sudden ferocity of the Room of Requirement had taken to training him, Harry had trudged back to the common room still in extremely foul spirits where he gave the Thundercats orders to keep an eye on all of the Ravenclaws to find out who was actively attacking Luna and who wasn't, but still knew about it so the proper retribution could be obtained. "Hello Twinkle. I trust you have some information for me?"

"Yes, Master. We've managed to identify the ones responsible for placing Miss Luna into the closet. Three girls were upset to find she had managed to escape and find her wand and are currently in the planning stages for another prank since she got out of that one, but have yet to actually let out their plan where we could hear and have written nothing down. So far, four others know things are happening to her, but we cannot be sure if they know what exactly or how bad it truly is. Then everyone in her own dorm is fully aware of the theft of Miss Luna's property and the things put into her bed. Some boys seem to be rude, but don't seem to actively act out against her. For some reason, it seems to be mostly the girls who actually act against Miss Luna while the boys seem to ignore her or laugh at her misfortune and do nothing to help her, seeing her torment as a spectator's sport of some sort."

"They're guilty, then," Harry said firmly. "And the Prefects? Are they aware of anything?"

"We are unsure as of yet. It seems they haven't heard anything directly; at least not while we were watching. They haven't spoken of the situation and no one has spoken directly to them. But it has only been a night. We may learn more by the time the three who locked Miss Luna into the closet decide on their plans for retaliation."

Harry nodded. "Get names of anyone who is aware of anything at all. Those who actively hurt her, I want at the top of the list. Anyone who hears things are happening but don't tell anyone, I want to know of them as well. If you hear of anything happening or about to happen to her or anyone else on the protected list, let me know as soon as possible if it's something that could hurt them so I can take care of it, understand?"

Twinkle nodded and offered a salute of his fist over his heart. "I hear and obey. I would like to let you know, however, that they have taken her shoes last night after they realized she managed to escape, and hid her underthings in the common room."

Harry growled in the back of his throat. "Find them and get them back to her. If you know who specifically did it, send our little warning," he ordered. He had ordered the Thundercats to remain out of sight and hidden unless they needed to step in for something life or death so that they could remain as unknown informants as long as possible, excluding their usual behavior of course. While everyone knew they existed, no one knew many details about them. Even Hermione only understood the basics, though there was no telling what Luna knew.

"Yes, Master," Twinkle said, dropping his salute and disappearing in a burst of speed that made him seemingly apparate away. Harry still couldn't figure out how he would be there one moment and then suddenly be gone or just suddenly appear out of nowhere. He hadn't planned for them to be created like that, it just kind of happened and they couldn't explain it.

It was spooky.

Shaking his head, he hurried off to the Room of Requirement where he had every intention of going through his training regimen, now more thorough and painful after adding new exercises with the books the room had provided, but Harry preferred it so he could sink his frustrations into it, which he did with gusto.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday, September 4, Breakfast**

"Are you alright, Harry? You look exhausted," Luna commented as Harry plopped into the seat across from her and Hermione at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. She reached over and placed her hand on his forehead in concern, hoping he wasn't coming down with something. "You should watch out for Inkleglots during colder months, you know. They make you feel sick and weaken your body so you can't fight off illnesses as well. They're terrified of scarves, though. Perhaps you should wear one."

Harry smiled as he shook his head, amused at the girl's antics. She was so sincere it was almost painful. She was doing much better than she had when they met in his previous life, though. "Nah, nothing like that. But I'm not used to these new exercises, and they're a pain in the butt."

Luna cocked her head to the side and resisted the urge to look as she asked, "what kind of exercises require the use of your butt?"

Harry froze as the implications in her tone of voice kicked in. "Er, I mean they're exhausting."

Again, the blonde girl looked at him askance. "Your new exercises use your butt and exhaust you?" Concerned eyes shifted to a pink-faced and amused Hermione who could barely hold her laughter in. "Is this normal?" The blonde asked with a slight twinkle in her eye.

"Luna!" Harry spluttered. "I just mean I'm doing new exercises in the mornings and I'm not used to them."

"Why didn't you say so?" Luna asked, smiling gleefully.

"Cheeky minx," Harry muttered. "Do you know how to render animals for their parts?" He asked, changing the subject from aspirations on his sexual orientation.

"Why on earth would you want to know _that_," Hermione asked with wide eyes.

Harry leaned forward so no one could overhear even though no one was close to them yet and Ron wasn't down to eat. Hermione had stopped waking the redhead up after learning that Harry woke earlier than she did to exercise and generally met Luna in the Great Hall for several interesting conversations, so he usually came down with the other boys since he didn't care for talking about theory. "I'm thinking there may be some use for that basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. Even if there isn't, I'm sure we could sell it for a decent amount. I figure they're rare enough that something should be able to come out of it."

He hadn't wanted to go into the hidden chamber again before, but was curious to explore it this time around. Why would Slytherin just build a giant room with a big bust of his own head just to house a giant snake that wasn't even that big a thousand years ago? And if there was another way into the school through there, he would rather know about it and block it off before Voldemort had the chance to use it when he came back again. The snake couldn't have survived a millennium on rats alone, after all. Rats were smart and would have stopped going in the room. And some of those bones were far too large to be a rat. Or even a dog, for that matter.

Both girls' eyebrows rose in surprise while Luna said, "yes, I know how to render animals, but it's done magically. I don't know if it will work on a basilisk. I believe they're mostly resistant to magic, even more so than dragon hide, but without scales like a dragon, they're far less impact resistant. So, we may have to figure out a way other than spells to render it. I don't know how to do it without magic."

Hermione frowned and looked between both of the others. "Are we even allowed to take its parts? Wouldn't it belong to the school or the Ministry?"

Luna shook her head and explained before Harry, who had read up on the matter during the summer for just this reason, could. "In pursuit of saving the lives of others against dangerous animals, whoever kills the creature has the right of conquest to its body. At least in this case. There are reservations where beasts like this are allowed to breed for later hunting, or those who wish to can get a license."

"That's horrible!" Hermione said in indignation. The idea that they would raise creatures just to be killed later went against everything she believed in for fairness and equality.

"No different than raising chickens for eggs or later getting eaten in the muggle world," Harry said with a shrug, causing Hermione to make a scrunchy face. "Yes, it isn't a good thing, but we need magical ingredients for potions and stuff that needs to come from somewhere. At least they don't allow indiscriminate killing of fairies and such anymore."

"Officially, at least. There will always be poaching," Luna said sadly. The fairies around her home had been something of her only friends for the past few years and they had eventually begun to talk to her, finding her just as interesting as she did them when they learned she held no bad intentions towards them.

And she left them tiny mirrors, too.

Hermione huffed a moment before she decided to change the subject. She rather liked chicken. "I overheard some information about Draco earlier. Apparently, he's not being allowed to go back to classes by Madame Pomfrey until Wednesday."

Harry nodded, remembering much the same. "Yea, I heard that too."

Suddenly, Hermione remembered something Harry had promised her a while back, into the summer. "Harry, remember our summer project? When are we going to start working on that again?"

Harry swallowed his eggs before he realized what in particular she was talking about. "Oh, our occlumency," he said in surprise, not realizing Hermione had been trying to not say the actual word in case he hadn't wanted Luna to know. "I guess we can work on it each night before we go to bed."

Luna blinked as she looked at both of her new friends in shock. "You do realize all documents pertaining to the mental arts are highly restricted by the Ministry, don't you? You cannot find books on it on the public market at all. And it's almost impossible to learn if not by someone who already knows and teaches you or with a quality book about it?"

"It's restricted?" Hermione asked as she paled.

"Not if it's a part of a family library, as the Ministry has no authority over such material because it's against law and custom to oversee what each family has due to family magic and grimoires," Harry said as his family rings provided him with the legal information. "Even restricted things are allowed in those once tagged as familial in nature. The Ministry can only restrict information that it actually knows is not a general practice and what can be sold to the public. There is nothing special about occlumency or legilimency for anyone to claim it as family magic, but so many families have it in their library that they can only make sure no one sells it. So, in order for them to restrict something in a family library, they have to know what is in it and claim it from everyone who has it and take it from their libraries, and it is never going to be allowed since no one who has those family libraries will allow it to be accessed by anyone outside of the family."

"It's true," Luna confirmed as a gaggle of Thundercats came into the Great Hall, intent upon finding the youngest students possible to beg for table scraps. Harry had designed them to hunt rats and small vermin to help keep the pest population down, but they had learned of the delicious wonderment that was bacon and now hunted mostly for pelts for clothing and to keep the students safe from the diseases that were carried while growing and maintaining their hunting abilities. As each found their targets and split up, Luna continued, seeing the ones who seemed to gravitate to her each meal time approach quickly, "the Ministry is headed by all old, pureblood families, or newer ones who've risen in the social hierarchy as families have been wiped out, and absolutely none of them want their family magic found and put into the Ministry's archive since it would inevitably find its way into someone else's library or sold."

"But- But magic should be shared with everyone! Not horded up by people who don't want to share!" Hermione cried out. It was almost sacrilegious in her eyes not to share knowledge with everyone.

Luna shook her head emphatically. "No. It shouldn't. Not everything. I can't say much, but my own family's magic is very unique and could be extremely dangerous if anyone with bad intentions were to have it. I know the same is true for the Potter family's as well. They've been around even longer than most of the other families and is bound to have a large number of potentially dangerous spells."

Harry nodded sadly. "It's true. Think of it like information on how to build a weapon of mass destruction out of every day household items. Some spells are a lot like that. We've got a secondary library with a few thousand books, actually, that are all purely family magic and the research they did for them or just magical history of our own accounts rather than what people in power will say to put a spin on things as any government is likely to do. Everything from unique potions, family-created rituals and spells for whatever are in that library. But, there are some that, while made with good intentions if the history with each spell that explained why it was created or such means anything, are good, they have the potential do to incredible damage. In general, they tend to be more powerful than standard spells of the same type because they're crafted differently and the theory is deeper."

"Deeper?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yea. You'll see when we get a little further in Arithmancy and into spell creation, but there are different ways to create a spell. The way you do it makes it more or less efficient depending on what it does and how it was created. There are ways to bypass several bits that used to be done a lot more, but it makes them a great deal weaker whereas the older way was more time-consuming and required more work to make it function properly, but made it far more efficient and thus, more powerful. Basically, shortcuts became mainstream to make creation faster, but less efficient. That's the same reason we have wand movements and even wands. We can do anything without them if we simply knew how," Harry explained, knowledge from his own readings coming in.

Hermione immediately resolved to look ahead in her books to see what Harry was talking about, but would later be very disappointed to find it wasn't even touched upon in the newer texts that found the old methods obsolete with the newer and faster ones. Even Harry only knew because of his newest book acquisition. "Alright, I suppose you make a lot of sense. I still think knowledge should be freely given, though. I don't see why they would restrict something as useful as occlumency."

"Because it can be used to stop the affects of certain potions like Veritaserum and their own legilimencers. And the most powerful can block the affects of an obliviation, though it generally takes decades to learn to such a proficiency," Luna told Hermione as she gave each Thundercat a large piece of ham.

"How do you know all of this?" Hermione asked, eying the blonde carefully. For knowledge that was restricted, the girl knew an awful lot about it. The depth of her knowledge had both surprised Hermione and pleased her to no end to actually have someone to talk to with such a quick and sharp mind. Harry had made huge changes and had become someone to talk to, but nothing like the intelligence of the blonde Ravenclaw. The girl was practically an encyclopedia of magical lore. Hermione doubted the veracity of some of it, true, but safe topics that had nothing to do with creatures always made perfect sense.

"My father has known how to occlude his mind for quite some time and I grew up learning the means to do so before going to bed. It is a wonderful way to calm yourself after a long day or to deal with any ... frustrations," Luna replied hesitantly, thinking of the many hours she had put into doing just that to lock away the worst of the tormenting she had gone through. She still remembered, but the memories were pretty much detached from the emotions that went with them, now. Those upsetting memories had become the outer shell of her mental defenses and was so thick and full of pain and anguish that most people left her mind as quickly as they entered and had a day-long migraine. The only exception to these bad memories was the night before. She wanted to remember that, and her subsequent rescue by her newest friend, forever.

Hermione nodded, not sure if it was true, but believing it was likely. Magically-raised children seemed to have huge advantages over muggleborn children. "Oh. Then, when can we get to that, Harry?"

Harry pondered for a few moments as he chewed until he came to a decision. "I don't know legilimency yet, so it's going to take a little while to be proficient enough to know if we're really occluding our minds properly, but I guess we can start in a couple nights so we have time to do last minute work on our defenses. Is that okay?" He asked, looking at Hermione as she nodded happily.

"You are aware that, if you do break through her barriers, especially as a novice legilimencer, that you won't be able to fully control what you do or do not see, don't you?" Luna asked delicately. "The slightest thought that enters your mind, regardless of whether or not it is a desire to see or to not see something could pull up a memory of such a thing. Nothing could be hidden unless the one practicing occlumency is strong enough to block the various things they would rather want to remain hidden. So, you have to realize that you may see anything from a day of studying, or a random day in your pasts or to times in the showers or even dreams of every sort, regardless of their content."

Hermione blushed brilliantly and darted her eyes to Harry who was nodding. Did he know this? He had said something similar before, but hadn't been quite so blunt with the fact that there would be nothing she could hide if she wasn't occluding her mind properly. "So, we could potentially see _anything_ then?"

Luna nodded. "The slightest thought can bring forth memories related to that thought. If one was looking into the mind of the other and thought of family, cooking, pets, secrets, favorite foods, places, nudity, sex or emotional feelings, those could be brought up and novices on both sides may find it difficult to either block the memory from being seen or stop seeing it if they don't know how to pull back easily or quickly. The same holds true for flying time, sleeping, eating, conversations or memories of people that person has. Anything can be seen if not done properly. It's even more worrisome because it is possible to push a certain memory at a person who has entered your mind and force them into it, so even the person who doesn't want certain ones seen can accidentally show it all on their own. That's why you're supposed to go several layers deep and why it's so hard to learn without a competent teacher who can stop viewing immediately. It's just the nature of the technique."

Hermione shuddered as she considered that bit of information. She had been entering puberty even before she started Hogwarts, so it was only natural that certain thoughts and dreams would come about. However, with the past summer spending so much time at Harry's and all of the flirting and coming over in time to see him usually less than half clothed, it had all centered around thoughts of _him_ and the idea that he may fancy her. If either of them could share those memories just by thinking they didn't want it to be seen, then there was no telling what could happen, and she began to really doubt their plans for the first time.

"I'll let Hermione go first, then," Harry said, feeling relatively confident about his own defenses. At least for everything that had to remain hidden, for sure. He had several risqué dreams and fantasies about several girls in his past, as any teenager was like to do, but knew Hermione wouldn't hold that against him. Be embarrassed, most likely, but he trusted her. Unless she saw his fantasy of spanking her, anyway. All bets were off if she saw that one and he would be sending Gringotts a will before they began, just in case. "I trust her to understand what she sees or let me know if something is wrong. That's the whole point of asking her to be the one to help and practice with me."

Feeling mischievous, Harry decided to let his new Marauder side out to play. "There is one dream I had where all of the girls in Hogwarts were given a new, far more revealing dress code that might get me into trouble, but that's the only one I can think of." Looking at both girls a few times to make sure they knew he was thinking of the two of them and keeping his face as clear of smiles as possible, he continued, "but I definitely think it would be worth the beatings and hexings to actually see. All you need to wear is a tie and stockings."

He smiled cheekily as both girls blushed fiercely and gaped, trying to say something and only getting squeaks.

It was going to be a good day.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday, September 4, Just After Breakfast**

"Potter!" Snape snarled out almost as soon as he had Harry in his sights. The man now had bubblegum pink hair, was even more pale than normal, though with a dashing shade of pink on his cheeks as his face was designed to look like a Geisha of the past, wearing a green elf costume that would be more appropriate on one of Santa's elves, complete with bells on his curled shoes, and apparently, couldn't stop river dancing.

Harry burst into laughter.

"Ten points from Gryffindor! Now, tell me how to stop this bloody prank or it's a week of detentions, Potter!" Snape yelled angrily, albeit, slightly out of breath.

"I didn't do that to you, Professor. I don't know how to stop it," Harry admitted, wishing it had been him. Not wanting to risk testing his occlumency shields now that Hermione had reminded him that he had no real idea how strong they were, Harry made a concerted effort into keeping his gaze away from the older man's eyes.

"If I find out you had anything to do with this, you're going to get detention for a month scrubbing cauldrons and cleaning the toilets with your tongue!" Snape threatened, though him dancing away seemed to take a lot of the threat out of it.

Intrigued, and realizing allies were everywhere, he made a mental note to speak to the twins later that night while he watched Snape dance away.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday, September 4, During Harry's Breakfast**

Dobby cried quietly as he looked over the green lawn of a large cottage in Sweden. Now that Master Harry was off at school and didn't need him as much, Dobby had been taking Miss Hermione's advice and checking other properties. This was the last house Master Harry owned that he had left to check and he had finally found his Master's lost house elves. In front of him was a graveyard, interspersed with headstones and tombs where several dozen Potter house elves were laid to rest.

_Dearest Master,_

_Please do not be upset with us, but we cannot be there to welcome you home when you finally take up your Lordship. We want to, so very badly, but we haven't the strength to go on._

_My name is Solaris. I am the last surviving house elf to the Great House of Potter, the final direct line of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. I, and thirteen others, were sent here by Master James Potter after his parents died during his schooling. Since he had no need of us there, we were sent to the Sweden home where our masters before you created a home for us so we would feel more like family and raise our own younglings. _

_After Master James' parents died, a wizard war broke out and he was too busy to call upon us when he graduated as he planned, but married his love and had a child, Master Harry. We know Master James or Master Harry will find his way here in the future and are proud of them and their youngling._

_But, because Master James never accepted our bonds directly before sending us away, we began to lose our magics and the weakest of us fell after four years when we had to survive on our own powers. We continued to grow weaker, even conserving our magics and doing our jobs without them. But we would not leave the property to become part of another family. We all agreed and would rather die as Potters than live the indignity of living as anything else. We knew of Master James' death and mourned him, and hope the best for his youngling._

_As we are tied to no Master with Master James' death, our strengths began to fail, but we want our newest Master to know we will always be proud of our family._

_It is the summer of my eighth year and I only have a few days left, I am sure. I do not want to dirty your home when you return to it in the future, so I will take care of my own burial._

_Solaris_

_House Elf to the Great House of Potter. Forever in Spirit even while no longer in Body_

Dobby was even more proud to be a member of this family now than he was at any point in his short life as a Potter as he learned of the honor of the house elves before him and learned of their fate. He had found where Solaris buried herself, the ground having killed her before she could magic it into its proper place, so he had fixed it and cleaned the property and grounds after finding her final note.

Dobby looked at the vast expanse of field before him and the numerous plaques and headstones. "Dobby swears on his magic and life that he will uphold the pride and honor of those who is coming before him. Dobby will not fail Master Harry or any of the Potter house elves' memories of our family."

Nodding in conviction and pride, the tiny elf spun and marched off, feeling the need to help his Master and make the Potter name great again with all the assistance he could provide. Master Harry had explained to him that a war was coming and that all of the death eaters would hurt a lot of people, so Dobby decided to do everything in his power to help his Master Harry.

And he knew just the way to start, too.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday, September 4, Evening**

Harry stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady and was about to give the password when he cocked his head to the side and had a curious thought. "What would it take to get a second password to enter the Gryffindor common room?"

The woman in pink looked at him oddly for a moment. "My dear, you only need to give me the order. As a portrait, I am unable to disobey you, even over the Headmaster's own orders."

Harry blinked. "Oh. That's good, but why? Isn't that a major security risk to let students do that?"

"Yes," she answered, "but you are the only student who could do such a thing, young Heir."

Harry's eyes widened as realization dawned; he was an heir of all four founders! He knew he could enter the Headmaster's office or pass any door tied to the castle's own security system, but had not expected to be able to command the castle's defenses himself. How useful was that? "Oh! I didn't know that."

The Fat Lady frowned. "I suppose not. The school has been trying to talk with you since your arrival, but you have not learned to hear her yet. She would like me to tell you to travel to your exercise location and create a room to speak to her when you can."

"The school wants to talk to me?" He asked in surprise. "I didn't know the school was even alive."

"Not fully, no. But she is partially sentient and has enough self-awareness to be considered as such, much like any of us portraits, only with many more abilities. What would you like your new password to be?"

"I don't want a new password, but one that is in use for just one person," Harry explained. "One of the Ravenclaws is severely tormented and is sometimes locked out of her own dorm and common room, so I want her to be able to come here whenever she has need to."

"Ah," the Fat Lady said sadly, "that's what that is about. We have seen her roam the hallways at night, sometimes in robes, others in pajamas or even naked a few times last year. We know she attempts to gain entry, but the knocker is unable to understand her for some reason. We always suspected it was more of her odd behavior."

"It isn't, and that's why I have a new password for you for Luna," Harry said, looking around to make sure no one was able to hear. "If she comes to you and says 'Moonbeams are bridges to our dreams,' then I want you to open, no matter the time of day or night. Can you do that and not tell anyone?" Harry asked.

"It is done," the Fat Lady said with a gentle smile.

"Thanks," Harry said. He knew from his talks with Luna that she had been locked out of the Ravenclaw common room multiple times since her first year by upper years in an attempt to get her in trouble and detentions when Filch caught her. He rarely did, as she had created a small place of refuge to go to after they began to take her clothes first or hex them to be unbearable to touch, which was a charm she had never been able to reverse and was forced to remove them anyway or end up with blisters as it irritated her skin.

"You're welcome," the Fast Lady said as she opened the portal to the Gryffindor common room.

"I didn't give you the current password," Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"And you needn't since everything tied to the school can sense you. You are our rightful owner and we will do as you request. We'll only require a password if another is around unless you simply command us to open for safety reasons."

Smirking at the usefulness, Harry entered the Gryffindor common room and headed to his dormitory to get the vials and specimen containers as he pondered the new knowledge. That was a very interesting and promising bit of knowledge.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday, September 4, 21:10 – Just After Curfew**

Draco glowered at the Queen of Pain as she walked away from him after her most recent bout of administering her unique brand of torture. Oh sure. He knew her name was Poppy Pomfrey and that she was doing her best to heal him, but the woman was absolute torture!

The Malfoy heir gently rubbed his arm over the gauze and wrappings as his wounds itched themselves closed; or so it felt. As surprising as it sounded, and he was definitely surprised to hear it, the wounds caused by the hippogriff were magical in nature like cuts by certain breeds of dragons and resistant to magical healing. Resistant, but not immune, which is why he was here rather than St Mungo's, which the matronly healer made a point to mention each day. And usually just before saying how stupid he was to brazenly approach such a proud animal after being told it was a fool thing to do.

What was worse was that no one but Professor Snape, Crabbe and Goyle agreed with him that it was that oaf Hagrid's fault! Professor Snape even pointed out that Potter had approached the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress about the situation before anyone else had and placed the blame squarely on the young Malfoy's shoulders!

It was okay, though. Severus, his godfather, had called Lucius Malfoy and explained the situation and Draco's father assured them both that he would take care of the feathered problem. They couldn't remove Hagrid from his new position as Care of Magical Creatures professor, as he was no longer on the Board of Governors and couldn't blackmail them properly, and none of them would accept bribes from him any longer, but they knew Hagrid was the type who went soft for his loathsome beasts, and getting the thing killed would have to suffice for now.

Draco picked at his breakfast as he thought of ways to get back at Potter. Severus had promised to make Potions class hell for the bastard, but there was just something about doing it yourself that made results like that more pleasant.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – September 5, 08:20 – After Breakfast**

"Hello Myrtle," Harry greeted as he, Hermione, Ron and Luna entered the sulky ghost's bathroom. They had asked Ginny if she wanted to see the giant snake get cut into its base components and see the Chamber of Secrets again, but the girl had paled and begged off, saying she had to study the next month's worth of material for Charms. Harry was sure it had been Ron's delivery that spooked her so badly.

"Hello Harry," the lady ghost replied with what seemed to be an attempt at a seductive smile and giggle.

"I know I promised to come back and talk to you, and I plan to do that tomorrow, actually," Harry said while the others waited near the door and listened. As much as it made him uncomfortable, Harry had decided to uphold his promise to the distressed ghost from the previous year in case anything like Draco happened again where she may be privy to information that could keep the school and students safe. He found she was actually a fairly decent girl. Just lonely. "But at the moment, we were going to the Chamber of Secrets and I was wondering if you would like to go down with us. The snake that killed you is dead if you want to see it. It's perfectly safe now."

Myrtle stared at Harry carefully, an unusual feeling swelling in her ethereal form. It was ... different ... being invited to do something. And it was doubly different for anyone to care to remember any of their promises to her. Most promised to talk to her only so they could get away.

Or they just ran.

"Alright, Harry. I'd like to join you," she said softly. The girls were both able to recognize that the ghost-girl was lonely and found it strange to be included and Ron was annoyed that he had yet another barmy girl to deal with.

Harry hissed at the sinks in the center of the girls restroom and the eyes of all of the girls widened as the sinks spread apart. As soon as the sinks stopped moving, the children looked down into the dark hole, the bottom obscured by shadows. Just as Harry was about to jump down, Hermione grabbed his arm and yanked him back with a growl.

"Do you _honestly_ think Salazar Slytherin would slide down a giant pipe covered in slime and grime?"

Harry blinked in confusion. "Well, there aren't any stairs and we don't know another way down," he responded.

Rolling her eyes and huffing, Hermione looked at the edges of the gaping maw in the floor. "Tell it to make stairs or something and we'll see if that does anything."

Surprised, Harry looked down and hissed, §Activate stairs, create stairs, open stairs, stairs.§ Almost immediately after Harry finally said 'stairs' by themselves, the staggered stones of the pipe began to slide inward and formed stairs four feet wide.

"That is so wrong," Ron grumbled. "That thing had so much slime my back was soaked last time."

Smiling proudly, Hermione looked at both boys as Myrtle smirked. Luna looked oddly disappointed. Slides were fun.

"Alright, alright, smart lady," Harry grumbled good-naturedly. "Follow me." He took his wand out and started his way down as the others followed. He made sure to listen for any sounds that could indicate any other snakes, just in case the one he had killed had actually been a mother. It made him happy he was bringing Luna, as she had been the one to warn him.

Harry still made sure the Sword of Gryffindor was hung at his hip all the same, however, even though it still didn't seem to want to leave his side. He had disillusioned it before coming to Hogwarts, but was already used to its weight since he wore the thing at home also. He still couldn't have it more than a hundred yards from him, however, or it would just show up around his waist again.

After a few minutes of slow and careful walking, the group came across the same snake skin that they had before and Hermione stared in shock. "_That's_ the size of the snake you fought?" She asked incredulously.

"No," Harry said distractedly.

"Oh, good," Hermione mumbled as they passed it. The others remained quiet since Harry was still listening for other snakes, but Luna quirked an eyebrow. This snake skin appeared very old and decayed, so was probably smaller than the actual snake.

They passed the cave in that they had been forced to clear so Harry could get Ron and they could fly out with Fawkes and made it to the large door that was the final entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. §Open,§ Harry hissed, causing the snake on the door slither about before the door unlocked and opened.

As they entered, the smell of stagnate water and more slime assaulted their senses and the many lights in the room lit automatically, causing the large room to illuminate, along with the basilisk that was now confirmed to be much, much larger than the remains of the shed skin.

Hermione and Ron instantly shrieked and took cover behind Harry and Luna, respectively.

"It's already dead," Harry said, noting the large head of Salazar Slytherin was still as it had been before, but that the mouth was currently closed. He could vaguely recall it and the door to the room itself having been open when he left, so he assumed they closed automatically since the lights had been on as well, but were off when they returned.

"You fought _that_!" Hermione shrieked once again, this time being able to see exactly what had happened. Since Harry had stabbed the snake in the roof of the mouth and it had gone into the beast's brain, she was unable to see the hole from the outside, but she could see a long trail of dried blood around the creature's head and splatters and smears along the ground and knew Harry's story was honest, even if it _was_ severely toned down as it now appeared to have been. "Are you insane!"

"Hey!" Ron shouted indignantly. "That was my sister he was savin'!"

"That's not what I meant, Ron," Hermione huffed. "I just can't believe he fought a snake that is taller than we are by almost half and easily sixty feet long!"

Both Luna and Myrtle were already close to the giant serpent and examining it curiously before the blonde piped in. "It's remarkably preserved," she called out. "I am very surprised it held out for two months without any signs of decay."

"None?" Hermione asked, her frustrations with Harry set aside for the moment. "There should at least be _some_. Decay sets in as soon as the body dies."

"It doesn't smell like death in here," Harry said, sniffing the air experimentally.

Ron looked up from the massive black splotch on the floor where he knew Harry had stabbed the diary to save his sister with a look of confusion and revulsion on his face. "You can smell death? That's weird, mate. Really weird."

"He means decay, Ron," Hermione grumbled as she looked over the snake. "She's right, Harry. There's nothing to show it died two months ago. Aside from the dried blood, it looks like you killed it only hours ago. I wonder why," she ended, muttering mostly to herself.

"It's like I mentioned," Luna said, smacking the side of the dead beastie with her palm. "The basilisk's hide is highly resistant to magic, but it's the magic of the creature itself that makes it so. Simply put, even in death, the basilisk was so infused with magic that the magic keeps it in the best shape it can until it can't any longer and then begins to decay. That's what makes magical rendering so difficult with them and any other magically resistant creature. The more powerful, the more difficult. Our biggest consolation is that the less magic in its hide now, the less it will resist our attempts, but it also means it's weaker than if we had obtained the hide while fully fresh and at its most magical. From what I can tell, it would last a couple of years though, so it's still very good hide."

Harry looked at the snake as Myrtle lost interest and began to roam the room, looking about, but listening in. She found it interesting that she couldn't phase through the walls. "Would you be able to test if it can be rendered magically?" He asked.

Nodding, Luna pulled her wand from behind her ear. "I'll try to remove its teeth and see what happens. They tend to be the least resistant," she said, moving to the front and pointing her wand straight at the open mouth. "Amoveo!" She said loudly, concentrating a good portion of her magic into the spell, knowing it would take a large amount if she was to succeed at all. The teeth wiggled, but didn't budge beyond that.

"I'm sorry," Luna said. "I used as much as I safely could in the one spell, but it didn't help."

Harry nodded, curious as he had watched her carefully. "It's okay. You said it would be resistant. There aren't any wand movements? You just say the word and point your wand?" He asked, thinking he would try himself.

"And picture what you want removed and where you want them to go, yes," Luna admitted as the others watched carefully, looking to get a lesson out of the deal, though Ron was getting bored quickly. He had been hoping to explore, but there was nothing to explore down there. It was more because Harry had mentioned sharing the gold from selling it that had him there for now. Harry planned to split it between himself, Ron and Ginny for their parts, Hermione for finding out the information for them and Luna for helping with the harvesting, but he was getting bored very quickly.

Harry nodded and stood in front of the snake, picturing the teeth coming out and laying on the floor in front of him as he called out, "Amoveo!" Again, the teeth wiggled, much more violently than Luna had managed with him using much more power, but still not coming out. Frowning, Harry pushed power into the spell rather than letting it draw itself out as needed and cast the spell again.

The teeth all broke off cleanly and landed in a neat pile by his feet as he smirked in triumph. "That worked," Harry said with a smile.

Luna didn't let her thoughts show on her face, but once again, she knew Harry used much more power than she had, but she had not been able to feel it as she normally could when magic was used around her. The same thing happened the night before when he summoned her wand for her. She had felt it when he cast a Patronus. Not the effects of the Patronus, as she was sure everyone had felt that when near by, but the initial release of magic had washed over her as well.

Deciding to think over the matter later, Luna got everyone's attention again. "The rest is about the same, but it can be rather messy and you may not like what you see from it."

"Messy?" Hermione asked with a quaver in her voice. She didn't like gore and blood. "How messy are we talking about?"

Luna shrugged. "It depends on the person. Harry has an unnaturally strong connection to his magic and got the teeth cleanly, so I suspect not by much, but harvesting will certainly look rather gruesome."

"Well, let's get started," Harry called out in false happiness.

Hermione turned green.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – September 5, 12:30**

Four hours. It took four long, disgusting hours to get what they could of the huge snake rendered down into its base parts and put into vials and under stasis charms. The hardest part had been the skin. Luna had been sincere when she said it was magically resistant. Harry had to release four percent of his magical reserves to open the carcass up and five percent just to have enough power to preserve the skin so it wouldn't rot on them later.

He had almost lost control over himself at five percent, unfortunately. It would still take time to learn to use more of it.

"I never realized how happy I could be to not be able to smell anything anymore," Myrtle said as she drifted above Harry, Hermione and Luna and stared at their dirty and smelly clothes. Slime from the stones and little bits where rendering hadn't gone exactly perfect and sprayed them with little blobs of detritus when something would burst covered them all.

Ron had left after the skin had been removed and was saved the trouble of clean up, though he had left a rather pungent gift of his breakfast in the corner of the room.

Three sets of weary eyes glared at the ghost who looked sheepish to realize she had spoken out loud. It wasn't _her_ fault! She had almost fifty years of being able to say and do anything without anyone hearing her, much less dealing with another's feelings.

"Dobby," Harry called out, getting the jittery elf to pop in to him, looking disheveled and his clothing slightly dirty.

"Yes Master Harry?"

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, looking at Dobby's clothes. The elf was wearing wee little cargo pants with stuffed pockets and a shirt and vest, both of which had other pockets, but not nearly quite as stuffed with various do-dahs.

"Dobby be good, Miss Hermione. What can Dobby be doing?"

"Can you take that pile of basilisk skin and store it at Potter Manor? I can't shrink or transfigure it using as much power as I'm able to," Harry explained.

Dobby nodded and rushed to do as he was asked, disappearing in a loud pop with the large pile of skin.

"He didn't even ask where you got that much basilisk skin?" Hermione wondered aloud, rather surprised that the little elf just walked up to a pile of skins that had to weigh roughly a tonne, and pop away like it was an every day event.

"House elves are trained from birth not to question their masters," Luna explained. "Harry could have told him to dispose of a large pile of dead, human bodies and he would not have batted an eyelash, though I didn't really see any on him," the blonde pondered, looking like she was trying to solve a major puzzle. "I wonder if house elves lick their eyes like lizards."

Hermione blinked owlishly at the quirky blonde, actually now wondering the same thing, while Harry scourgified the three of them and vanished the remains of the carcass, which took four attempts before he got it all. Hermione enjoyed talking to the younger girl, but sometimes, she said the most abnormal things.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen him blink before," Harry said as he tried not to smell himself, "but I think we should all go for a shower."

"Agreed," both girls said, scowling at their own clothes.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – September 5, 12:45**

Marietta Edgecombe growled as she saw one of the first year girls playing dress-up with one of those tiny fur creatures that seemed to _always_ be around her, Cho and Mandy. For whatever reason, the three girls realized that they were always in the company of at least one of the little creatures and, even worse, all three girls had awakened to find that they had notes stuck to their bodies with terms like 'trust', 'friendship', 'honesty' and 'integrity' and their definitions. As if someone thought a Ravenclaw didn't know what those words meant! Ha!

"Why do those things always seem to be watching us?" Mandy Brocklehurst whined as Cho Chang sat across from the other two.

"I don't know," the pretty Chinese girl said. "I've spoken to Professor Flitwick, but he says they've only been able to charm the showers to keep them out. They're able to gain entry into any other place of the castle so far. He didn't explain _why_, just that the only place Dumbledore would authorize was where we would be naked."

"What about dressing in the dorms?" Marietta asked with an eye roll.

"They don't exactly peek on us," Mandy said. "They're just always around." She didn't know why Marietta was so angry with the little critters. They were cute and cuddly.

"I'm wondering if they're the ones who released Loony from the closet," Cho muttered quietly so only the other two could hear. Along with every Thundercat in the room with their enhanced, cat-like hearing. Especially the ones hidden under their chairs.

"They couldn't have," Mandy hedged, unsure of threatening the older girls' knowledge. Cho and Marietta had taken her under their wing and, after proving she really wanted to join their clique by flashing a boy two years older when she met them the year before, had allowed Mandy the opportunity to join them whenever not in classes and was willing to help with the more difficult classes and practical side of them. "I haven't seen them ever use magic and they're way too short to reach the handle, to say nothing of the locking charm we used."

"You can't do this!" The three girls who were talking looked over to one of the Thundercats who was trying to crawl his way out of a giggling first-year's arms while her evil little friend held up a frilly pink dress with a good number of petticoats beneath it in one hand and a matching pink bonnet in the other. "I'm a vicious beast! I'll haunt your dreams and be the evil in your nightmares!"

"Yea, you're really vicious," the first year holding the dress said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "That's why you've been purring in our arms and begging for treats."

"You'll rue this day!" The Thundercat squeaked out. "Well go on! Start ruing!"

The three girls turned from the pleading Thundercat and the two giggling first-years who were cruelly torturing the wee little fur person with various outfits and Cho shook her head. "There's no way they could have helped with Loony," she said. The other two girls nodded.

"Still, they have been listening to us," Marietta continued.

"They've been listening to everyone, though. And they can't go into the showers if what Cho said is right," Mandy said, shrinking in on herself as the other two older girls looked at her. "I just mean, we could talk in there... not shower together." She blushed as she realized both girls thought she was asking them to do that again. It was bad enough the first time they thought she wanted to shower together.

The two older girls stared at the younger one until blonde hair caught their attentions as Luna Lovegood entered and went straight to the showers to clean off the stink of basilisk. While she had been thoughtfully scourgified by Harry, she still felt dirty, just as Harry and Hermione did and wanted to get a hot shower in before they went for lunch.

"We'll think of something," Cho said. "However she got out of the broom closet last night, she won't get out of everything. We just have to go with what we know." The other two girls nodded. None of them really had anything against the second-year blonde, but they enjoyed tormenting her. There was something about proving their superiority and dominance against a girl that just simply refused to conform to the norms of society that they felt was their duty to maintain.

An objective witness would see this mindset as the same as the Pureblood Extremists and their views on what they felt the status quo in their world should be, simply with a different reason behind their actions. To them, they felt they had no reason to not put the blonde in her place.

It had started off with three girls just teasing the lonely outcast, but as with all such things, it became worse as time wore on.

"Agreed," Mandy and Marietta concurred with the Asian witch.

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – September 7, 20:40**

"What are you doing, Harry?" Hermione asked as Harry sent Hedwig off with a note he had just finished writing. It was after dinner and Luna and Ginny had joined her, Harry and Ron for some homework for their help in it. Well, Ginny needed some help, still feeling the affects of her possession the year before where her school work had suffered slightly. Luna just wanted to spend more time with them, which is when Harry had taken the opportunity to tell her about her personal password into the Gryffindor common room which had earned him a big hug and a bright smile while everyone else had been gathering their books and homework.

"Just sending a letter to Gringotts asking what they need from me for creating a will," Harry responded, getting a surprised squawk from Hermione.

"Why on earth do you want to know _that_!" She asked with her voice having risen slightly.

"Well, at breakfast the other day when you brought up our Occlumency, I thought about sending them one more as a joke in my head when I realized you may see some things in my head that may make you angry," he admitted, deciding that it was actually something that was very, very likely to happen. And he would rather admit it up front than hope she wouldn't find the naughty memories he was referring to. His luck simply wasn't good enough for that. "I'll be honest, I wasn't _exactly_ just trying to be funny at breakfast. You have kind of been in a few dreams where all you wore was a tie and socks."

Because he was trying not to look at Hermione, he failed to notice her very red face that was rather embarrassed and, though she wouldn't admit it out loud, pleased. Not so much that he was thinking of her like that, or dreamed about her, as those were all natural things, but because it meant she was a _girl_ in his eyes. And apparently, one that could be attractive, which was a fear she had held on to from primary school. And while some people had called her ugly or various names with a similar meaning, only her parents or well-meaning aunts or family had ever said anything to the effect of saying she was pretty.

Not seeing this, Harry continued to explain. "Anyway, it made me realize that, with all the crap happening in my life, I really should have a will, anyway. I've got a lot of money and properties and stuff that is probably going to go to a bunch of enemies or bastards, so I really need to make one anyway since I'm the last Potter. I don't want Malfoy to get his grubby little hands on any of it, after all."

"Oh, er ...," Hermione cleared her throat and tried to calm down as his speech went from naughty dreams to the idea of him dying. How was she supposed to not think of those dreams while entering his mind, now? "Well, I don't like it, but I can see your point."

Blushing and thankful that Hermione wasn't drawing attention to his earlier comments, Harry nodded. "Yea, I figured it's best to be prepared," he said, while silently thinking, _'and I've apparently died several times in the past and don't have any more chances, so I had better make sure it goes where it will do good and make my friends happy than to people like Malfoy.'_

"Are we going to practice our occlumency, now?" Hermione asked, wondering how this would work out now that she was thinking of Harry's dreams. _'God I hate hormones!'_ Hermione screamed in her head.

"Sure. Let's set these two chairs to face each other," Harry said, manhandling the large, plush chairs closer and across from each other so they'd be comfortable.

"What are you two doin'?" Ron asked as he was finishing up a game of chess with Seamus and caught their movements.

"Independent study," Harry said, wondering why he hadn't brought it up with Ron yet. He hadn't said anything during the summer because it wasn't feasible. Once school started, he hadn't really considered Ron. Harry hadn't meant to exclude the redhead, but realized he had been beginning to do so. _'Actually, in hindsight, maybe I did,'_ Harry thought. _'Ron left me and Hermione just before I came back and we were stuck together for a couple of months alone and we got on better than we ever had with him around. We actually ate better and made up more ground even though we were depressed about his abandoning us.'_

Harry realized in that moment that he hadn't missed Ron at all since he came back and that he didn't really feel any strong sense of desire to have him as a part of his plans for the future. He and Hermione had been devastated when he left and they had talked about it and agreed that it wasn't the first time the redhead had separated himself from them. The two of them had shoved him out of their minds and lives as thoroughly as possible and had been better off because of it, but both had felt bad that their friendship had basically been over when he left them during one of their most desperate times. Harry still liked the redheaded boy, not being able to just toss off several years of friendship, but the sting of that betrayal was still strong and apparently stuck with him.

"Harry was working on some extra things during the summer and he told me about them in letters over the time we spoke and I wanted to join, so now we're trying them out," Hermione explained, unaware of Harry's internal musings.

"What kinds of things?" Ron asked, curious to see if it was something he could join them in.

"Have you ever heard of occlumency?" Harry asked, deciding to bring his old friend into the fold to give him a chance to be his friend again. Even if their friendship failed because Harry wouldn't turn the other cheek each time he left, letting Ron know about this training wouldn't hurt anything since anyone who tried to enter his mind would know soon enough anyway. But he would sure as hell make the prat earn their friendships if he abandoned Harry and Hermione again.

"No, what's that?"

"It's a practice of mind magic that takes a few months of meditation, which is basically sitting still and trying not to think of anything and staying relaxed, to build walls in your mind so people can't use legilimency to snoop around in your head and learn your secrets," Harry explained. "I didn't want to send Hedwig such a huge distance during the summer, so I didn't bother telling you until you got back from Egypt, and by then, we were on our way here, so I basically forgot to bring it up, but I can give you the book we used if you want to learn how to do it."

"Er, no mate, that's okay," Ron said, looking sick. He didn't like sitting still and trying not to think and he certainly didn't want to learn anything out of a book if he wasn't being forced to unless it was Quidditch-related. "You two go ahead."

"It's a very useful skill to have, Ron," Hermione tried to tell her friend. "People can just enter your mind and take your memories or thoughts if you don't know this."

"I'd rather _not_ try and learn _everything_, Hermione," Ron began as his face and ears began to pink in the beginnings of one of their usual arguments. Harry wouldn't have it, though. Hermione was right, but they couldn't force Ron to learn it, so it was a waste of time trying to convince him. And as much as he knew it could hurt them later, he didn't really _want_ to include Ron into this. He certainly never planned on telling Ron about the future. And that meant he couldn't include him as much for the same reason, so there was no point in forcing anything. And definitely no time to get into pointless arguments that would only cause more heartache, frustration and grief. Harry wanted to help people this time around and try to stop things from going bad, but he knew from experience that you couldn't save those who didn't want to be saved.

"Enough," Harry raised his voice to speak over the other two, getting two surprised expressions as he had never broken into their fights before. "She's right, it's a good skill to have, but it isn't something you don't have to learn if you don't want to. Personally, I'm happy to learn it properly and am looking forward to it." He turned to Hermione rather than speaking directly to both of them. "Ready to start?"

Still surprised, Hermione nodded. "Of course." The two sat in their chairs and faced each other, trying to get as comfortable as possible while Ron felt an odd sense of unfinished business and a lack of fulfillment.

"Alright," Harry began with a deep breath. "You get to dive in first. You read the section on entering another person's mind, right?" He asked suddenly. It just occurred to him, really, that the first several chapters were about defending and defenses. The part for entering another's mind was several chapters in and, even though Hermione read quickly, Harry realized he wasn't sure how far she had gotten on her own with writing as she went.

"She's going to go _into_ your mind?" Ron asked incredulously. "Isn't that what you're supposed to be stopping?"

"Yes, Ron," Harry said with a mild glare for the interruption, especially when he was hoping for a good answer from Hermione. "I am letting her enter my mind to test my defenses. I trust her to be okay with whatever she may find. Now don't interrupt us. We need to focus." Ron scowled as his ears turned red and stomped off to the boys' dormitory while Hermione and Harry watched him leave.

Once Ron was out of their sight, Hermione turned to Harry and looked at him curiously for a moment before shaking her head. "Yes, I read that section. Otherwise, I'd have asked about it. Ready?" With a nod of approval, Hermione raised her wand and pointed it at Harry's face while staring into his green eyes. "Legilimens."

Immediately, Hermione found herself in the same position in the Gryffindor common room, but Harry's body was now gone. Her eyes widened and she looked around quickly as she realized that all sound in the common room was gone as well and there wasn't a soul in sight. "Harry?" She called out, wondering what had happened. The book never said anything like this would happen! She was supposed to focus her attention and send herself into Harry's mind, but whatever happened had caused everyone to disappear!

"H-Harry?" Hermione asked again, getting up slowly from the chair and looking around as she shivered.

"Right here," Harry said from behind Hermione, causing her to shriek and spin around quickly.

"Harry! What happened? How did you get behind me?" Hermione asked suspiciously, not taking her wand from him, just in case.

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Yea, about that. I appeared at the top of the Astronomy Tower. I thought we might try doing this at Potter Manor and designed my mind so that you would appear in Gryffindor Tower if you ever tried this so you wouldn't have to worry about my outer defenses the day that we first met over the summer. It kinda defeats the purpose of testing those if you're already in, I suppose," he said, trailing off with a slight frown. There was an odd gold strand, much like a rope, going from Hermione's body and then out and up towards the sky and he didn't know what it was for.

"You mean you made the Gryffindor common room in your mind?" She asked, looking around speculatively. "The detail is incredible. How did you do that?"

"Er, most of it was actually drawn from my memories of the room," he said with a shrug. "I changed a lot of things, but some things are still the same along with some very nasty surprises for anyone who thinks that the whole place was all built subconsciously."

"Oh," Hermione said, eying the room with a new apprehension and wondering where those 'nasty surprises' might be. "You'll warn me if I get too close to a trap or something, right?"

"You're keyed in for the most part," he explained. "You can pretty much go anywhere except for a few restricted sections that I've created in the school that don't really exist where I hide the stuff I would rather no one ever know about or the stuff I don't ever want _anyone_ to see that even _I_ have to be careful around if I don't want to set off any traps. Do you know what the gold rope, light thing is for?" He asked, pointing to it.

Hermione looked at where Harry was pointing and then to him as if he were more than just a touch barmy. "I don't see any light or rope thing," she said.

"That's ... odd," he said, going over and touching it while she watched on. Immediately, he could hear her thoughts as she wondered both what he was doing and what he was talking about, letting Harry know this was the form the mental probe she was using had taken in his mind. Her thoughts were so rapid and numerous, however, that he pulled his hand away quickly and looked at Hermione. "I think I may be the only one to see it, I guess. But, I could hear you thinking about not being able to see it and wondering if I was okay in the head because I could. I think it's your mental probe the book mentioned. I was wondering how I could find a probe to defend against or use it to track back into a person's head when all I saw was you."

"Oh," Hermione said with wide eyes. She had completely forgotten all about that in the surprise of being in a complete mindscape. "Show me around?"

Harry nodded and held out his hand, letting her grab a hold of it and then willing himself to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Being his mind, he was able to change anything on the fly and, one of those things happened to be an apparition-like ability to take himself and anyone else anywhere he wanted to go.

Hermione immediately shrieked once again and grabbed a hold of Harry as a large, Hungarian Horntail eyed the two newcomers as it circled the tower in mid-flight and then took off with several powerful beats of its wings as both people were on the access list. "What the bloody hell was that!" Hermione watched the huge creature fly away and noticed a few dozen others in the air, along with other flying creatures while other creatures seemed to patrol along the visible walls around the school and outside of the defensive area. Hermione was also able to tell that there were a much larger number of gargoyles around the multiple roofs and free areas that weren't there in reality, meaning there was probably something dangerous about them.

"Hungarian Horntail dragon," Harry responded with a grin and holding Hermione in a firm hug as she looked about with increasingly curious eyes. "I've got a bunch of various creatures running around to help keep my mind protected: dragons, goblins, manticore, wyvern, acromantula, centaurs, fairies, snakes, squirrels, chipmunks-"

"Squirrels and chipmunks?" Hermione asked incredulously. "What are they going to do? Chatter them to death?"

Harry grinned. "They're small, cute and most people would think the same thing you just thought, so when they transform into twenty-feet tall, bloodthirsty beasts with fangs and claws, the shock may help slow them down to get caught."

Hermione gulped. "S-so, there isn't really a single safe thing in here?" She looked at the large telescope only a few feet away dubiously and pressed herself more firmly into Harry, figuring he was safe and the closer she was, the safer she was. And she really didn't want to think about what it could do or how it would do it.

"You are," Harry said with a smile. "You could walk right into a dragon's mouth and it would just sit there."

"I'd rather not," Hermione shuddered. Then, she perked up and looked around, not being so overwhelmed with events to recognize something very strange. "Hey! You created an entire mindscape!"

"Er, yea?" Harry said, looking confused.

"Harry, the book said you had to build up to a mindscape because you had to create the rules for it. It actually said this was a _bad_ idea until you got good enough to support it! You have to have the strength to be able to force the person to follow the rules of the mindscape like gravity or not being able to walk through the walls. That's why the book recommended creating a strong vault-like defense and then building around it for multiple layers of defense!"

"Uh, I _did_," Harry said, confused. "It began to develop on its own when I gave you control over my defenses."

"Me? What?" Hermione asked, seeing Harry blush.

"Er, well, I'll show you. Come on," Harry said, leading Hermione down from the Astronomy Tower to take her to what represented the Headmaster's office. However, as they stepped into the castle, Hermione stopped in surprise to see an older Luna – Correction, make that _four_ older Lunas, being led by an older and more matured version of herself, all of which were dressed in black robes with Harry's coat of arms and both smiled and waved at the two real kids.

"Harry? Why are there four Lunas and another me? And why are they so much older?" She was also curious about why he gave Luna larger breasts and made her prettier. She was pleased that her older form was attractive, but the blonde Ravenclaw had been made prettier with waist-length hair and a much more obvious figure in the robes. At least he made her hair much better.

"I trust you and Luna. There are also groups of the twins running amok and all of them have one of you leading them."

"Oh." Hermione wasn't sure if she should be flattered or a little freaked out, so she simply decided to go with a little of both, though more flattered than freaked. At least as long as the older versions of the girls kept their clothes on and there wasn't anything to say this was some weird fetish rather than just Harry working with what he knew.

As the two worked their way towards the Headmaster's office, Hermione was astounded with the amount of detail the school seemed to have in Harry's mind. In the real world, she didn't notice scuff marks or oddly shaped or colored stones as they existed here, and she only noticed them because she was trying to find things that seemed out of the ordinary to try and find his traps. But, she decided to catalog each of these oddities and check them out over the next few days in the real castle.

"Lora," Harry said, voicing the password to the stone gargoyle and bringing Hermione out of her thoughts.

_'Lora? Who is Lora?'_ She thought with a slight frown, wondering where Harry was meeting all of these women.

As they walked up the stairs, Harry grinned at Hermione. "That hallway, even though it doesn't look like it, is the most dangerous one in the entire place. There are invisible goblins and it'll automatically activate a huge number of defenses on anyone not on my permission list, the last of which sends them into the acromantula nest I set up in the forest."

"What happens to someone if you hurt them here, or something ... er ... worse?" Hermione asked as they got to the door.

"I dunno," Harry said as he pondered the question. "I made all of the defenses to scare or hurt the person entering badly enough that they withdraw their mental probe, though some people are on an auto-kill list. I just figured that anyone trying to get into my head is classified as an enemy, so I wouldn't be gentle with them. You and certain others may get permission, but that's to make sure you don't get hurt while we practice and because I trust you and plan to ask you to try and break through randomly," Harry said as he opened the door into the office.

"If I'm allowed to have entry, then your defenses won't really try to stop me from-" Hermione stopped speaking and stared in surprise at the older version of herself she had seen earlier, or maybe just another one, that was staring back at her with an almost identical stare of surprise.

"Well," the Hermione clone said nervously. "This is awkward."

"You ... You're me!" Hermione spluttered. The girl in front of her was much like the other Hermiones she had seen, only this one was dressed in muggle clothing, very flattering muggle clothing at that, and her hair was far more tame than Hermione's own. And Hermione's eyes were invariably drawn to her doppleganger's chest which was much more impressive than she had noticed in the others, though they had been wearing Hogwarts robes that had hidden that feature quite nicely. Still, it began to make her wonder why he went through the trouble of making them older _and_ having those improvements to their current bodies.

"Er, not exactly," the faux Hermione said, biting her lower lip in a way that Hermione knew matched her own. If she wasn't so sure they were in Harry's head, she would be worried about a time-turner accident. A very _bad_ time-turner accident.

"Harry, why don't you give us a couple of minutes. It should be kind of interesting to talk to another me. She'll come down when we're done, it should only be a few minutes," Fake Hermione suggested, giving him a look that made him realize it wasn't actually phrased as one, but an order.

"Er, alright," he said, confused. "You realize you keep kicking me out of my own head, right?"

"We can talk about that later. Go on." The fake Hermione pushed Harry down the stairs and then crafted a small warning to alert her if he should try to come up and listen to them, then turned around to face Hermione. The real Hermione.

"Why do you look like me?" Hermione asked as the older her turned into an older Harry. A rather appealing older Harry, at that, who looked very, very nervous.

After what seemed like hours, but had only been maybe a half hour, Hermione traipsed out of the Headmaster's office and gave Harry a strange look with a matching smile as she took his hand and began walking him to the Gryffindor common room.

"What did you two talk about?" Harry asked, wondering what a part of his own mind, one that generally forced him out of his own mindscape, and Hermione could honestly have to discuss.

"Differences between the two of us, mostly," Hermione said. "Anyway, I was also told that all I can do is walk around and try to find things on my own or with you showing me. Since I'm on the allow list, nothing will attempt to stop me like it would an actual intruder and neither of us could be sure what might happen to me if we tried to see what would happen if I tried and you took me off the list.

"Oh," Harry said, feeling uneasy as the possibilities came to mind. He had purposefully set his defenses up to be as drastic and scary as possible, but anyone he felt he could let into his mind for practice was _on_ the allowed his for just that reason. "Well, I guess we won't be trying that for a little while."

"Look at the bright side," Hermione said. "I showed up right where you wanted me to and haven't seen a single memory."

"Hey, yea!" Harry said, smiling. "That's true!"

"Do you know where everyone else should pop in at? I was already in the castle, after all, which made your outer defenses worthless for me."

"Yea," Harry nodded. "I set up everyone outside the wall except for you so far. Everyone else shows up in the middle of an acromantula colony."

Hermione shuddered.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 8, 05:00**

Early the next morning, Harry woke as normal and rushed to get downstairs so he could get on with his morning workout that Monday morning when he saw Twinkle standing on the couch and waiting for him. "You have something for me, Twinkle?" Harry asked, curious to hear about what his tiny little spies had found.

Twinkle nodded once, his silver eyes shining eerily in the low light coming from the fireplace. "Merely your daily update and incident report, Master."

Harry frowned. "Alright, let's have it. And stop calling me 'Master'."

"We have identified one other who participates in the thefts of Miss Luna's belongings and I have taken the liberty of getting her chest wrapping back and issuing the proper warning," the Thundercat leader spoke, ignoring Harry's confused expression and subsequent blush as he realized what the chest wrapping was. "The three who locked Miss Luna in the closet have not attempted to do anything serious yet, but are still planning and have begun to entertain the idea of hiding and plotting in the showers where we have been warded out of by the smaller human."

Harry recognized their description for Flitwick and motioned for Twinkle to continue.

"Beyond that, the three instigators placed a bug attraction liquid of some kind on Miss Luna's bed and several large ones attempted to gain access before we alerted the house elves and they changed her bedding. The ones attempting to get on her bed during the night have been captured and are being held."

Harry frowned. "Were any of them dangerous to Luna?"

"No."

Harry nodded. "I'll handle them, then. I want a full list of anyone who's pranked Luna and anyone who knew about the pranks in advance and did nothing to stop them," Harry ordered before looking at the tiny cat man curiously. "What did you do with the bugs you caught."

Twinkle's eyes and body shifted nervously. "We've ... eliminated them...," he said slowly.

On the first floor in a section of the school that hadn't been accessed in almost nine-hundred and fifty years, twenty Thundercats had the large beetles and spiders that had attempted to get into Miss Luna's bed tied to tiny posts stuck on the floor in the corner, every one of the pests lined up in a row as each of the Thundercats hefted recently-crafted weapons in the forms of bows and arrows, javelins or spears, tiny little throwing daggers and in one case, a plastic action figure from a Hufflepuff first-year muggleborn that had karate-chopping action.

"Alright men!" Claws yelled out, the elected weapons master since he was the strongest in an odd little quirk of the magic during their creation. He had also been the only one smart enough to go to the room of their birth and request basic knowledge on the weapons since they had not yet learned to use their claws. "We nearly lost two of our own against those rats on the second floor! We will become the greatest warriors in this land! No mouse or rat shall again defeat one of our own!"

"HAROO! HAROO!" A battle cry from the assembled cat-people as they hefted their weapons. The day of the rat would soon end.

Claws hefted his own sword, an ornate dagger conveniently pilfered from a Slytherin student who thought to throw it at him and missing by a good many feet, and pointed it at the bound creatures a few feet away. "RELEASE THE PRISONERS!"

Once freed, survival instincts kicked in and each of the bugs scattered and the Thundercats gave chase.

Harry nodded. "They're just bugs, but whatever you want to do with them, go ahead."

Twinkle released a relieved sigh sheepishly. He then placed a closed fist over his heart and bowed. "By your leave, Master."

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 8, First Period – Double Potions**

"Potter!" Snape snarled out almost as soon as the Potion's classroom door had closed, giving Harry an odd sense of déjà vu. It was Wednesday morning and Harry had continued his workout each morning, hoping he would get used to the new exercises soon. None of his Thundercats had heard of any plots on Luna aside from the run-of-the-mill things they had been doing, like stealing her items, and had been giving those back to her as quickly as possible so that she normally wouldn't even notice them gone, but they had been unable to find everything. They were only a hundred in number and the school was quite massive. And he had made sure five were always in the Headmaster's quarters or his office in case any information he didn't have before came to light.

Harry sighed and looked at his much-hated potions' professor. He remembered this day relatively well and had actually been waiting for it, planning on getting the very start of his changes in as soon as possible just to see how everyone would react. "Yes, Professor Snape?" Harry asked, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Draco who looked positively delighted as Severus began keeping his promise of making Potions class hell for the orphaned Potter.

"Since Mister Malfoy is still recovering from his wounds, you and your partner will assist him by mixing his potion as well," the snarky git sneered. This would show the little bastard to be so much like his bloody father and try to slip in and destroy Draco before the boy had the proper amount of time to explain things. Both Potters had felt they could run this school however they wished and be free from reprisal, but he wouldn't allow it. He would keep Potter in his place in the pecking order of things. No Gryffindor held a place above a Slytherin. Not even the Know-It-All, Granger.

Harry's eyebrows rose as he mentally compared this to what he remembered happening last time. Before, Draco had complained first, but it seemed something happened to make Snape single him out on his own this time. Looking next to him to a fuming Ron, who was his partner while Hermione was with Neville and then to a smirking Draco, Harry decided this was going to be where it stopped. "No."

Snape's face immediately showed his surprise as he was denied his orders. "Excuse me?" He asked dangerously. "I don't think I heard you correctly."

Harry looked back at his teacher, noticing the scowl grow deeper and his body language shift to acceptance of a contest of superiority as the Potions Master had no plans of losing in his own lair. "Madam Pomfrey cleared him back to classes and besides that, Malfoy _has_ a potions partner who can make the potion. I will not sit here and allow your godson the opportunity to pass through this class on my merits simply because either he or you feel you have the ability to lord over this class like some sort of royalty. I will not be brewing Malfoy's potion and I will not accept you attempting to force me to do so."

The majority of the class stared at Harry in wide-eyed shock that he had actually just refused the teacher's command while Snape's eyes betrayed happiness that he would dare even _try_. Hermione would have scolded Harry quite thoroughly if she hadn't been too worried about speaking up in the man's class.

And that said something about his cruelty that students only spoke when needed and never at the teacher, even to support him.

Feeling the entire class' eyes slowly move to him in waiting dread, Snape realized that he couldn't allow the Potter Spawn to get out of this without a fight. "That'll be detention each night for the remainder of the week, Potter," Snape said with a hint of happiness in his eye. "And fifteen points from Gryffindor."

Harry smirked as Snape twirled around and let the directions fill the blackboard for the day's potion, a simple headache relief potion used to make sure they didn't forget too much over the summer and properly berate those who did. He ignored the glares from his house mates, though he made a mental note to try and think of something to tell Hermione and Ron before things blew up on him, and then proceeded to make the potion perfectly. It was amazing how much better he did when he ignored Snape's ranting.

xXxXxXx

"Bloody hell, Harry," Ron exclaimed once he felt he was a safe distance from the classroom and Snape couldn't hear him as they left their double potions class for lunch. "I'm all for sticking it to Malfoy, but even _I'm_ not stupid enough to piss off Snape!"

"What were you thinking!" Hermione asked as they left the dungeons and headed to the Great Hall for lunch, immediately following the boys. "You were practically baiting Professor Snape to pull something!"

Harry frowned and felt honest anger well up in his chest at his bushy-haired friend. He had thought long and hard about the way things worked in Hogwarts over the summer along with what he knew of various people from things that they had done in his past, but the current future, and had decided things had to change here if they were going to change anywhere. Snape had basically raped Harry's mind, keeping him open to Voldemort during his fifth year and had _killed_ Dumbledore! There was no way he was going to obey that bastard this time around where it wasn't necessary!

Acting on the impulses he felt, he turned to her and glared with angry eyes, making her stop and take a step back as she realized he was honestly angry with her. That ... had never really happened before. "Are you telling me I should do additional work to help Draco's Potion's grade when we're about as far from friends as you can get just because he has a few scratches on his arm even though Madam Pomfrey had already cleared him for classes?"

Hermione swallowed and found herself unable to look away from Harry's gaze as she responded, wondering where the sudden anger had come from. "W-well, no. But, Professor Snape told you to-"

"He told me to help someone who didn't need the help because it gave Malfoy a free pass for the day and caused me extra work," Harry said harshly, more harshly than he probably intended. "You can't deny the fact that since day one, _literally_ since day one, he's singled me out and caused problems, can you?"

Hermione shook her head, having thought about that herself on a few occasions when it came to thinking of Harry's life in general, but still found herself unable to escape his green eyes. "No," she said quietly, somehow feeling very, very small.

"Snape is a bad teacher," Harry said simply, but firmly. "He assigns detentions and takes points for invalid reasons and punishes students for nothing. In first year, he even took one of my books just like a standard school bully. He's taken points from you for being a 'know-it-all' and from Ron for 'breathing too loudly'. He has called you insulting names, Hermione, he has called me names, along with the majority of the Gryffindors in that class! He allows others to sabotage potions and does nothing to stop it!"

Harry ran his hand through his hair and sighed, looking between Hermione and Ron and letting Hermione feel free of his eyes and their hold for the first time, allowing her to really think. "Hermione, Snape gets away with things like that and he keeps going further with it, seeing what he can and can't get away with. He's doing the same with with Malfoy, letting him get what he wants and spoiling him like a little brat. It has to stop."

Hermione looked away from Harry and thought for a few moments while Ron decided to speak up. "You've still got detention for it, mate. So, I'd say he's still getting what he wants."

Harry shook his head. "I'm not going," he told them.

"What!" Hermione squawked. "You'll get in trouble if you don't go! You can't not go to detentions and then expect to get out of it freely!"

"He'll try, but I'll take care of it."

Hermione huffed, feeling more confident now that she wasn't locked under his angry glare and that Harry was acting like ... well, like _Malfoy_! "Harry, you can't stage a coup against the staff! You have to serve the detention and stop trying to overthrow their authority!"

The feelings of anger and frustration in Harry were too strong for him to just simply ignore, so he shook his head and sighed angrily, causing it to come out more like a growl. "I'm not really hungry. I'll see you guys in DADA." Then he left to head off to the Room of Requirement, but the path was the same for the Gryffindor common room, so Hermione and Ron assumed that was where he was heading.

Hermione stood there silent and still, trying to figure out why Harry had become so angry. Yes, she had told Harry he had to follow Professor Snape's orders and serve the detention, but everything he was planning to do could very easily backfire on him and get him into an extreme amount of trouble, or even worse, expelled. She knew it was a bad habit and came off bossy and nagging, but she didn't want to be here without her friends. She had planned on owling her parents and asking them to pull her out after those hurtful comments her first Halloween there and would have, too, if Harry hadn't shown that he didn't completely hate her by coming for her when he knew she was alone. Even after seeing the troll and finding out helping her would be a life-threatening situation, he still stuck it out and saved her.

She couldn't let him get hurt if she could help it, even if it meant that he did end up hating her. At least she would have tried helping him and, if he were alive to hate her, then at least there would be that.

Sadly, Ron was thinking very differently than she was and rounded on her as they walked down the hallway. "You've just got to stick your nose into everything," he said angrily. "Harry can get away with all sorts of things because he's _the_ Harry Potter! McGonagall and Dumbledore both think of him as a favorite, so he wouldn't get in trouble."

"Ron!" She exclaimed loudly. "He can get into serious trouble for this or even expelled! If he's not going to think things through, then we should to ensure we can help him!"

"I'm just saying, they won't expel Harry," Ron argued as they entered the Great Hall. "He's the Boy-Who-Lived. _Everyone_ wants him!" As he saw Luna sitting in the same spot as she, Hermione and Harry had been sitting the past few days, he began to redden as jealousy and a little anger filled him. Harry hadn't exactly been excluding him, but he had been consorting with _her_ lot and hadn't paid any attention to the fact that Ron didn't want her anywhere near them. She was absolutely barmy! And Harry hadn't even played chess with him _once_.

Instead of sitting with Hermione, he decided to go ahead and sit with Dean and Seamus again as Hermione took a seat next to Luna, looking as depressed as she felt, which Luna immediately picked up on. "Hermione? Are you okay?" She set her fork down to give the brunette her full attention as several Thundercats laid sprawled out on the ground around her feet, each with an arm full of her lunch and mewling or purring happily as they ate. Their Master Harry's female was their favorite! She always gave them _so_ much food! Except for her pudding ... she had become rather violent when they went for that...

"Harry and Ron are mad at me," Hermione said as she picked out some food for her plate and began to eat, tasting the metal of the fork and not the food itself. It was odd how depression could deaden the taste of food.

Luna frowned while glancing at the redhead down the table a short ways. "Ronald gets upset for the smallest of things. He always has, especially if he feels inferior for whatever reason. But why would Harry be upset?"

Hermione swallowed the bite of bread and explained what had just happened while Luna listened patiently and without interruptions. Once done, the blonde quirked an eyebrow. "I don't mean to rub wounds, but I would have to say it sounds as though you're missing something."

Hermione blinked in teary-eyed confusion. "What?"

Luna turned back to her food and pondered while trying to find patterns in the plate. "Harry ... is someone I trust. In action and word," she told Hermione quietly. "There is something different about him recently that makes him far different than anyone else I have ever met or come across. And it sounds like he has information of some sort that makes him feel what he is doing is both the right thing, which I agree with, and something he can honestly do, which I am willing to believe in simply because of who he is. Not as the Boy-Who-Lived, but because he is Harry. He seems to have found goals to attain over the summer that lead somewhere that he wants to go. I don't know what those goals are yet, but I suspect they are important for him to defy Professor Snape."

Hermione nodded to herself, her thoughts drifting to the talks she and Harry had shared in the past. "He does have things he wants to talk about. That's why we're learning occlumency, because he said that we can't risk anyone taking the information out of our heads with legilimency," she explained idly, not really thinking. Almost immediately, her eyes widened and she covered her mouth as she looked at Luna in fear.

Luna simply smiled serenely. "I already assumed something along those lines. And I know I'm not nearly as close to the two of you as you are to each other, so I know I won't be privy to the majority of your secrets. So don't worry, I'm not upset."

Hermione winced, feeling bad that Luna realized they were keeping secrets, and even worse that the blonde girl was accepting it without batting even an eyelash. She had quickly grown fond of the quirky girl. She was very, very, VERY odd, but some how, Hermione just didn't want to not be her friend. In another life, if she didn't have a better understanding of why Luna was the way that she was, then she may have been like many of the others, but that wasn't this life. "It isn't ... I mean, we don't want ... AH!" Hermione growled out. "I don't know how to say this. They're Harry's secrets and I don't know who he wants to tell or not. I didn't mean to bring them up."

"It's okay," Luna said as she began to eat. "We've only really known each other a week. You always seem to be involved in something that requires secrecy and I understand it would take time to develop a sense of trust between us."

_'Still,'_ Hermione thought, _'it feels wrong.'_

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 8, During Lunch**

Harry sent an overpowered blasting charm into the center of a massive number of statues that were put there by the Room of Requirement for him to destroy to vent his frustrations. It actually had less to do with Hermione's scolding and more to do with the fact that it could have easily stopped the whole thing if she knew exactly how bad things had wound up getting in his past life and their current future, but frustrated him to no end that he was the only one who knew.

A number of the students had turned against the school in the future, and it could very easily have been because of how much they were allowed to get away with while there at Hogwarts. Not to mention how many students had suffered because people like Snape and Malfoy were given free reign to act as badly as they wanted, making open threats in the Great Hall and not getting in trouble for sending hexes at students. Snape had had the effrontery to laugh at Hermione's expense in fourth year when Draco had cursed Hermione, after all, and there had been nothing done about that. The bastard had even had the gall to mock her!

The part that was actually the most upsetting, however, wasn't even the subject matter, but that his anger had gotten the better of him and made him speak so harshly to Hermione. It was how he may have acted when he was younger rather than older, and he wasn't able to predict his own actions. He seemed to think like his older self, but still reacted like his younger when any actions weren't consciously thought through or he acted based on his emotions and not with a clear head. Basically, all of his instincts were muddled up. He either became the leader in the war he was before his death, or he acted like the petulant child he embarrassingly had been at this stage in his life.

Yes, he was upset that Hermione knew what Snape was doing was wrong and still thought he should obey the death eater's orders, but was more upset at the fact that he couldn't determine for sure how he would act later with serious situations. He had faced up against Dumbledore in a letter, but if the man tried to force his way face-to-face, would he revert back to his younger mindset? He had always felt so small and powerless in front of Dumbledore. And to top it all off, he knew he would have to do that very thing when he didn't show up for his assigned detentions. Would he have the backbone to do so? Would the old man test his mind to see why he wasn't the pliable little weapon he had been grooming?

The room morphed into a simple room with a couch and fireplace for him to enjoy once he was finished dealing out damage to the mass of statues and training dummies after an hour of doing nothing but destroying the various statues. It wasn't meant to train, but to simply destroy and vent his anger.

Harry fell back into the couch heavily as he sighed and looked at his hands, noting the rough callouses obtained through years of hard work, two years riding a broom and the past few months of exercise and tried to glean some sort of information about his situation in them, wishing for just a moment that he had the Sight and could use it to help.

The issue he faced now was not Hermione, Snape or the threat of detentions, but doubt. Going back in time had made him feel like he would be much more prepared for the things he was facing. Harry knew his intelligence was higher than it had been by this time in his past and he had made it through okay, but the sad fact was, he had only gone back four years, all of which he had slouched and slacked off aside from the DA during his fifth year and that was, sadly, more out of survivalism rather than the desire to do good. He was woefully under-prepared for everything he was facing.

Then he met Lora who gave him training aids, and then gave him another chance. But that was the thing that was hitting him the hardest. He knew he had already had multiple chances. Harry knew that he wasn't really at fault for all of his premature deaths, since Lora had specifically stated that there were other circumstances, but he _had_ died, which meant he _could_ die. And this was his last chance to set things to right.

And he doubted his ability to do that.

A major problem with the wizarding world was their structure of beliefs and the way the government was run and by _whom_ the government was run. As long as things progressed as they did now, the wizarding world would forever stagnate and destroy itself from the inside out like a festering boil. An apt analogy, considering the evil that arose repeatedly in an attempt to control and dominate it. And Dumbledore, for all of his beliefs of the good in men and the ability to redeem anyone, had allowed it to happen, hoping to turn people onto the 'Path of Light' by being kind and gentle with them, which was the exact thing those like Malfoy and death eaters-in-training fed on to learn how to manipulate and how to push and push until they learned how to test their limits in any given situation. Sadly, Dumbledore and Snape allowed them to push as much as they wanted.

During the horcrux hunt after Ron had left the two of them alone, Harry and Hermione were sharing their bed as had become their habit for warmth and, while neither had wanted to admit it by the time of his death even though they had many close calls, they had wanted the cuddles as well. The two teens relished the chance to hold each other each night and talk like they once had in previous years. During those times, they talked about _everything_ they could think of and Hermione had once told Harry that, from her first to second years at Hogwarts, she had made a journal of her observations of the wizarding world and all of the muggle inventions she wanted to make magical variations of like televisions, public flight and even television dinners that were held under stasis charms that the wizarding community could eat at home when in a rush, though that had come after hearing about the plight of many like Professor Lupin who had been afflicted with a curse or were considered 'dark' by the Ministry of Magic and thus, unable to get proper jobs, so that particular thought had been more of a community outreach program or providing very cheap food that could be put aside for emergencies.

But somewhere along the way, she had seen that her views and thoughts would go nowhere after finding out about all of the bigotry and hatred in the wizarding world and she had eventually given up on those dreams.

She shouldn't have to do that!

Harry remembered the events of only two hours ago with Snape that day from his last life and had planned to let it happen so that he could make a stand and declare that the change that needed to happen in the wizarding world would start right there in Hogwarts. If he wanted to keep so many of his classmates from turning dark or just letting the dark witches and wizards out there take control without even a _fight_, then he had to start here. For those like Hermione who wanted to try to make the wizarding world a better place and bring it into the present and out of the past, he had to be able to get past this test of himself.

And that's what scared him so badly.

Harry had found himself reacting too much like his older, or rather, his younger, self from this time period, even though he had matured. Granted, he had become a mopey bastard, but he had developed more backbone and drive over the years from now to when he had died, and whenever his emotions got the better of him, he reverted back to his younger emotions.

Snape would attempt to get Harry to go to detention and would play to gain dominance in his potion's class. Harry knew this, and expected it. He even felt he had done moderately well against Snape and hadn't let his emotions get the better of him.

But then he had lost control against _Hermione_ of all people! He knew she was looking out for him and didn't want him to get into trouble, but she defended the slimy bastard even when she _knew_ he was in the wrong. After controlling himself for so long and and then letting that control waver after class to relax, he reacted before he could control himself again, and he had probably hurt her feelings.

So, Harry would see if he could convert her to at least admit the truth and, if possible, he would do what he could to ensure Dumbledore and the other faculty would do the same. If not, he would take control over the school as sole owner and run it as the Founders had by the set of rules they had left.

He just had to get through the inevitable confrontations with Snape and then Dumbledore without screwing things up.

Harry heard the clock tower chime from where he was, assisted by the room to ensure he heard it, and got up to go to Defense Against the Dark Arts where, hopefully, nobody would ask where he was. He just didn't know how to tell them that he was planning on starting a revolution in Hogwarts, hoping it would lead forward to the war itself so they didn't have as many students turn against one another.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 8, After Lunch - DADA**

Hermione stepped into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom early, hoping to wait for Harry since he never showed up for lunch and found him already there and standing at the back of the classroom since the room's center had been cleared for some inexplicable reason. Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath, she walked up to him with her books held in her arms against her chest in an ancient habit ingrained from years of primary school as a defensive gesture to have something between her and the other person she was speaking to.

"I'm sorry," both said as one once they were close enough to speak normally. Both blushed slightly and looked away from the other before Harry decided to continue.

"Look Hermione. I know what you were trying to say earlier and, normally I'd agree with you, but not with Snape. I'm sorry I snapped at you, but Snape is a horrible man and an even worse teacher. He taunts and ridicules students, which we already know hinders learning rather than helps it, he mocks students, well Gryffindors, for potions mishaps and accuses _us_ any time a Slytherin cauldron turns out wrong, takes points for no reason, gives detentions for no reason and doesn't really teach so much as tells us to follow directions from a book. I won't stand down on this, but I still wanted to say I was sorry for how I reacted," Harry ended sincerely. He felt he had been justified, but that he had gone a little overboard, and decided apologizing was the right thing to do.

Hermione let out a whoosh of air in a sigh and shook her head. "Well, I may have come off a little strongly, too, so I apologize for that," she said. "And yes, he isn't a very good professor, but he _is_ a professor and we have to respect him for that.

"No, we have to respect the position," Harry corrected. "However, he doesn't hold up to the standards of his position and probably won't for as long as he is here." Silently, he added, _'which I hope isn't for much longer, but we'll see.'_

"I guess I see your point," Hermione said, more to smooth things over. She knew he was right, of course, but it went against her very nature to argue against authority. And, after learning how much Lockhart had been able to get away with at the end of their previous year, she had finally learned just how backwards and bigoted the wizarding world was. In that context, there was very little she could hold on to to be comforted in the new and unusual world she was now in, alone at that. Her parents were muggles and couldn't help her in this world. They didn't, in fact, have any rights at all. Aside from Harry and the Weasleys, and more recently Luna, she was alone and stuck with the things that came naturally and in her comfort zone.

"I don't expect you to change your view on what I say," Harry said soothingly as he wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her into a hug since she seemed saddened, thinking it was about his views on Snape rather than her moment of reflection. "I just ask you to look at things and make honest conclusions without someone else influencing you. Yea, I know Dumbledore trusts him, but my experience with him leads me to think badly of him in every way aside from his potions skills. I don't think he can teach worth a damn, but he knows his stuff. That's all I would give him."

"I admit he's not a shining example of what a teacher should be, but Dumbledore has him teaching for a reason," Hermione tried to defend herself.

Harry nodded. "Yes, and I know what that reason is, and it has nothing to do with the students or his own ability to teach. It's because of what he did during the last war."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"Snape acted as a spy in the last war, but it was never clear which side he was really spying for," Harry said as Professor Lupin entered the room, levitating a large wardrobe behind him.

"Hello everyone!" Lupin called out with a smile. After a moment of scattered replies as he settled the wardrobe in the center of the wall towards the far wall with the windows, he turned back to them. "Today, we'll be learning about the boggart. Can anyone tell me something about them?"

Hermione's hand was up like a shot and few others bothered trying since they knew by this point that Hermione preferred to get called on. "Yes. You, Miss Granger," Lupin accepted. She reminded him a lot of himself when he was her age. He had preferred to stay under the radar a bit more, but Minerva had sung the girl's praises with an almost gushing enthusiasm that made him curious.

"Boggarts take the form of a person's deepest fears, but do not gain any additional abilities from those forms. Therefore, a person who feared a magic user would see the boggart turn into that magic user, but it would not be able to cast magic. Or a basilisk would be unable to kill with its eyesight. Regardless of the form they take, however, they dislike the light, which I assume is why you placed its wardrobe by the window."

"It is," Lupin said with a nod. "To be sure it will go there if it decides to run and hide somewhere or try to escape."

Hermione huffed quietly for being interrupted before continuing. "It isn't known how they learn of your fear since even the most accomplished occlumens still sees their fears when faced with a boggart. However, boggarts will gain various attitudes based on the forms they take, such as becoming wolves and turning feral or a person would be able to talk whereas the same wolf would be unable to."

"Very good, five points to Gryffindor," Lupin said happily. "Does anyone know what their real form looks like?" He was met with silence. "Anyone?"

"The books never said," Hermione admitted with a frown.

"That's because no one knows," Lupin confirmed. "As far as we know, they will take whatever form of the person who is closest, regardless of how far away they are. That's why I'm staying right next to it instead of letting any of you get too close yet. We have no idea where they come from or if they have physical substance. If you cut off a piece of it when it is in someone's fear, then the cut off piece simply vanishes."

"Has anyone ever tried thinking of something specific when confronting a boggart?" Harry asked curiously. "I know they can be charmed to be something specific, so is there a way to think of, say, a bunny and it coming out as one instead of what you actually fear? Going up to one of these things, I'd automatically think of it becoming something specific if I knew I was scared of something."

"A good question," Lupin approved with a smile. "But no. They can be charmed to become something specific, yes, but thinking about something doesn't work. However, using the defensive charm 'Riddikulus' while picturing your fear as something else meant to be funny will overpower its fear-inducing form and allow you to defeat it. Now, say it with me ... 'Riddikulus!'"

The class intoned as they were told and Lupin used his advanced hearing to detect anyone saying it incorrectly, pleased to note that none did since it sounded just like the standard 'ridiculous' as he then started up an old phonograph. He needed a reason to justify bringing it since he didn't want to get rid of it and couldn't afford to keep his old residence while he wasn't using it. "Excellent! Now, everyone line up and we'll try this out! Remember to think of something funny when you cast the spell or it won't work," their new teacher warned. He remembered being a kid and highly preferring practical lessons to theory and homework. This lesson was as much to gain some form of camaraderie between himself and the students while finding out how to gauge some of them to see where they stood for his ideas for lessons. After all, if he could teach a student how to defeat their fears, then they had less to worry about when they were forced to confront them for those who had standard ones like bugs, lethifolds and the like.

Although, with Harry's surprising ability to teach the Patronus charm, lethifolds may not be quite so bad.

"Alright! I've got some music playing. Let's let the first person confront their deepest, darkest fears, eh? Mwa ha ha!" He let out an evil laugh that was so over the top the others couldn't help but feel amused.

Except for Neville, who happened to be first and concentrated more on not relieving himself in front of the class. _'Why the bloody hell did they all get behind _me!?_'_ He thought fitfully.

"It'll be okay Neville," Harry said with a firm grasp on the other boy's shoulder. Neville smiled weakly at Harry and turned to look at the wardrobe, taking a deep breath as Professor Lupin came up to him.

"Mister Longbottom, do you know what you're scared of?" The professor asked.

"S-pe," Neville mumbled quietly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear that," Remus said, trying to support the nervous boy with a warm smile and grasping his shoulder much like Harry a moment before.

"I said 'Professor Snape'," Neville rushed out, to which the class laughed and Remus smiled.

"Yes, I can certainly understand that. A bit like a bat or grumpy wraith, that one." More laughter. "I understand you live with your grandmother, yes?"

"Yes," Neville said, but hurried to add, "but I don't want it to turn into _her_, either!" He ignored, but noted, the stifled giggles as Professor Lupin leaned forward to make a suggestion before stepping back and flicking his wand at the wardrobe and letting Neville face his fear as Professor Snape's new doppleganger strode out of the wardrobe looking like he was searching for the one who shoved him in there in the first place.

"Longbottom! You doddering fool! You've-"

Snape's look-a-like was cut off as Neville raised his wand and barely repressed the urge to try and stun the man enough to stutter out, "R-r-riddikulus!" Immediately, Snape's forward step stopped as he was pushed backwards and the look-a-like found himself dressed in a furry shawl, stiff dress and wearing a ridiculous hat with a large bird on it. The class laughed as the Snape Doppleganger looked around in confusion and Lupin motioned for the smiling Neville to the side and let Harry come up.

Harry was curious about what he would see this time and didn't want to repeat his memories of the event and not get a chance to see, so he had made sure to step behind Neville. Thanks to his lesson in the school-wide Defense Associate in the Great Hall, not to mention the awesome display of power, the students unconsciously began thinking of him as an authority figure and had noticed his desires and he didn't have any of the problems he had before of eager students hoping to line up.

This time, he was second with Hermione behind him since she had walked just beside him the entire time and as he stopped getting closer to the Snape Doppleganger, the faux man looked up and glared into Harry's eyes and only Remus noticed the dark smirk before the creature became a swirling black mass that settled to the ground and disappeared, revealing an adult man hunched down and resting on the toes of his feet, dressed in robes of the darkest black that seemed to suck in the light and even wearing black gloves with a single, silver rune etched into the metal guard on the back of the hand.

As the man stood, the class was deathly silent as the green eyes of Harry Potter looked back at them, but these eyes were frightening to everyone who looked into them. This Harry was taller than the real Harry Potter, looking like the older students as the Harry standing before them took the Real Harry's pre-time traveling form. Only Hermione took notice that the scar was mirrored on the new Harry's forehead, striking in the opposite direction as the one she was so familiar with.

"**Things to come are worse than they were,"** the fake Harry spoke in a dual voice of Harry Potter, deeper than what the others knew as his and in a female's voice that only Harry recognized, having heard it for the first time with his latest death; it belonged to Lora, his Angel of Death, but both voices sounded as if they were straining to come out of the same mouth, trying to fight for dominance and sounding scratchy, but the Harry voice could be heard somewhat better than the other, female voice.

Faux Harry's face began to shift and contort as an angry expression took over its visage and the body turned into that of Lora, the dark hair remaining just as black with the thinner strands hinting at its dark blue as an unnatural wind picked up and the clothes changed size to fit her frame and the voice was more female than male as it spoke once again. **"You are bringing failure to your mission!"**

Harry would later swear he felt his heart stop as his own face morphed back onto the creature in front of him once again and took a step forward, shocking the real Harry enough to drop his wand as he fell to his knees. "L-Lora? I-I'm not failing! I've been working hard!"

"**You are!"** The dual voice yelled out and the face shifted somewhere in the middle of the two beings and stayed between them for a moment before the Harry voice and face came forward again, both slowly shifting towards the female as it spoke. **"They will suffer because you failed them! They will _die_ because of you! You are _failing_ them!"**

As the faux Harry stepped forward and yelled these things at him, Harry couldn't think. He couldn't remember that this was a boggart or that he was even in a class. His world had shrunk to exist only around himself and the specter in front of him. However, as it claimed that he was failing his friends, his fight or flight instincts kicked in and he raised his hand out of pure reflex and did the only thing that came to mind.

A small ball of light about the size of his quill tip formed in front of his open palm and shone brightly, making the fake him look at it in shock before the small ball of light erupted and a large beam of magic as thick as Harry was tall erupted forward and hit the fake Harry, causing a horrendous screech of pain to erupt as the force sent the now destroyed boggart through the wardrobe and destroyed the outside wall and windows.

As the students blinked the bright line of light from their eyes, jaws dropped as a large gouge in the stone floor and in the distant wall around the castle grounds and then the ground itself past even that showed that Harry's attack had acted like a large drill boring through everything it touched. They could see the water from the ocean looked as though it were parted and held open for a moment before the sides rushed together.

Looking down, Hermione saw Harry with his hand still outstretched and breathing heavily as he stared where the ... _thing_ had been at. "Harry?" She asked quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Harry looked up at Hermione, noticing all of the students had taken several steps backwards from the two and swallowed thickly. "I'm sorry. I have to go." Silently, Harry rose and stepped to the doors behind the students who spread apart to allow him clear access. At the door, however, he stopped and looked at the wall with a blank expression on his face. Raising his hand, the students' combined breaths sounded as he sent out an unnoticed pulse of magic and repaired the wall of the school before turning to leave again, Hermione hot on his heels.

"Um, Professor? I don't think we have a boggart anymore," a voice said from somewhere in the middle of the students.

"Everyone, I want you to go to either the library or your common rooms and write a six inch scroll on boggarts. Dismissed," Lupin said, waiting until everyone had left before heading to the Headmaster's office. He would need to share this memory with Dumbledore.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – September 9, 05:30**

"Master," Twinkle called over to Harry as the bespectacled boy was noticed the next morning. He and the other Thundercats had tried their hardest to find him the day before, but Harry had simply disappeared and no one had been able to find him. His master didn't show up for dinner or sleep in his dorm room and even his bushy-haired female had become snappy at them when they tried to go to her, but it had been no use, since she didn't know either.

"What is it, Twinkle?" Harry asked with a sigh. "I'd like to get my morning workout done before Hermione gets up since she's probably going to give me an earful later for what happened yesterday."

"We heard the stories and one of our own was watching, so we know what happened. But I wanted to let you know that The Three woke your Luna from her sleep after the eldest put some kind of spell to make her confused and made her drink something and put her into a closet again last night."

"What!" Harry roared, his eyes alighting in an unholy fire. He unconsciously held out his hand and summoned the Marauders' Map, still on loan from the twins, his invisibility cloak and his day clothes, quickly using a switching spell to be dressed for the day. "Where is she?" He growled out, opening the map to try and find her sooner to see if he could shift to her until he found he didn't know that section of the castle and didn't know if she was in a cramped place for shifting safely or not.

_'Damnit! The one night I let my bloody emotions get to me, they use to attack her again!'_ He yelled within his own mind as he followed Twinkle to the third floor and into some hallways that he knew hadn't had any classes for decades, at least. It was also the same hall where Dumbledore had hidden Fluffy for protecting the Philosopher's Stone. _'I swear, if that mutt is still here, I'm going to have some words with the old bastard...'_

"She is in that closet and has been so for about seven hours," Twinkle said, pointing at the door that was next to the very same one Harry knew held the trap door.

Harry reached out with his magic to feel the foreign magics on the door as he asked Twinkle, "why didn't you find a teacher to help her if I wasn't available? Or Hermione?"

"Your female, Hermione, was fretting over you and this happened quite late where everyone had gone to sleep, her included. We were unable to enter any teachers' quarters because they've all put up wards to keep us out. The one known as Filch tries to kill us during the nights and we were unsure of who to ask that we felt could be trusted since most of her own House is aware and does nothing to help her. We know of few others we can contact."

"You couldn't wake Hermione?" Harry asked, noticing the silencing spell and a slightly altered version of the same fifth-year locking charm that seemed to dissipate after a set time, which happened to be only in time for dinner that day.

"We could have," Twinkle admitted slowly, "but for some reason, her familiar is not letting any creatures through into their dorm room whenever your female is in there. He ... is a much better warrior than we are."

Harry nodded, forcing the locking spell to break as he encircled it with his own magic and crushed it. "At least I can help her now. Thank you, Twinkle."

"I live to serve, Master," Twinkle saluted before disappearing as Harry canceled the silencing charm on the door and opened it slowly.

Harry opened the door and saw Luna shivering in the corner of the closet, sleeping fitfully in the fetal position with a bucket next to her filled with bile. He quickly charmed the shelves to glow softly and then went over to her, shaking her shoulder. "Luna ..." Shake. "Luna, wake up."

Luna awoke with a jerk as she scrambled against the wall, worried about what creature had awakened her and only stopped when she saw Harry before she grabbed her stomach and moaned, leaning over and retching into the bucket again.

Harry quickly reached over and grabbed her hair, waiting patiently until she was finished. "Luna? What's wrong? Are you sick?"

"Th-they made me drink Aeger Induco. It f-forces the drinker to become ill. It's m-made for when-" She cut off to dry heave a few seconds before swallowing and continuing. "For when someone drinks something that is bad for them."

"Let's get you to the hospital wing," Harry said, trying to help Luna to get up.

"No. Madam Pomfrey will question what happened and why you're out. She's b-bound by duty to report incidents like this to the Headmaster and things will just-" she paused to contain another bout of dry heaving. "Just get worse. It is designed to only last a few hours and I can already tell it is almost over and should be by breakfast."

Harry frowned and vanished the contents of the bucket and cleaned the air before sitting down and lifting the laying girl to rest her head in his lap. "Then you won't go through this alone," he promised. "Just rest and if you need it, the bucket is right here."

Luna was too physically tired to complain and sighed thankfully as he conjured a large blanket to wrap her in and began to stroke her hair. "Thank you for finding me," she whispered.

"Any time, Luna," Harry assured her with a gentle smile. "What is it with them and closets, anyway?"

He had meant it as a rhetorical question, hoping some pointless humor might make her smile, but she surprised him by answering anyway. "I think it's because they were so successful at it last year and they know I'm scared of small, dark places."

Harry frowned, imagining the things he could to do get back at them. "What about your wand?" He asked, feeling her shrug into his thigh. Shaking his head, he cast the summoning charm, just as before, and had to wait nearly a whole minute before Luna's wand showed up before he tried to hand it to her, only to hear her steady breathing as she fell asleep.

For the next two hours, Harry held Luna as she slept and plotted how to get back at those who caused Luna harm or knew about it and did nothing. This was beyond pranking. They had locked her up in a place she said they knew scared her and made her drink something that caused her to be very sick.

It wasn't until the early morning light began to come through the open closet door that Harry knew what he would do about it.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – September 10, Dinner Time**

Albus Dumbledore sat on his throne and watched the students begin eating their dinners carefully, noting how many of the students were watching for Harry to enter, as they had done each meal since dinner the night before. The story of what had happened during the first third year Defense class had made itself known to everyone by dinner and, having seen the memory Remus provided, he couldn't help but to admit that he was guilty of just as much craning of the neck and shifting eyes in look out for the young Potter.

Dumbledore, however, was worried about much more than the students. They saw this as a boy of great power having had some kind of fear that caused him to destroy quite a bit of property. _He_, however, saw much deeper than that as only he knew he could.

Harry's boggart turned into himself and some strange woman that Harry had apparently called Lora and there was some unspecified mission that Harry feared failing at. Something none of the others seemed to wonder was _why_ Harry feared himself? Why did his boggart turn into another, _older_ version of Harry Potter?

Dumbledore could think of only one thing: the horcrux in Harry's scar had provided the extra bit. The boggart had somehow picked up on the soul's fear of Harry Potter and manifested it like that, and probably spoke to the soul fragment rather than Harry.

But the girl! That was something else entirely! Dumbledore had seen the last good many generations of students who walked the halls of Hogwarts and memorized them all with aid of excellent occlumency training. There had been no 'Loras' come through his halls. That meant she was either a muggle, which was hardly likely as Harry had stayed in his family home during the summer, he was sure, or a magic-user from another country, something even less likely than the first.

So, that begged the question: who was this 'Lora'? Why did Harry fear her? Was she perhaps a death eater he had met over the summer and eluded? A woman from his past that was muggle?

No, Dumbledore was very curious indeed and had plans of asking Harry to accompany him to his office some time soon under the guise of asking about damaging school property and he would find out what he needed to know then.

With his thoughts cleared, Dumbledore noticed the Great Hall was filled and most of the students had made it, including Harry who was already sitting at the Gryffindor table with his usual group of friends, along with Miss Lovegood. That had been a friendship Dumbledore hadn't seen coming. But, it did keep him from being able to ask the boy to his office right away. It was okay, though. He would just get Harry in the morning.

xXxXxXx

Minutes into the dinner feast, Harry gave Twinkle a piece of his chicken and casually cast his magic to activate his retaliatory prank on the Ravenclaws. The fact of the matter was that they were all guilty. While a few truly didn't know what was happening, most did. And those few who didn't were protected while the rest were about to get what was coming to them.

A loud crash of thunder and lightning erupted on the enchanted ceiling and a large set of glowing, green eyes glared down at the students in the Great Hall before the dark, angry voice of Bolt came, causing silverware and tables to rattle.

"**Fools! You who would harm the innocent deserve no pity! Honor! Value! Equality! These concepts mean _nothing_ to you!"** The voice roared as the angry eyes showed obvious distaste and fury. **"For atrocities against those who do not deserve them, you shall be punished..."**

As the voice finished, all of the heads of students from three houses turned to look at the suddenly very nervous and horrified Slytherins before screams were heard from the Ravenclaws. All of the students whipped around to see the chicken bits on the plates and platters begin to move and form complete chickens. Or as complete as two drumsticks and the body could provide.

"What the hell!" Ernie McMillan yelled out as he leaned backwards from the possessed chicken carcasses.

"**You have hurt the innocent,"** the voice rumbled, quieter than before. **"Soon, you will remember that we are to do what is right, and _not_ what is easy. Or you will be '_taught_' until you do."**

Suddenly, music roared to life from the ceiling that a few of the older staff and Hermione recognized as 'Flight of the Valkyries' and the chickens began to hop up and began to send roundhouse kicks to the three girls who had harmed Luna while others launched themselves at the students and began to beat them with clubs of corn on the cob. Even the section toward the top where a neck had once been found itself trying to eat the students' hands while one aspiring attacker tried to wrap itself around a student's head.

After nearly a minute, one of the smarter Ravenclaws tried a simple 'finite' at his attacking chicken, only to learn it made it grow and turned it into a turkey that gobbled angrily and chased him from the room, all the while, the others in the Great Hall stared in muted shock as their chickens formed ranks and marched into Ravenclaw territory to bolster their numbers.

Then various bowls of peas formed into auto-launch trebuchets and the faculty finally kicked into gear and tried to help the students.

That was when baked potatoes found themselves with whole carrots pointing outwards and the mashed potatoes formed large wings that sent them on an aerial assault to splatter against their backs until the students in Ravenclaw went into a full retreat and ran screaming from the room, followed by Ron who was holding to a drumstick like his life depended on it.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Sorry about the long wait. This should pick up a little as we go since this is only a week after arriving at Hogwarts and I am going to speed the time line up soon. The final scene is not what I was hoping for, but sadly, was the best I could do. I wrote it out a few times, but this was, unfortunately, the best thus far (my third attempt of seven.) I'll try to make up for it later with some twists that I don't think many of you would see coming.

After all, with knowing Sirius is innocent, we don't really have any form of antagonist in this year, do we? Well, we DO... you just don't know about it yet... But I do. ^_^


	10. Trust

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter9** – Trust

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language, Brief Nudity

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Soul mates**: I had a reviewer ask how Luna can be Harry's soul mate when Hermione already is. Please refer to chapters one and three (chapter three, 'Sow the Seeds', mainly) to get the explanation. I won't pad my word count to explain this again. This will be explained one more time around Christmas in the story, however, to answer that question, specifically, when asked by Harry (Chapter 12.)

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Potter and the Lost Demon" by Angry Hermione (H/Hr – Mature, not smut, but there is a bit of sex. It is reasonable and with justification. Not just there for someone to get their jollies. A little darker. Not bad Weasleys, but antagonistic Ginny. Worth the read.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_Dumbledore, however, was worried about much more than the students. They saw this as a boy of great power having had some kind of fear that caused him to destroy quite a bit of property. _He_, however, saw much deeper than that as only he knew he could._

_Harry's boggart turned into himself and some strange woman that Harry had apparently called Lora and there was some unspecified mission that Harry feared failing at. Something none of the others seemed to wonder was why Harry feared himself? Why did his boggart turn into another, _older_ version of Harry Potter?_

_Dumbledore could think of only one thing: the horcrux in Harry's scar had provided the extra bit. The boggart had somehow picked up on the soul's fear of Harry Potter and manifested it like that, and probably spoke to the soul fragment rather than Harry._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Friday – September 10, After Dinner**

Hermione stood in front of Harry the same night after the majority of the food in the Great Hall assaulted the Ravenclaws with her arms crossed under her still-developing breasts, a fact the bespectacled boy found himself noticing more often of late, and staring down at the fidgeting miscreant. Both were unaware that Snape was prowling the lower levels in hopes of finding the boy who was now missing his second night of detention and hoping he could catch the young Potter out and about rather than going to McGonagall who would keep him from punishing Harry as he desired. "And what, may I ask, was your reason for doing that to an entire House, Harry?"

Harry swallowed and looked anywhere but at Hermione, thankful that she had waited until the other Gryffindors had gone to their dorms or were off in their own little nooks to work on their own things so no one else was listening in, even though many of those in the corners were leaning in to try and hear. Even Ron had run off after seeing her anger towards Harry. He couldn't figure out what Harry had done to rile her up, not having seen his triumphant smirk as Hermione had, but wasn't about to risk getting in the way of her ire when he hadn't done anything to earn it.

"They deserved it," he said, finally looking at her. "I found Luna locked in another broom closet this morning, but she had been fed a potion that forces the drinker to throw up everything in their stomachs and they had taken her wand again. They know she's scared of small, dark places and they keep putting her in closets because of that. I didn't attack them all, just the ones I knew were aware of what's been happening to her."

Hermione frowned angrily. "Harry, we have to tell one of the professors. It isn't right what they're doing, but we can't just get back at them with more pranks. There won't be any difference between you and them if you do that and if they're forcing her to drink random potions, then they could make her drink something dangerous next time," she said, sitting down. "I know you don't want to, but we need to go to a teacher."

"I thought about that, but it kind of ties into what I told you before," Harry said, turning to face Hermione more directly and feeling safer now that Hermione didn't seem angry with what he did so much as the Ravenclaws for what they did to Luna. "My main reason is because Luna doesn't want me to tell anyone about it. She's worried about reprisal and the backlash. She knows that the teachers would work to protect her more, but the students will have to be pulled in to help and they would feel resentment to that end and the ones who got caught would want revenge, which the teachers and other students can't stop all the time. She also doesn't want to get anyone into trouble for what they're doing, even though they're doing it to her. I've had enough of people controlling _my_ life 'for my own good', and I won't do that to her. I refuse to take that choice away from her," he told Hermione adamantly. He would protect Luna, but he wouldn't betray her like that.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, curious despite herself.

Harry realized he couldn't give all of the examples from his life, since many of them now hadn't happened. At least not yet. Not ever, now. Originally, Molly had taken his key to his Gringotts vault and refused to allow him to go to Diagon Alley and he had never been allowed to go anywhere on his own. Dumbledore had not allowed him to contact anyone during the summers after his fourth and fifth years to keep him isolated and unprepared when he learned the wizarding world was turning against him and the secretive headmaster hadn't allowed Harry anything to teach him how to defend against the slurs against himself and the constant abuse. Members of the Order of the Phoenix watched his house, also knowing what abuse he went through and didn't take protective actions and not a single person had offered to help teach him things he would need to know even though many knew there was a prophecy that said it would be him that defeated Voldemort and actively worked to keep him ignorant. No one had ever _once_ asked him what he wanted and it always upset him. He would _not_ take that choice away from Luna. He would help, but he wouldn't go against her wishes.

"Dumbledore has done a lot to keep me ignorant of my family and the wizarding world, putting me with the Dursleys and not letting me know I could escape by emancipating myself and told me there was nothing he could do when I told him what they did to me when he knew otherwise. I could have even been adopted by another family if not emancipated, but he didn't want that to happen. Luna asked me not to tell anyone, so I won't, but I _will_ do what I can to make them stop."

"Then why did you make the food attack them? If they force fed her potions, you have the power to have done something else to them; something that could have had a stronger impact," Hermione pointed out, curious about why his actions were so minimal in comparison to what he _could_ have made happen.

"True," Harry said. "But just because I have the power to obliterate them, doesn't mean I should. I am hoping that little speech will be enough to make the staff begin to look more closely at students and see if anyone is being threatened or teased so I can see if they'll handle it and, hopefully, get students to back off by thinking they're being watched. If I go in and just start attacking the students, then it'll make a big situation that can't be kept quiet from everyone. I don't want to have to go out and start attacking students with a bunch of spells and hexes, but get the staff to see what's happening and fix it on their own, if they will," he finished, not looking to have too much faith in them. With as much as they allowed to happen right in front of them, it was quite unlikely they would raise a finger to help Luna. Harry would admit he felt Professor Flitwick would help, but he once thought as highly of McGonagall as well, and looking back, she had failed him and his friends horribly.

"That's a good idea," Hermione mused aloud. "Anything they find, they can see about taking the appropriate measures to punish them and you don't have to come across as a bully. Like you said, your prank didn't attack _all_ of the Ravenclaws, just most of those from her year and above. I can't recall seeing a single first-year hit."

"They weren't," Harry admitted. "I only attacked ones I knew for sure had any knowledge of Luna's treatment and I won't become them because I'm not letting the innocent get caught up in all of this. And, I'll simply get worse as I go unless they learn their lesson."

"Just remember where the line is," she said after a moment's pause.

xXxXxXx

In the Ravenclaw showers, that line was once again being crossed. "That crazy bitch had to have been behind it!" Cho hissed through clinched teeth to Marietta and Mandy. "And this bloody grease _still_ isn't coming out of my hair!"

"But those eyes and that Bolt person was the one who was speaking," Mandy refuted, subtly eying the Asian girl's hair. Even when dry, it was shiny and looked smooth as velvet, but wet, it looked far better, causing her confusion over her attraction to the pretty witch to return. Only the fear of her reaction kept Mandy from offering to wash Cho's hair more thoroughly. "It sounded more like a boy."

"Which is exactly what a female Ravenclaw would do to throw off suspicion," Marietta growled out as she used a cotton swab to remove the mashed potato from her ears. "While I don't think highly of her, she _is_ in the House devoted to the smart students." Wisely, they avoided mentioning Hermione Granger, the puzzle not a single Ravenclaw had been able to solve and a touchy subject amongst them since they obviously didn't have the smartest witch. It was obvious that girl should have been in their House. Not that of the courageous idiots.

"Whatever," Cho grumbled as she mercilessly scrubbed her head while Mandy watched her front side bounce out of the corner of her eye. "I say we go with a tried and true plan until we come up with something better."

"What did you have in mind?" Both girls asked.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – September 10, An hour after dinner**

"I am sorry, Filius, but I do not know what Mister Bolt was referring to," Dumbledore repeated to the diminutive charms professor later that night.

"Albus, had they just been assaulted by their food, I would assume it as a regular prank, but that message the voice provided was specific. Do you know of any students that have been getting picked on?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"I suspected the Weasley twins, but they appeared as surprised as everyone when it was your Ravenclaws and not the Slytherins attacked," Madam Sprout confessed. She, along with the heads of the other houses, were there to discuss Bolt's apparent attack on the entire Ravenclaw house. Since the attack was against nearly a quarter of the school, it was more serious than any simple prank, and had to be treated as such.

"Don't be daft," Snape sneered. "It was obviously Potter; a name referencing a lightning bolt, green eyes and obvious subversion of the rules. He should be punished."

"Oh grow up," Sprout snapped. "More often than not, it's your Slytherins who are picking on others; blood purity smears in the Great Hall, hexes in the halls and brutish behavior in general. I'm surprised the rest of the school hasn't formed together to show them the error of their ways," she shook her head and looked to Flitwick while Snape sneered in retaliation. "Aside from the odd vicious streak in the library, I don't recall seeing any Ravenclaws picking on anyone outside of the norm."

"Agreed," McGonagall confirmed. "They are generally cold and distant with Miss Granger, but not hostile. And Mister Potter _would_ become rather dangerous if she were attacked in any way, but I doubt he'd go through means such as this. While I'm hesitant to say as much, he is more the type to rush in and start flinging hexes rather than plan pranks and remain subtle."

"Yes, my house has mourned losing her since the beginning," Flitwick admitted rather sheepishly. "But I would have to agree; if Mister Potter were the culprit, we should be glad it was a prank like this than an outright attack."

"Of course. Potter gets off free as a bird," Snape grumbled.

"We cannot even be sure it _was_ Mister Potter, Severus," McGonagall snapped at the man before turning to the others. "Regardless, we must discover what the cause of this apparent retribution was. We cannot have our students running vigilante and taking the law into their own hands, so to speak."

"Your students have told you nothing, Filius?" Dumbledore asked, glad things were back on track.

"Nothing. I was told of a few incidents of name calling, but nothing of consequence. I did find an interesting event, however. Absolutely none of the first years were hit and three second years were left untouched as well."

The Hufflepuff Head of House raised an eyebrow. "It follows to point if we take the warning at face value," she said, noticing blank looks from the others. "Oh honestly, does it really take a Hufflepuff to see this? The warning was against those who apparently did something wrong and, from those attacked, who may have known something and didn't step forward. So, those who were not hit probably had no idea what was going on or were among those who were assaulted to begin with."

She turned to Snape who was half way to opening his mouth and interrupted him quickly. "Yes, it's possible it was a Hufflepuff, but if that's the case, I'll be quite proud of them if this comes to be the case." And she would, too.

"What about Mister Weasley?" McGonagall asked. "His chicken leg dragged him out of the Great Hall and he was covered in food when he returned."

"Yes, because that is _so_ different from other nights," Snape mumbled, though everyone heard him.

"He held onto his chicken leg," Flitwick confessed. "I saw him after leaving and trying to remove the charms from the food and he was attacking and eating various things, but they still left him untouched, which leads me to believe they were all charmed for specific targets. Quite ingenious really."

"Magic which should be impossible for a third year student," Dumbledore said with a nod, hoping to lead away from Harry. Those kitty creatures were most obviously his as well, but they appeared true flesh-and-blood creations rather than a standard golem, and _that_ should have been quite above his abilities as well.

He just wasn't going to say that to this group.

"He's been doing that Patronus charm, and even I'm not capable of that," Madam Sprout admitted. "Though, I have been getting closer after listening in to his class last weekend."

"That spell is different if his lessons are to be believed," Flitwick admitted slowly. "Still, I wouldn't put it past his abilities. I've seen nothing else to prove him capable, however, so I do not believe it was him." To the half-goblin and half-human teacher, these 'Thundercats' were not Harry's. They were friendly to just about everyone, save several of his Ravens and most of the Snakes. Being friendly to Harry meant little. He understood most animal life and they generally had an Alpha. Harry was, even to his own thinking, an Alpha, so it only made sense they followed him.

"Granger could have helped him," Snape pressed. "Which leads me to another topic. Mister Potter has received a detention from me for the last two nights and tomorrow and has not come to them. I am formally lodging this complaint and will see him tomorrow or he will be with me each night for the rest of the month," he told Minerva.

"What did he receive detention for?" McGonagall asked.

"He didn't do the work assigned and told me directly to my face that he wouldn't," Snape told her, not saying _whose_ work was not done.

Minerva frowned. "Very well. I will ensure he goes tomorrow."

xXxXxXx

**Friday – September 10, 23:00 – After Hermione's Homework Allotment is Finished**

Hermione sighed as she propped her pillow between her back and the headboard of the bed once her curtains were drawn closed and charmed to allow no sound in or out since her roommates were jabbering away like mentally challenged spider monkeys.

Their conversations sounded about the same, too.

"Not a brain cell amongst them," Hermione growled to herself, lamenting the loss of a roommate like Luna who could hold an intelligent conversation and could understand at least half of what Hermione spoke about. The bushy-haired brunette knew her roommates were not stupid and were good girls in general, but all of their intelligence fell into line with social interactions, gossip, fashion, make-up and ... _boys_.

Until this latest summer, the subject of the opposite sex meant little to Hermione beyond eavesdropping on her roommates' conversations about it, though she preferred to call it 'observational study'. She had been going through puberty for nearly a year and a half before Hogwarts had even started and, being stuck around two boys who couldn't care more about girls than they would about what they ate for breakfast, she had learned to control her hormones well enough to keep her from pursuing that topic; and hopelessness about being considered 'attractive' had long since broken her of thoughts of any romantic entanglements.

Then Harry seemed to have shown an interest in her, occasionally flirting and saying incredibly sweet things that she knew were perfectly sincere. She had long-since learned to read the boy and, as odd as it sounded, she knew all of his littlest quirks that meant lies or misdirection. There had been none of that when he said those wonderful things.

It was really very annoying.

She had grown rather ... _infatuated_ with the boy in their first year after he jumped onto the back of a rampaging mountain troll to save her life. It was, obviously, the single-most heroic and selfless thing anyone had ever done for her and it had made her feel so incredibly special, so incredibly _loved_, or at least that someone cared for her enough to risk their own life, that she couldn't help those feelings. They had shown up and simply never gone away or weakened from that night.

They changed.

What had started out as fascination with the Boy-Who-Lived turned into shock at their first meeting, to infatuation and a powerful crush after that horribly great Halloween, to something she couldn't really understand or describe.

From the very beginning, she had felt some form of connection with Harry that was so unique and unknown that she examined it, poked and prodded until she had discovered as much as it would allow her to. It felt weird saying it that way, but she felt that was exactly how it happened. It was like there was something keeping her from learning more. She had learned to read his actions and expressions, learned how he thought and more about who he really was as time progressed until it had finally seemed to hold her back, keeping her from approaching him any further at some point about half way through their second year until after Harry had begun to flirt with her during the summer, whether he realized it or not.

It confused the hell out of her.

Whatever connection between her and Harry existed no longer felt restrained or blocked. That part of her that felt as though was a part of Harry, or rather, that he was a part of her, seemed to blossom and grow now.

Which made her current predicament so strange.

She had met a clone of herself, an older and more matured clone that she actually hoped would eventually be what she grew into, who was actually Harry's subconscious self. He had really been fascinating to talk to.

Apparently, Harry had given control over his mental defenses to what he thought was simply another Hermione clone, like the others that led the groups of other Lunas and twins around the mental castle construct. However, since no one wants to give up control over their own minds, it had been tied directly into Harry's subconscious mind. As such, there was a part of Harry's mind that was _always_ focusing on his mental shields, always monitoring the defenses and the various creatures in his mind, always tweaking and adding to the world in such a way that it helped build his defenses even while he was not working on them directly himself, knowing what he would want and fine-tuning various details from memory, such as the common room.

Subconscious Harry had also explained that he was the direct reason anyone attempting to access the mindscape would be bound by Harry's rules to keep them from flying about or changing it to suit their own desires and Subconscious Harry was the direct connection to the allow access lists. A benefit to this whole thing was that, even while sleeping or unconscious due to spell, potion or chemical, those same defenses were still active as they were controlled by something that could not be destroyed without destroying Harry himself.

Hermione found herself impressed.

The book she had received from Harry, regardless of how long it lasted, had not said anything like that was possible. And it wasn't that she didn't believe Harry, or his doppleganger, but everything he had learned, he had learned from that same book. He had basically said as much. The only reason she wasn't upset that something was different than written was because that kind of personified Harry's natural abilities. He made magic work for him.

There was also that rather large insult of a DADA professor the last year. It disgusted her at how she had found herself pulled into that man's lies. Especially when she had the perfect example of what a man was meant to be within her best friend.

Hermione let out an explosive breath and settled herself cross-legged on her mattress and stopped allowing herself to examine her thoughts again. This was not about her feelings for Harry, whatever they really were, or what she had learned from Subconscious Harry, as she had taken to calling him. This was to see what she could learn of her own mind in comparison to what she learned about Harry's.

She took a deep breath through her mouth and let it out through her nose slowly, having taken a more muggle meditation exercise than the one specifically from the book since the former had been proven to help meditation more than the wizarding version.

With her second deep breath, Hermione felt herself falling and lose sense of her body before there was the emptiness of feeling nothing. She hated this part. It felt like she was losing herself or dying. Like she was no longer a part of her body. She hadn't noticed it until now, but that feeling of being empty wasn't there in Harry's mind. She was able to feel him the entire time.

She had never once, even when crying in the loo on that Halloween before Harry's arrival, felt so alone as she did within her own mind.

Then she felt cold seeping into the soles of her feet and biting into her body and she knew she had arrived. Hermione opened her eyes and looked up at the huge monolith in front of her. In this bleak, white, freezing tundra, this gargantuan building was the only thing in existence. Around for as far as the eye could see, it was a harsh winter with an arctic wind that already had her mental teeth chattering and seeped away at her own mental energies before she shut it down as soon as her eyes opened.

The building was a large, stone creation that had originally been gray until the ice covered it, causing it to shine like the snow crunching beneath her feet and was far more massive than Hogwarts by ten times. And the only way in, aside from blasting through the walls, was right in front of her with a small design in the covered ice that was so faint she barely saw it herself, even though she was looking for it.

_'B-bloody hell,'_ she chattered to herself, even her own thoughts stuttered from the cold. _'I'll have to maintain this each night or the ice will cover my lock.'_

She touched the wand that had come with her mental projection to the stones as if touching the points of a star, and then spun it in a counter-clockwise pattern to form a pentagram with the point facing upwards, causing the ice to shatter, several stones to recede and then shift to the side to open a doorway for her to walk through.

Hermione stepped through quickly, entering the labyrinth she had created in an attempt to cause potential invaders to not only take time to find access to her memories, giving her time to defend herself, but possibly get them lost so that she can possibly _break_ the connection between her invader and herself. The book had said doing so could potentially lock the person out of their own minds until she sent them back herself by connecting to that person and then tossing them back, for lack of a better comparison. The book had explained it would be like removing a person's life line in the ocean to a boat. That person would be unable to connect back to their boat, or mind, unless she sent them a line to follow back. And like swimming, they could move, but without the power to do anything, which came from their connection to their body, they were stuck until help arrived.

After seeing Harry's mind, she felt perhaps it was time to add some fiendish guardians into her little maze. She felt there was a wonderful minotaur myth that would be apt in this situation.

She took each turn in sequence where she passed through a portal every five seconds since the paths changed as time progressed until she found herself enter a cavernous, circular room with several hundred arches opening into the sides every few feet into other openings that led into various mazes throughout the building that ultimately led to all of the useless memories she had planted in little bundles around the mazes with minor protections around each to make her invaders waste time on those pointless memories. Only a slight difference in the stones above each arch let her know which was the correct one to exit her monolithic building. Each level of every maze was also interconnected so that a person risked losing themselves forever if they didn't know not only the five-second timing sequence to step between each opening, but also which direction to walk in and when. Without that, they popped into different locations within the tower.

Around the room was a wide walkway that could be traveled to go around the room that was seven feet wide before it dropped off into what appeared as a dark abyss beneath. And then a distance of five hundred feet of that abyss was a floating gazebo approximately fifty feet wide with a huge mass of glowing, tangled ropes.

This was her Nexus.

This was the center of control over her mind. From within this place, she could control her memories and examine her life from the moment of her birth. She could control this world and all within it. From here, she was Queen.

A lesser, or narcissistic, woman would claim 'Goddess'.

Hermione stepped to the edge of the abyss and drew the same pentagram from before in the air and then shoved it forward, causing it to warp and grow to expand over the expanse until she was able to walk along one of the star's lines as a bridge, which disappeared the moment both of her feet were off of the glowing surface.

A nasty surprise if a more experienced mind were forcing her to show them the way.

Once across, Hermione stepped into the writhing, glowing strands that those with pensieves would recognize as memories and tipped her head back while closing her eyes as she allowed the power of her memories and magic to flow through her as she began to experiment with additional defenses.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – September 10, Midnight**

Luna sighed in frustration after being enervated as the Ravenclaw entranceway slammed shut with three distinct giggles echoing doing the hall. She knew from past experience that the knocker would be unable to understand her, hearing everything she said as simple gibberish or only names of creatures written about in The Quibbler. Sadly, waking up naked or with hexed clothing that forced her to strip within minutes just outside the door was common-enough an occurrence that it didn't even phase her anymore, though it was rather uncomfortable to spend the whole night naked and unable to keep the chill of the air off of her.

She got up and began her trek towards a niche she had created for herself the year past, but knew nothing was there except the ability to block off the drafty air and the area was small enough that her body heat warmed the space somewhat, though the stone floor and walls generally sapped that quickly enough that she woke up quite uncomfortably and always very stiff. She had attempted hiding a stash of clothing and a blanket there, but the innate magic of the house elves caused them to always find it and return it to the Ravenclaw dormitories. And most unfortunate, not having any control over them, she could not call them to request help or aid or get them to stop. Students were meant to be in their dormitories during the night, and they were not allowed to facilitate their stay anywhere else. House elves would apologize quite profusely, but still be unable to take any orders from a student, regardless of the cause.

But, rather than do as she had done many times before, Harry's offer during their study group came to mind, along with her own, personal password, which stopped her short.

She looked down at herself, sending her vision over her naked body and wondered if she could deal with the embarrassment of being seen by him or possibly others if Harry's dorm mates were awake. She wasn't normally embarrassed by her body and actually preferred not wearing clothes, but somehow, she felt a strange hesitancy to be seen by him and possibly judged. It confused her, really. She never cared what others thought of her physical appearance, and still didn't, but he was different. Somehow, she felt she needed to _be_ more for him.

It was hard for her to figure out why she cared what he thought of her. Most everyone else ignored her or were rude or simply nasty and he was nice. But that couldn't be it. Hermione was quite nice to her as well and Luna knew the bushy-haired girl's opinion of her body wouldn't phase her in the least, regardless of what it was.

So, she wondered what Harry would think and whether he would find her nudity disturbing or not and why it even mattered.

That didn't stop her from realizing that Harry was still the very best option available to her, however. With the cold night air, nothing to warm herself and soul-sucking dementors on the loose, her usual safety niche was basically out of the question. She would almost certainly get sick there, if not worse.

She quickly padded down various halls and stairways until she found herself in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady and gently woke her up, providing the password before the rotund woman could question her. "Moonbeams are the bridges to our dreams."

"Of course, dearie. Go right in." The Fat Lady swung opened and then closed as the naked blonde walked through before going back to sleep and forgetting the girl had even shown up.

Luna paused in the common room and looked to the girls' dormitories, wondering if it would be better to go to Hermione instead, but realized she didn't know which room belonged to the bushy-haired brunette, much less which bed. Therefore, realizing her choice was easy, she padded up the boys' stairs and to the third-year room.

She went to Harry's bed, thankful it was at the end closest to the window, and parted the curtains before shaking his shoulder to awaken him. "Harry." Shake. "Harry?"

"Hm?" Harry mumbled, waking up and looking to the girl who was shaking his shoulder. "Luna? Wad er you here fur?"

Luna couldn't help it and giggled. He was funny when he wasn't all there. "I was locked out of my common room and you gave me a password for coming here when I needed help..." she broke off hesitantly.

"Mmph," Harry grunted as he scooted backwards and lifted his blanket, letting the girl crawl in next to him. Several months of having shared close lodging and a bed with Hermione before coming back in time, and even though he had experienced three months since then, left him currently unconcerned with her state of undress or sharing his covers and he was sleepy enough to just take actions he remembered and that were nearly ingrained.

Especially when the girl in his arms was cold and shivering, much like his memories of similar situations were, regardless of how much more skin he was in contact with now.

He reached around her waist and pulled her close, ignoring her surprised squawk as he snuggled into the girl. "G'night Luna."

Blinking owlishly, Luna wondered at how warm he was. "Good night, Harry."

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – September 11, 04:55**

Harry's eyes slowly opened as he woke up, only to find Luna's silvery-gray ones looking back at him from only inches away where she was under his blanket and, from what he could tell, snuggled up against him in his arms. "Good morning Luna," he said slowly. "When did you get here?"

"Some time after midnight last night," she confessed. "I was locked out of the Ravenclaw common room again and didn't have my wand to keep myself warm."

Harry nodded, very slightly moving his hand up and down briefly just to confirm what he thought he felt, or rather, didn't. "And are you naked?"

"Quite," she said simply, ignoring the goosebumps his fingers left over her skin and trying not to giggle at the ticklish feelings.

He nodded again. "Lemmie get you a shirt," he said with a gulp as he got out of bed and rooted around in the wardrobe by his bed for a long shirt for her. Finding one he'd taken from Potter Manor, he turned to hand it to her and found her resting on her knees on his bed, completely bared for him to see and holding out a hand expectantly.

He spun around quickly so he wasn't looking at her and reached around to hand her the shirt blindly. "Er, Luna, not that you aren't very pretty, but I don't think I'm supposed to see that yet."

"See what?" She asked as she slipped his shirt over her head and on. It was overly large on her, but it helped to give it more length so it covered her lower parts.

"Your body," Harry explained with a blush. He knew the Luna he had once known was rather odd, but he had always believed that all women would rather not be seen starkers.

Fangirls excepted, of course.

"Oh. Well, you have, so now there's nothing to worry about. I'm covered up," she soothed, taking note that he had said 'yet'. It was a curious qualifier. But, his blush kept her from worrying about his reaction and she felt she had a long time before she really had to worry. Besides, he said she was pretty!

"Sorry I don't have anything that'll fit you better. If you want, you can give me a change of your clothes and I can keep them here in case this happens again."

Luna smirked at Harry's comment and the unintelligible mutters of Ron in his sleep. "You want a pair of girl's panties in your wardrobe? Aren't your own more comfortable?"

"I don't want to _wear_ them!" Harry hissed out, horrified that she thought that. At least until she giggled tiredly. "Cheeky bugger, aren't you?" Harry huffed.

"Why are you dressing in shorts?" Luna asked after laying back on Harry's bed where it was still warm and cocooning herself in the blankets so only her face was visible. It was still rather chilly outside of the blankets, both making her wonder why he was dressing in something so short and glad that she had made the decision to go to him. She'd have to figure out how to keep his toes warm, though. He had a thing for trying to burrow them under her.

"I started exercising in the mornings and am going to do that before I shower for the day."

"But the sun isn't even up," she mumbled groggily as she closed her eyes.

He summoned her wand for her while he continued, "it will be in about two hours, but you can stay here as long as you want. I'll be back before the others wake up and, if you need one, feel free to take one of my robes and change the size if you want to leave before then."

Luna yawned and mumbled her understanding as she fell back asleep, having only managed to get a little sleep.

xXxXxXx

Harry pumped his legs as quickly as he could for the last half of his laps around the Quidditch pitch that the Room of Requirement created for him, furious with himself as he realized one serious flaw in his plan of pranking Luna's tormentors and hinting at their actions against his quirky blonde friend to try and teach them to stop.

They would think it was her. Or just simply take their frustrations out on her, thinking that she had something to do with their predicament if not just simply to vent their frustrations.

In a way, it was the reverse of what he was hoping for regarding the war that was coming. He had hoped he could start something there in the school that would continue into the rest of wizarding Britain to make things better, both in this war and after to try and keep it from happening again.

This, however, was going the opposite way. He was trying to get them to change on their own and maybe get the faculty to take action to stop it from happening not just to Luna, but to others, and it was now possible that what happened to Luna that night was escalation, or her tormentors just getting retribution. Luna wasn't attacked, after all, and had been on the Gryffindor table. To any Ravenclaws looking for someone to blame, that was more than enough.

He growled as he came to a stop at his finishing point and rested his arms on his knees, panting for air. "I will _not_ fail," he demanded of himself. "If I can't protect Luna, then I have no chance with this bloody war, angels of death be damned."

"Master?"

Harry looked down and sighed as his Thundercat leader flinched. "Sorry Twinkle. I just don't like what this thing with Luna could mean. What did you find out?"

"I understand," Twinkle admitted. And he did, too. He and the other Thundercats liked their master's females. "It was, indeed, those same three. We were not able to hear them plan since they did so in the bathing room, but by the time we learned of it, they were already doing it and then your Luna went to you. We would have brought you her wand, but it was locked in one of their trunks and we could not open it."

Harry frowned, figuring he would need to learn how to make something for them to do various tasks. He had seen their weapons and, as amusing as it was to watch, a karate-chopping-action figure was no deterrent to anything. "If it was locked, how did I summon it?"

Twinkle shrugged. "The wand came through a hole made in the trunk that suddenly appeared. Many items came out with it." The Thundercat leader refused to admit that the magic shattered the hole into the wooden trunk or of claiming the elastics from the clothing for their own pursuits.

They would soon have bows in their tiny weapon arsenal! Haroo!

Harry gave up figuring it out and gave Twinkle permission to leave which was promptly followed before shucking his clothing and diving into a pool that created itself as he dropped his pants. The best thing about doing this in the Room of Requirement was that, even if his legs cramped and he began to drown, the room could change the environment around him and save him. Thus, swimming became his warm-down exercise. A slow, gentle way to relax and let his body cool down.

While Harry began working laps slowly and methodically, four other Thundercats joined Twinkle in a hidden passage that went from the seventh floor to the first that hadn't even been found by the twins or the Marauders. "What are our new orders?" A blue-eyed female asked, fiddling with a thread she had found on her way up there.

"Master hasn't given new orders Skye, but I think we should find out why the chaos specter hasn't made an appearance with the items given to him."

"What does he have to do with things?" A second Thundercat asked, his eyes focused on Skye's string and resisting the urge to pounce. A part of him wondered why the string was gray and smelled of the elder one that reeked of lemons and sugar.

"Master gave him items for assaults on the snakes and birds but hasn't done anything yet," Twinkle said, referencing a conversation his master had with him about Peeves so they could expect it.

"What of the ones who attacked Master's Luna?"

Twinkle grinned, a truly frightening thing to see on something that shouldn't be capable of doing so. "Our master created us with a purpose," he began. "We are meant to be keepers of balance. 'Respect is earned, not given'," he quoted. "Master's Luna was treated badly, but she is his. Therefore, she is one of us," he said darkly, causing the eyes of the gathered Thundercats to glow in an unearthly light as they stared into the ethereal abyss.

"**One of us,"** they began to chant, causing a magical reverberation to rush from them and outward. As the pulse went through the entirety of the castle, the Thundercats scattered throughout the stone building all raised their heads and looked directly to where Twinkle was standing and stilled as their purpose called upon them.

"**One of us. We are many. We are one. We are ..."**

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – September 11, 06:30**

Dumbledore sat up in his bed and stretched, yawning the sleep away and looked around his room for a brief moment to give himself a little more time to wake up. Slipping off and into his bathing chamber, he shuffled his feet and scratched in the usual places before his mirror yelped.

"Bloody hell! What did you do to yourself, man!"

Albus looked at his reflection in shock before realizing the mirror wasn't trying to show him a new look, but what his current appearance was. His beard had been cut and styled so it now appeared like a rather nice goatee while the removed hairs had been used to braid his long hair along with a few berets.

He was unsure what to make of the flowers woven in. Excellent artistry, but it would be difficult to unbraid without tying the hair into knots. Perhaps one of those girls always braiding those fur people's hair would be able to assist him.

Though that's where the Thundercats hidden under his bed had learned their techniques.

As soon as the old man left in hunt of the tiny humans, the Thundercats came out of hiding from all of the little nooks and crannies within the room, twenty in all.

"Put the smell-makers in his bed and above his chamber pot," Marduk demanded of his warriors. Marduk was a scruffy-looking beast who looked to have been petted the wrong way so many times it stuck. His constantly-shifting eyes had been a quirk that coincided rather well with his guerrilla tactic-infused mind.

And an Alastor Moody-like paranoia. Even the castle wasn't sure how that one happened.

"Raise the charmed fake spiders above the bed, place the crab in the chamber pot, put the snare trap in front of the window and- RAT!"

Twenty heads turned as one to stare at the rodent that suddenly stopped and slowly turned its head to twenty cat-like creatures whose ears flattened on their heads, bared their teeth and hissed.

Scabbers squeaked, turned tail and ran, making it to the crack behind the bookshelf just as four furry bodies impacted right behind him, mewling and clawing in an attempt to get at him.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – September 11, 07:00**

Luna stretched as she awakened before jerking up with a start and looking around. Wherever she was, the bed had sheets, a pillow, a blanket and she wasn't in pain, which meant the bed wasn't hers. And the reasons for being in someone else's bed generally weren't good.

Until memories flooded back to her and she crossed her eyes in relief and fell backwards onto the soft pillow that still had Harry's scent, now mixed slightly with her own. She sighed and put her hand over her heart to calm herself as she listened to the rapid beating in her ears. She found it rather odd that she remembered waking up earlier and talking to Harry and not being scared in the slightest and being terrified only a moment ago.

She shuddered in delight and smiled as she realized that, for a little while, she was safe. And it was absolutely amazing! Normally, she was miserable, cold and hurting by this time in the mornings when she was kicked out of her tower. And now she wasn't.

For the first time, she allowed herself to think that maybe there wasn't something wrong with her after all that caused people to naturally dislike her.

Luna looked around Harry's bed, wondering at the differences between it and her own before she saw the pre-dawn light outside of the window by Harry's bed show signs of orange and sighed. It wouldn't do to be found in Harry's bed in the morning by his bunkmates. Especially wearing his clothing and not having any of her own. It would mean they either saw the truth, that she showed up without them, or even worse, they were in some sort of situation that required vanishing them.

Luna sighed again and got out of the bed, keeping his shirt on and donning the robe he laid out for her to borrow before padding her way out of the boys' dormitory, taking only enough time to grab her wand. She was thankful it was a Saturday and that most students would be sleeping in.

And she couldn't decide _how_ to feel about walking around without panties on in Harry's clothing. Being perfectly naked was something she was used to and rather enjoyed. Some of her favorite Rites were done in the nude and under a full moon, after all, and swimming was certainly more enjoyable, but wearing male clothing? Somehow, she thought it was supposed to be more uncomfortable than this.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – September 11, 7:10 – Just before breakfast**

"Enjoy your exercises, Harry?" Hermione asked as she saw him enter through the portrait hole. "Your hair's wet," she pointed out curiously. She had not caught him coming straight back from his workout after returning to Hogwarts and wasn't aware of where he trained or what he did there.

"Yea, I already got my bath," Harry admitted. "Ready for breakfast?"

Hermione nodded, knowing he was hiding something and deciding she would try and let him tell her on his own time. She wanted to try and not be quite as demanding, or what Ron called 'nagging', as she had been in the past. "Yes, actually. I worked on my mindscape longer than I meant to last night and I feel like I'm starving."

Harry chuckled as they made their way down and eventually into the Great Hall where Luna was attacking a smiley face's left eye, sunny-side up egg, and then the sausages that made up the hair before smiling at the two as they sat down.

"Good morning, Harry, Hermione," Luna chirruped.

"Morning, Luna," Hermione smiled back.

"G'morning, Luna. Sleep okay?" Harry asked, noticing the blonde was still wearing his shirt since it poked over the edge of the robe, but had changed the robe itself.

"Very much so. Woke up with a start, but was okay once I remembered I was in bed."

Hermione blinked slowly at the blonde with her scrambled eggs half way to her mouth. _'Did she just say she forgot she went to sleep in bed?'_

"Mister Potter."

Harry looked up to see McGonagall looking down at him with a disapproving frown as he continued to chew his toast. "Yes, Professor?"

"I would like to know if there is a reason you have not gone to your detentions with Professor Snape." To those in the know, her thin-pressed lips and more rigid than normal posture meant she was quite unhappy.

"I refused to go because they were unfairly assigned. Snape ordered me to make my own potion, along with Malfoy's and his potion's partner. I was already working with Ron on our potion and had no reason to help someone with whom I share a mutual hatred."

_'That wasn't Severus' version of events,'_ the older woman thought to herself, unhappy with being played like a fool by someone she should know better than to trust. Especially regarding her lions and Potter in particular. Still, while she was willing to address the situation at the tables since there weren't too many students in the Great Hall at the moment, there were enough now watching that she couldn't allow their authority as faculty to be compromised because of Severus' now-apparent abuse of power.

Boy was _she_ wrong.

"I see. Then you should have come to me so that I could address the situation properly. But since you hadn't, I'm afraid you must now go to the detention as you were told."

Harry's eyes narrowed as Hermione shook her head, feeling slightly vindicated regarding her outburst after the Potions lesson. "Why would I come to you?" Harry asked rhetorically and more than with just a little disgust. "What in our last few years here have you ever done to prove yourself as willing to listen to me, much less someone I can trust to help?"

"What!" McGonagall and Hermione exclaimed in surprise and shock. "What in the name of Merlin are you talking about, Potter! I am you Head of House!"

"You're also the woman Hermione, Ron and I went to when we told you the Stone was in trouble and rather than find out how we found out to learn where any possibly security leaks or risks were, you basically told us to shut up and ignore the problem. You didn't increase security or check on the Stone, you left it to three first-years to protect, using means that those same first-years bypassed almost effortlessly."

"I...," McGonagall stuttered, feeling as though something was being ripped from her chest.

"Also, when you find us out of bounds after Malfoy ratted us out, you send us to detention in the _Forbidden Forest_ of all places! At night! You _knew_ there was something out there killing unicorns which meant it was evil, it could _catch_ those unicorn, so it was fast as hell and it was drinking their blood, meaning it couldn't be killed because that same blood would not let it die! Three _first year_ students with not even a full year of Defense which was taught by a man who barely taught anything and stuttered through what he _did_ teach."

"Y-you were out after curfew!" McGonagall spluttered, defending herself.

"Because we were saving Hagrid's job because he got a dragon egg from the pub," Harry defended. "Regardless, you knew how dangerous it was. It was practically a death sentence, and almost was since that same thing killing unicorns almost got me!"

McGonagall looked around and noticed the forty-some-odd students watching the events and cleared her throat, readying herself to rebuke him, but he continued on once again.

"You let people accuse _me_ of being the Heir of Slytherin last year when you knew it wasn't me and you could have said something, _anything_, to get them to stop, you let that bastard Snape and his little minions in Slytherin go around mocking, ridiculing and belittling other students with racial and prejudiced slurs and don't do a single thing to stop it even when it happens right in front of you."

"So tell me, Professor, why should I trust you? Why should I trust any of the faculty when they _all_ allow, or actively partake, in these situations? What have you done to _earn_ my trust after everything you've done just to break it?" McGonagall was silent for several seconds as her mouth worked, trying to say something. "That is why I'm not going to that detention and why I won't allow you to make me."

"My office. Now," McGonagall eventually said, unable to think of anything else to say or do. While she had to admit things seemed a little bad when put side-by-side like that, she would _not_ allow her shortcomings, particularly those that all but proved her to be a failure at her post in the school, be aired out in the Great Hall for even a part of the student body to listen in on.

Hermione's open mouth snapped shut with an audible clack as Harry rose without protestation, pausing only long enough to wrap a bit of sausage and egg in some toast and promise he'd see them shortly. She had _never_ seen anyone, much less _Harry Potter_,rebuke Minerva McGonagall like that!

If he hadn't made such a sound argument, she would have been thinking of ways to rant at him later, choice to appear less nagging be damned!

As the group left, the brunette turned to Luna who was sighing and shaking her head. "I wonder if he planned on that or not," the gray-eyed girl pondered.

"Why in the hell would he have _planned_ on that?" Hermione asked, still partly shocked at Harry's almost cruel words to their Head of House. Granted, they seemed accurate and sincere, but ... harsh. Still, she agreed with him when she thought it over. And it was hard to not want to agree when he was so forceful like that.

"Because this is tied directly to what he was doing Thursday when you told me about what he did in class," Luna said, honestly sounding surprised Hermione didn't seem to connect the two herself. Perhaps it had to do with whatever she was thinking about. Her cheeks seemed oddly flushed and her breathing a little heavier. Whatever was on Hermione's mind seemed to be affecting her somehow.

"You mean you think he was expecting someone to approach him on it?" Hermione asked after a moment. "That would suggest that he was waiting for them to come to him and not going to one of them like Professor McGonagall said he should have."

"He _did_ provide excellent points as to why he shouldn't," Luna suggested, looking around for the wayward Thundercats. They were surprisingly absent from everywhere. Not even a single one was pawing for food. _'How curious,'_ Luna thought to herself.

Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times, starting to say something and then deciding not to. She wasn't sure what to say or how to say it if she did. She would have to talk to Harry about all of this. Trying to make things different in school were one thing, but it was a totally different situation when you basically told the staff that you didn't trust them.

Hermione decided she would wait until after speaking with Harry to ask what was actually going on. So, she decided to sate the little knowledge nugget she was missing regarding her new blonde-haired friend. "I suppose I will try to gather more facts before I decide to tell him how idiotic he's being," she said playfully, trying not to worry about what Harry may be doing.

"Why did you forget you went to sleep in a bed?"

Luna watched Hermione's face over her grape juice as she drank deeply. She realized almost immediately where this conversation was about to head. It wasn't that she was upset about people knowing what happened, but she did not want anyone to feel sorry for her. Then again, friends shared things with one another, she was sure. At least, she overheard many friends telling each other things, so it had to start somewhere.

"I was locked out of the Ravenclaw common room without my wand or clothing and Harry gave me one of his shirts and allowed me to sleep in his bed. Well, he let me sleep in his bed and gave me a shirt when he woke up the next morning and realized my state of undress, anyway."

"You...," Hermione blinked, "showed up in Harry's dorm, naked?"

"Yes," Luna said simply. "They took my clothing and locked me out at night. Since Harry had given me a password just for me, he said I could come by whenever I needed anything. I considered going to your dorm instead, but I realized I didn't know which was yours, or which bed would have been yours either, so I went to his instead."

"Why...," Hermione began, floundering for words that were even close to what she was hoping to say. A part of her felt she should be upset that Harry saw this girl naked, and not totally sure why that bothered her, but another part was appalled that the girl seemed used to this kind of circumstance. "Why would they set you out naked? And why haven't you gone to the teachers? Or Dumbledore?"

Luna frowned, considering her response. "In order, they like to play these kinds of pranks on me. I normally have a place I go to to sleep the night away, but it was too cold and I admit I was worried about the dementors, so I went to Harry. He makes me feel safe. I haven't gone to the teachers because it would only antagonize them and they could not stop it from happening without punishing the House as a whole, which I would rather not happen. And lastly, considering Dumbledore seems to know everything else that happens in this school, I assume he already knew and didn't care."

Hermione shivered in revulsion as she realized the old headmaster did indeed seem to know everything that went on in the school and that everything Harry had been talking about, along with that apparent truth, she was seriously beginning to wonder what was going on in that school herself.

"Er, I'm sure Dumbledore wasn't aware. I can't believe he'd allow that kind of thing to happen."

"Perhaps not," Luna agreed. "There's no way to know for sure without asking, and even then, if he _was_ aware and chose to do nothing, then I don't believe he would admit to such a thing. Regardless, I don't think it matters. What has been done has been done."

"How often do things like this happen?"

"Some kind of silly prank is every few days. Being kicked out of the common room and a time-restricted confundus charm on the entrance is perhaps once every week or two depending on their mood, it would seem. I would rather this not go to the staff, however. It would only draw attention to the problem and cause trouble."

Hermione frowned before she huffed once. "I would rather at least try and head to Dumbledore. Perhaps he could get you sorted into another House or something."

"Once sorted, you are stuck in your House. The hat simply refuses to sort anyone a second time barring unique situations that would mean it wasn't done properly the first time. And nothing else can be done that would make things better."

"Fine," Hermione agreed. "I won't tell anyone, but ... well, I suppose I just don't like the whole situation." In truth, Hermione's dislike for the situation was really quite pronounced. She had heard too many good arguments against telling faculty or going to Dumbledore. Harry's arguments, not even counting Luna's preference, were the honest facts. Going to faculty would not work. It never did on the bullies in primary school. They only got sneakier and generally came back for revenge. With the use of magic, that could be quite a bit worse for Luna than Hermione had gone through, which already was pale in comparison. She hated the fact that they couldn't do anything to help their new friend.

xXxXxXx

Professor McGonagall sat stiffly behind her desk as Harry took the seat in front of her, radiating a cool confidence that he didn't really feel. He was, however, quite determined. Whether Fate or coincidence, his realizations earlier that morning and the resulting drive to bring change to the school was serving him well here so that his self doubt, even though still in existence, was shoved to the back of his mind.

This woman truly was someone he was angry with. While he couldn't explain the full extent of his distaste with her in public, this trend of blatantly ignoring things that she should be confronting head-on had to stop. In his fourth year, she didn't question his participation in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, she didn't assign homework or work on spells that would help him in the tasks or assist him with any additional training. Hell! The death eater did more to protect him!

In his fifth year, just like in first, she told him to ignore the problem of Umbridge in hopes that she would eventually go away and let _Ronald Weasley_ of all people become Prefect! Harry thought the boy was okay as a person for the most part, but he was, in all honesty, too weak to _not_ abuse the power he had been given, taking points from Slytherins because of his prejudice, taking items from students and keeping them instead of turning them in which is where he gathered quite the collection of naughty magazines and just simply antagonizing those he disliked.

That's to say nothing of her own involvement in placing him with the Dursleys and not looking in on him even though _she_ was the one telling Dumbledore they were horrible people.

As for things she had done for him? Well, she allowed him on the Quidditch team as a first-year student and bought him a broom. But then again, she enjoyed Quidditch and wanted her team to win...

Was it any wonder he didn't trust the woman? Sure, she was a good person in general, but trust her to work in _his_ best interests? She hadn't shown any reason up to this point that she could honestly be trusted.

"Is there something in particular you wanted to talk about, Professor?" Harry asked.

"I would like to know why you felt it prudent to say such disruptive things in the middle of the Great Hall and why you feel you cannot trust me, Mister Potter."

"Aside from what I said in the Great Hall, and knowing you were at least partly responsible for leaving me with the Dursleys and never checking up on me? Nothing up to this point comes to mind," he said, phrasing his response in such a way that he wasn't technically lying. "You were the one who asked the questions and didn't like the answers, ma'am."

He watched her lips thin even more as she fought to keep herself from providing cheap excuses. Simply put, she _knew_ she should have looked in on him and not simply taken Albus at his word that everything was 'fine'. She had been the one to watch the Dursleys and knew they were horrible people. She just had no idea that they would really be _that bad_. They were obsessed with appearances and prestige and were as self-serving as they came. Minerva just simply had no idea that they would really be so bad to a child as they had been. She expected Harry to come to Hogwarts as selfish and working to suit his own needs. Not some broken thing that had actually been abused.

"Mister Potter," she eventually began, "I admit that I was partly responsible for your arrival and stay with the Dursleys, but if I am going to be blunt, as you have been, then I should say that just because I watched the Dursleys and knew Albus had plans to place you there, that does not mean that it was my place to keep watch over you. Ten months of the year, I am here at school teaching, one month is here working on various duties I can not escape from and, while I do have one month of free time during the summer, I was never once able to go to the house because of wards placed there to ensure your safety from all magicals."

Minerva sighed as Harry's eyes narrowed and began to look confused. "I see you do not fully understand."

"From what I know, Dumbledore put blood wards around the house that were meant to protect me based on 'a mother's love' and that they were supposed to be the ultimate protection. I was starved, beaten, worked as a slave and stuffed in a cupboard under the stairs for a bedroom, oftentimes for several days in a row. So it seems they didn't work. So what am I missing?" Harry asked, now sounding less confrontational and hostile.

"I admit I wasn't aware of how you were being treated and have been rather displeased since I found out," McGonagall said looking weary. "But the wards, like any ward, cannot protect you so fully against literally _everything_ that could harm you. That is simply too much for such things to do. You would be cushioned from every fall, unharmed by fire or heat or what have you. Even poor growth could be considered harm and a magic that protected from _everything_ could even try to protect you from poor eyesight or even yourself if you were planning to do something harmful or risky. Do you see why a protection cannot be so generalized?"

Harry thought for a few seconds before nodding. "So, anything that could possibly be considered harmful would be something that would be too much work for the ward? At least when you combine it all?" He asked as clarification. It was curious, he realized, to actually get her perspective on his situation. He knew she had watched the Dursleys before his arrival and felt being friends with his parents would be enough reason to watch over him as a toddler, but he had never considered that she had her own life and duties that could preclude her from it. Especially if wards were supposed to protect him and she felt he was as safe as they could provide for him.

Harry had been reading up on warding in an attempt to learn enough to break those he knew were around several of Voldemort's horcruxes. Wards had to be told what to do, what to look for and how to react to various events. There was only so much a ward could do before it became too much. And the more you added, the weaker various parts had to be or the power restrictions would break, causing the ward to fall entirely.

Therefore, saying those blood wards protected him from all forms of harm simply _had_ to be wrong! Sure, that could explain how he survived so long against two forms of Voldemort, a basilisk, acromantula and the like, but 'all forms of harm' would mean he couldn't make those bad decisions that got him _into_ that trouble in the first place or, with the nature of magic and a potential to run rampant and go awry, it could do something to harm people who only thought about hurting him.

Well, none of that happened because there was a very long list of people who wanted to hurt him still roaming around and not a single one of them dead yet!

"Yes," Minerva confirmed. "Like any ward, it had to be told what to protect you from. To put it simply, you were protected from any form of magical tracking, from any magicals coming to the house aside from Albus and yourself as the one who raised the ward and the target of it, magical attacks or magical tampering based on traces of blood or hair or the like and other such things of a magical nature."

"As an example," his Head of House continued, "there were several thousand harmful letters and hexed items owled to you from remaining Death Eaters in the first year after that night and this ward protected you from those. They were redirected to a vault under Hogwarts where dangerous things were removed and destroyed and gifts sent to you from fans like clothing, toys, money and thank-you letters were stored below in a room that only the Headmaster is able to enter to ensure its safety."

"So, it protected me from all magical forms of harm?" Harry asked.

"That would be a fair summation, yes. At the time, magicals were the only ones who should know of you and they were what we were protecting you from. It also watched for things that were placing you near death, but I am afraid I don't know the exact details since Albus has been rather quiet in fear of that information getting out."

"Is that why Miss Figg was so far away?" Harry asked curiously. "I know she's come by the house, so it doesn't work against squibs?"

The older woman blinked. "I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that name. But, it is possible. I don't know, I'm sorry." McGonagall sighed. "I am telling you all of this because I don't want you to not trust me, Mister Potter. As your Head of House, you should feel as though you can come to me when you have problems, no matter what they are."

Harry nodded slowly, thinking. He realized he had been taking various things too literally and at face value, but he didn't really understand the mechanics of what he had been living under and Dumbledore had never once actually tried to explain anything to him. If he had been this horrible misunderstanding about McGonagall's involvement regarding his living situation, what else could he be wrong about? "I wasn't aware of basically all of that you just told me, so I apologize for blaming you for any part of my living situation since it seems you would have been unable to look in on me since you didn't say you were keyed into the wards, but what about first year when we came to tell you about the Stone or when you sent us into the Forbidden Forest? The traps and such?"

McGonagall straightened in her chair, upset that she was being interrogated by one of her students and upset that he was in the right in asking. It was not a good feeling or place to be in. "The stone was meant to be a secret. Talking about it in the open, especially with the way secrets spread in this castle, was forbidden amongst all of us. None of those who were in the know were meant to say anything about it unless in a particular room magically locked and checked for any forms of listening charms thoroughly before each meeting in regards to the protections around it. I was doing my best to keep you from talking about it since we never know how those secrets are discovered and spread about."

"All the more reason to find out how _we_ found out about it then, isn't it?" Harry questioned.

McGonagall let out a disapproving sound from the back of her throat that was part sigh before nodding hesitantly. "I will admit, I should have endeavored to learn, but we had preselected actions we were to take if anyone found out about the Stone. No matter what was said or done, if anyone found out about it, we were to alert Dumbledore so that he could remove it and place a fake in its stead. How you learned did not matter quite as much as getting the Stone out of potential harm's way. I planned to ask you the next day to resolve the information leak, but by then, things had already happened and I was able to get the story from Miss Granger."

_'Plausible,'_ Harry thought to himself. _'And definitely a smart action, even though they should have learned how we found out beforehand since it would only have taken a few minutes. Though, there is no telling what could have happened between then and when they replaced the Stone, so that was a weakness of the plan.'_

"What about our detention?" Harry eventually asked after several moments of thinking in which McGonagall allowed him to draw his own conclusions.

"I ... don't have a good excuse for that, I am afraid," Minerva said sadly. "Hagrid did, indeed, say that something was killing unicorns, but I did not think of the situation in the same way as you've described it. Yes, I knew something was killing them, but I failed to think things through and you almost got hurt because of it. For that I apologize. I honestly don't know why I sent you there. I just knew that Hagrid was going to be looking for dead unicorns and felt you could assist him. I'm sorry. I was just vastly disappointed in you and when Hagrid found out you got in trouble because you were helping him, he had asked to be the one you served under. It just didn't occur to me that you would be going to the forest."

"What about letting Snape take house points and assign detentions for nothing and letting Draco and others spout that bigoted crap in the middle of the Great Hall?"

"While the faculty is aware of Mister Malfoy's actions and constant words, there are no rules against that. It is most certainly frowned upon and not liked, but there truly isn't anything we can do to stop it."

"Are you really that stupid?" Harry asked incredulously. "_Make_ the rules or take points for being disruptive!"

"Mister Potter!" McGonagall snapped angrily, causing Harry to jerk back and look at her in shock. He had been on a roll and seeing the woman who had been meek and on the defensive suddenly turn the tables caused him to falter. "Regardless of what you may think or feel on the matter, rules pertaining to behavior must be approved by the Board of Governors. Since the majority are pureblooded and hold at least a modicum of prejudice themselves, rules regarding slurs over blood status or race are generally denied. Many of us teachers have requested those in the past and have been silenced on the matter. We have control in our own classes, which we enforce, but in the general areas of the school, we _are bound_ by the school's general rules and I do _not_ appreciate being reprimanded about things that I have tried fixing and cannot!"

Harry sighed and looked like the thirteen-year old he was. "Sorry, Professor. I guess it's just making me mad that so much is wrong and no one is doing anything to fix it. Hermione gets points taken off for being a 'know-it-all' by Snape, Ron for 'breathing too loudly' or whenever someone sabotages our potions or if a Slytherin one turns out badly. I'm just not going to stand for it anymore."

"I understand how you feel, but you cannot just ignore your detentions when assigned."

"Of course I can," Harry rebuked. "At least ones assigned improperly. If I earn the detention, I'll go. But something like this situation with Snape? No. If he has a problem with it, he can complain, but other than ranting about it, there's nothing he can really do."

Minerva sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I assume I can tell you nothing to stop this foolish pursuit?"

"Nope," Harry said.

"Very well," McGonagall sighed. "Do you at least trust in me now? Will you be able to come to me when you have problems?"

"You've made me realize my thoughts about the blood ward and Stone were wrong and that I didn't have all the facts, but also as much as said you had no real reason for sending us into the Forbidden Forest and that you don't plan to protect Gryffindors from Snape or his little minions who basically show Death Eater tendencies, frightening when you consider Snape _was_ one. So no, I don't think I can."

McGonagall swallowed as she realized she really had failed her lions and that there really wasn't a whole lot she could do about it.

"Have a good day, Professor," Harry said as he stood and bowed his head, turned, and left without another word.

Minerva McGonagall had never felt so worthless as she did in that moment.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – September 11, After Dinner**

That evening, the entire student body was in the Great Hall for Harry's lesson on casting the Patronus. Those who hadn't been there the first night a week before had heard about his ability to teach it well enough that several first years had been succeeding, even seeing some evidence of that in the halls, and had decided they wanted to learn how to do the spell as well.

There had also been an almost friendly bet between the houses as to which could get the most people to learn to cast the spell properly by the end of the month. Slytherins wanted the money and to claim beating the other houses, Gryffindor wanted to beat the Slytherins, Ravenclaws wanted to simply all learn the thing and felt the bet was simply a deadline and Hufflepuff wanted to prove themselves as not being the weak House they had come to be classed as. And maybe a little money, too.

"Does anyone know why dementors suck out the soul? Why they feed on that?" Harry asked, starting off the club meeting after ensuring Luna was with Hermione and Ron this time around.

"So they can eat it?" Ron asked aloud after a couple of seconds of silence causing a few chuckles.

"Our magics are a part of our soul. That's where our cores are and why, physically, we are identical to non-magicals," Harry corrected. "They feed on the magical core. That's part of why dementors only come from Kissed muggles. The magical cores in us keep magicals from turning into that. But a non-magical person has no protection, like a poison from a spider."

"Now, I know many of you have been working on the Patronus, so I'd like to see how many of you can cast a corporeal one; hands?" No one's hand went into the air. "Okay, how many feel like they're very, very close?" Several dozen hands rose.

"Okay. Something I've been thinking about is how a dementor makes us feel like all our happy has been sucked out of us, making it harder to cast the spell. So, I thought, 'why not try the opposite?' I'll cast my Patronus and let it radiate its power around the room and I want you all to try casting the Patronus at the same time once mine is out. I'll give you five seconds to remember your memory."

Seconds later, Harry raised his wand and his stag erupted from its tip and looked across the students slowly. After a mental command from Harry, the spectre pulsed and feelings of wonderful happiness and joy swept across the room once again.

"Cast your spells!" Harry called out, making many of the students blink at him in confusion before they remembered what they were doing.

Harry smiled in satisfaction as a little more than a two dozen critters began to fly, run and hop around the room, adding to the happiness. He was pleased to see an otter and rabbit amongst those in the air and smiled proudly at Hermione and Luna who were grinning in a mix of pride, happiness and satisfaction.

"Excellent!" Harry exclaimed to the group before telling his Patronus to roam the school and herd the dementors away from the grounds. "Now then, since many of us will still need to work on this, feel free to do so with lots of chocolate and with a friend in case it tires you out. Now, let's look at shields."

Now that the students were gaining confidence and the knowledge needed for the Patronus charm, he was hoping to get them into shape so they could start to actually duel, possibly defending themselves later in years when Voldemort returned, or their homes or the school.

He also needed to know who was learning from him without second-guessing his orders for possible recruitment into his plans. He had a few ideas on the who, but needed to know if they were possible candidates this early in the game.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – September 12, Morning**

_**Black Sighted Once Again!**_

_By Marx Scheloub_

_His legendary escape from the horror known as Azkaban Prison baffled all of those who tried to figure it out, but Sirius Black was as cunning then as he has been in the last few weeks._

_Black has been sighted in Diagon Alley and more recently, in various locations showing him heading towards Hogwarts. It is highly suspected that he is after his godson, Harry Potter, in an attempt to finish what his dark master failed to accomplish twelve years ago._

_While there have been no murders to indicate Black has been settling old scores, there is little doubt that he's on the hunt for someone specific, and many believe it to be the young Mister Potter. There are dementors surrounding the area around the school to keep an eye out for Black, but many wonder if they will be effective since they failed to keep him in Azkaban and the only way we will know for sure is if we find he was successful at finding Harry Potter or not._

_Sightings on Black have..._

Cornelius Fudge threw his morning Prophet onto his desk and scowled. With the attack on the Hogwarts Express by the dementors, many angry parents had voiced their disapproval of having them guard the school, but he had been able to say they reported seeing someone sneak aboard which made them feel they had protected their children.

However, the Prophet would be delivered to the school and he had plans during the summer of using the Black situation to speak to Harry Potter and possibly form some kind of partnership to share their resources and better both of their situations.

The brat had been exceedingly difficult to find!

Cornelius had been unable to find Potter until the day he got on the train going into Hogwarts, and by then, it was too late. But, since the Prophet was spinning the Black case to show him heading towards Hogwarts, maybe he could use that to talk to the boy. Promise he had the support of the Minister of Magic to call upon and ingratiate him to perhaps do a favor or two for Fudge later?

_'That's an excellent idea,'_ Cornelius thought to himself. _'He'll know who I am and can claim having my backing and he'll either screw up and use my authority to get his way on something and get backed into a corner and have to help me, or he'll ask for help to the same end.'_

Perhaps it was time for a trip to Hogwarts.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – Thanks for reading.


	11. Knicker Launcher

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter10** – Knicker Launcher!

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Hermione's Patronus**: Yes, in the last chapter, her Patronus was an otter and where she first tried the Patronus, it seemed like a cat-like creature. That is intentional. Nice catch to those who caught it, though.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Potter and the Champion's Champion" by DriftWood1965 (H/Hr – Comedy, extreme amount of Ron Bashing. This is not a crack fic, per se, but is about the Harmony relationship and basically, Ron bashing. DEFINITELY some funny stuff.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_Cornelius had been unable to find Potter until the day he got on the train going into Hogwarts, and by then, it was too late. But, since the Prophet was spinning the Black case to show him heading towards Hogwarts, maybe he could use that to talk to the boy. Promise he had the support of the Minister of Magic to call upon and ingratiate him to perhaps do a favor or two for Fudge later?_

'That's an excellent idea,'_ Cornelius thought to himself. _'He'll know who I am and can claim having my backing and he'll either screw up and use my authority to get his way on something and get backed into a corner and have to help me, or he'll ask for help to the same end.'

_Perhaps it was time for a trip to Hogwarts._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Sunday – September 12, 10:00 – Headmaster's Office**

"I really must insist that you not go through with this," Dumbledore advised, looking over his steepled fingers at the round man with the green bowler hat. "Mister Potter will worry needlessly if we let him know that Sirius may be after him. Young Harry may even attempt to find the man himself."

"Sirius Black is an escaped felon who murdered his family, Peter Pettigrew and a bunch of muggles," Cornelius refuted. "Only a complete fool would actually look for such a dangerous criminal. Where _is_ McGonagall?" He huffed.

"She only left a few minutes ago, Cornelius. But a man can be so consumed by rage, grief or revenge that he may not think things through. He may hope to take revenge against his parents' betrayer by killing the man himself."

"Good riddance," Fudge laughed. "I don't think even Harry Potter could kill Black, but the man is unarmed and Potter'd be doing me a favor." He smiled as he considered Potter doing just that. While there would be nothing illegal about it since Black was a fugitive, the wonderful public relations aspect would catapult his career to even greater heights if spun in the right way.

Dumbledore's response was cut off by the office door opening and admitting Minerva with Harry trailing behind her.

"Ah! Mister Potter! It's good to see you! I'm-"

"Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic for the UK. I know who you are," Harry said, wondering what he had done to make the Minister show up at Hogwarts and call upon him. This had not happened the last time he started third year. He had met the man in the Leaky Cauldron. _'Ah! That's it. I didn't stay there after blowing up Marge this time. I guess he wanted to meet me and that was why he was there last time,'_ Harry realized. _'Wow that's pathetic.'_

Fudge blushed and grinned widely. "I see my reputation precedes me!"

"That it does, Minister. How can I help you today?" Harry asked, motioning the larger man to a chair in front of Dumbledore's desk while the old man blinked in surprise as Harry commandeered his furniture.

"Feel free to call me 'Cornelius', Harry," Fudge smarmed happily as Harry's admission to knowing who he was made him extraordinarily pleased. "I'm sure you've seen the Daily Prophet?"

_'Much like last time,'_ Harry thought. "Yes. I'm guessing you are here about Sirius Black?"

"Quite right, my boy," Fudge said as he took his bowler hat off his head and began to twist it up nervously. "I want you to know I'll be doing everything in my power to ensure you and the others at this school remain safe from that murdering scum."

"I ... see," Harry said with a sickly-looking smile. "That makes me feel ... safe."

McGonagall pretended to let out a small cough to cover her smile.

"But of course it does!" Fudge decreed joyously, missing Harry's sarcasm. "I just want you to know that if you need anything, you can ask and I'll do my best to accommodate you."

"That's really not ne-" Harry cut off as an idea formed in his head. "Actually, I do have a request if you think you've got the ability to do it. I understand if the Minister position doesn't give you the power to do this-"

"Nonsense, Harry!" Fudge cut him off, looking affronted Harry could think such a thing. Which was exactly what Harry was going for. "I'm the Minister! I can do anything!"

"Oh, wonderful!" Harry said brightly, playing up the child act. "I'm worried he may go after my friends in order to get to me, but some of them are muggleborn and underage. I was wondering if I could get an exemption of some kind for anyone I claim as a friend, or maybe a friend of my house or however it's done in the wizarding world, so that they are exempt from the underage magical restrictions? I've got full faith in the Aurors, but there's no telling _when_ he'll be captured, so I was hoping I could have that exemption to last indefinitely so they don't have to bother you to get it renewed. I'm sure you're a busy man with the position of power you hold," Harry said, acting as endearing as he could and buttering the man up by talking about how powerful his position, and the man himself by extension, was.

It worked beautifully.

"Well of _course_ I can do that!" Fudge said rather loudly and happily. "I'd be happy to do so! Let me write you the order right now! Albus, if you please?" The man asked, turning to Dumbledore to get a piece of parchment and quill while Harry smirked.

"Just to make it sound more official, could you claim it as anyone who's a friend of the House of Potter? It'd sound more like something from the fairy tales in the muggle world and sounds neater," Harry offered, realizing that it wasn't a true order without that little tidbit. This was something that could only be done by the more powerful and established families and it was that family name that made it something that could not just be recanted at any future time to get his friends in trouble.

"Of course, Harry. Any particular friends you want me to name?" Fudge asked before penning the exemption license.

"I dunno," Harry pondered while his family rings supplied him with his options. _'God I love these rings,'_ he thought to himself before turning to Fudge. "I guess just anyone I name since I'm making new friends each year. I just want them to be able to use magic at home in case Sirius goes after them so they can protect themselves without getting into trouble since we don't know what he'll do. As long as they keep to the Statute of Secrecy, of course."

"Very well, my boy," Fudge said as he began to scribble away.

_By order of the Minister of Magic, I, Cornelius Fudge, decree anyone claimed as a friend to the House of Potter by the Family Inclusion Rights Act are exempt from the restrictions on Underage Magic Use as long as they remain so named. _

_Cornelius Fudge,_

_Minister of Magic_

_Witnessed by,_

_Albus Dumbledore,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards_

"There you are, Mister Potter! One exemption license by yours truly!" Cornelius proclaimed proudly as he handed his newest order to Harry, causing the green-eyed boy to smile.

"Thank you, Minister Fudge. I'm sure this will go a long way to making my friends and I feel much safer during the holidays and summers as long as there are possible threats."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that, Harry. We're doing everything in our considerable power to keep you safe. This is just to show you how much the Ministry cares for you!"

"Thank you for your _gift_, Minister. It makes me feel more comfortable," Harry said while bowing his head slightly. By calling it a gift now, it kept the Minister from being able to claim it as something that required Harry to return the favor at a later date.

"No problem, Mister Potter. Perhaps in the future we can work together and I can help guide you in the political arena," Fudge hinted, hoping to get a seedling of ideas into the boy's head so that it would open doors into the future.

"That is a long time from now, Cornelius," Dumbledore stepped in, wanting to keep the Minister from getting his clutches into Harry at such a young age. "Perhaps you can approach Mister Potter at a later time."

"Quite right, quite right," Fudge said with a nervous laugh. "I really should be getting back to the Ministry. I'm a very busy man, after all. If you need anything at all, Harry, you don't hesitate to send me an owl."

"Of course, Minister. Have a good day." Harry rose and shook the Minister's hand and watched as he bade the headmaster a farewell and then left through the floo. Once the tubby man was gone, Harry's grin returned full force as he looked at the treasure in his hands.

"Do you understand what just happened, Mister Potter?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yea," Harry said, rolling the parchment up and putting it on the inside of his robe pocket for safe keeping. "Fudge was trying to use me for political clout to enhance his own career and trying to ingratiate me to him with this exemption order."

Dumbledore scratched his head in mild surprise. "Yes, actually."

"Will that be all, Headmaster?" Harry asked, rising and only actually asking as a nicety.

"Actually, no," Albus said as he leaned back into his seat and Harry sat back into his. "While I have you here and you have the time, I would like to know where you were at this summer as I was unable to locate you. Also, why you felt you had to leave the Dursleys and how you managed to get into my office without the password."

Harry sighed, wondering what had taken the old man this long to bring them up. "I stayed at Potter Manor because I didn't want to be a slave at the Dursleys' any more. You couldn't find me because of the protections around the grounds. As for how I got into your office, it's like I told you before, I asked the gargoyle to let me in."

"How did you learn about Potter Manor?" Dumbledore asked, believing it only possible once Harry came into his inheritance, but that wouldn't be for another four years. He had been emancipated, sure, but he never said anything about having taken up the mantle of the Head of House Potter, which was the only way to get that inheritance.

"There's no reason for you to require that information, _Headmaster_," Harry said, stressing the man's title over Harry. The boy knew it was petty, but he wanted Dumbledore to be in the dark about things now. The entire time up to the point he was seventeen, Harry had learned only what Dumbledore allowed and had been left in the dark and, petty or not, he wanted this meaningless revenge on the old man. It was pointless and he'd learn it eventually anyway, but there was no reason for Albus Bloody Dumbledore to know _everything_ that didn't concern him.

"Do you not trust me with the information, Harry?" Albus asked, wondering why Minerva began shaking her head and waving her arms to try and keep him from finishing the question.

Too late.

"Trust you?" Harry asked incredulously. "Hell no! You were directly responsible for every bit of my suffering the past twelve years. Excuse me for deciding I don't want you anywhere _near_ where I live. Goodbye, Headmaster," he finished, getting up and leaving even as Dumbledore called for him to return.

"He's apparently learned quite a bit during the summer, Albus," Minerva said with a sigh as she sat down, electing to share the conversation about trust she had with Harry the day before. It was something of a terrifying realization for Dumbledore to find Harry blamed _him_ for nearly every unfortunate thing to happen to the boy.

Even worse when he realized it made a lot of sense.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – September 12, 10:45**

"What'd the headmaster want?" Hermione asked with a yawn as Harry found her and Luna in the Gryffindor common room. Despite sleeping rather soundly, her turning time was beginning to show itself since the driven girl didn't take additional rest time or eat for the extra time she was up, leaving her with less energy to begin with.

"Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, came by to assure me that he was doing everything in his power to protect me from Sirius Black," Harry told her, falling into the chair across from the two girls. "He couldn't really promise anything, but I did manage to talk him into doing something for me," he responded, grinning a lopsided grin.

"What did you get him to do?" Luna asked.

"Guess," Harry rebuked.

"Honestly, Harry, we can't possibly guess!" Hermione scolded lightly, obviously impatient to learn what had happened. "What'd he do?"

"I got him to remove the restrictions on Underage Magic for anyone who I claim as a friend of the Potter family," he said, watching both girls' eyes go wide and their jaws drop open.

"You mean you can get us to do magic at home?" Hermione asked in shock.

"Yup!" Harry chirruped. "All you have to do is swear allegiance to my family. The exemption Fudge wrote required that stipulation."

"What do you mean, 'swear allegiance', exactly?" Hermione asked carefully. In medieval times, that could mean a few things, depending on who and how those oaths were given. They could become anything from vassals to outright slaves.

"Basically, it means you become my ally and can't do anything harmful to my family," Harry admitted, causing Luna to nod rapidly as her radish earrings jingled back and forth. "Also, that I must endeavor to protect you and your family."

"He's right. We could either swear ourselves to him as allies, or he could offer us his family's protection, which basically does the same thing but it doesn't include our whole family," Luna began. "The Family Rights Inclusion Act basically authorizes certain families the ability to bring in other families under their banner, thereby granting them associated rights and privileges."

"Correct," Harry said. "By allying your family with mine, that means you aren't considered simply, 'muggleborn' by others. You have the same rights and the like as I've got, which equates to Pureblood since I'm the last of a Pureblood line. A few of them, actually."

"Why's that? And what does it mean to me if I ally my family with yours? Do I have to do what you say?" Hermione asked, thinking that had a lot of potential to go wrong. Not that she thought Harry would do anything she would disapprove of, at least like the thoughts going through her mind, but wondered if he even _could_ do those things.

"Even Purebloods know that they have to marry outside of Pureblood lines to protect themselves from inbreeding or the occasional life debt that causes a non-Pureblood to marry into their family. So, they wrote laws that basically state that any children of a Pureblood line are considered Purebloods if at least one of their parents are the last of their lines. It was a measure of protection to keep their power," Harry explained.

"In your case, anything and everything you're involved in, legally speaking, is considered a Pureblood matter since I basically become your champion in the magical world, kind of like a Magical Guardian, but one that gives you a modicum of protection against anyone who threatens or actually _does_ hurt you. I could even fight a duel in yours or your parents' honor if I felt the need to or you asked me to. It also means your parents would have protection in our world where, as of right now anyway, they don't have any rights. If they were attacked, for example, then they wouldn't have much defense in our legal system if they can't prove that whatever actions they took were defensive in nature. And if they are goaded into striking first, it's nearly a death sentence without protection like this."

"That's horrible!" Hermione exclaimed, shocked beyond measure.

"It's also not that different from how serfs or slaves were treated against Nobles in the past, which is what the Pureblood families are in the wizarding world," Harry explained. "Think of how many laws we take for granted are relatively recent; child labor, age restrictions on sex and drinking, child abuse, women's rights and the like. Those are pretty new in general, and the only one with anything similar to laws against them are child abuse, and that's mainly if the child attacked is from a Pureblood family attacked by someone else. A parent can do anything to their child without getting into trouble, pretty much. They can even be sold."

"That's so wrong," Hermione said as she frowned. "But I guess if their culture is a few centuries behind the muggle, it makes sense that their laws are, too. I _hate_ that, though. Can I read up about this stuff in the library? I haven't read any books on wizarding laws while I was in there."

"Some, yes," Luna admitted with a bob of her head. "But some of it could be out of date and they won't have the full set of laws there. There are just too many to really keep on hand in the school, and little need to."

"I've got no idea, personally," Harry said with a shrug. "All of my knowledge comes from my Head of House rings, and those are charmed to provide me with any legal information inducted into law."

"Yes, but those are only for the Heads of the old Pureblood houses. Not everyone can get them and they're illegal to manufacture," Luna told him.

"So, if I get into some kind of fight," Hermione began, thinking over everything she was told, "then I'm basically guilty until proven innocent?"

"Your parents would be, but not you," Harry stated. "As a magical, you've got rights, but courts would be heavily leaning out of your favor due to bias and bigotry, or even bribery, but you have some rights like everyone else."

Hermione nodded. "I'll look into it, then," she said. "Why doesn't Hogwarts offer an introductory class into the wizarding world so we know how the laws are different than in the muggle world? Especially laws like ones where muggles could get into trouble just for defending themselves!"

"Dunno," Harry said. "I've been wondering the same thing, but there aren't any actual laws against it unless they're just agreements people have made and not actual laws."

"We can discuss unhappy laws later," Luna said with an airy wave of her hand. "Let's talk about Transfiguration instead, shall we? I want to make a monkey out of my socks."

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – September 12, Evening**

"Is there something I can help you with, Hermione?" Luna asked as the girl took her up to the female Gryffindor's dormitories. She felt this probably had to do with their discussion the morning before.

"I wanted you to know which dorm room and bed was mine," Hermione said, leading Luna to the bed farthest from the door, coincidentally like Harry's. "I want you to know that if you are ever in a situation like that one again, you can come to me and you don't have to go to the boys' dorms. I'm always available if you need to come to me for anything and at any time."

Luna smiled warmly and hugged Hermione close. "Thank you for being so kind to me," she said, squeezing Hermione extra tight for being so understanding before pulling back. "It's so wonderful having friends!" She proclaimed gleefully.

Hermione smiled back at her and took the blonde's hand. "I know how you feel. I didn't have any friends before Harry and Ron, either. I almost can't believe how I lived before them. I'm glad to call you a friend."

Luna's happy squee made Hermione's eyes widen before she was glomped mercilessly by the blonde girl. The brunette didn't mind the lack of air. She understood Luna's sentiment about the situation. She had the urge to do the same thing sometimes, but refrained herself because her friends were of the male variety who didn't care for girls or their hugs.

There was definitely something to be said for having a female friend.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 15, After Lunch – Ancient Runes**

It was three days later for her Wednesday Arithmancy class that Hermione recalled Harry's short comments about going 'deeper' into spell creation. The class had been learning the mathematical properties of the various parts of spells and how to convert them to equations and was doing simple exercises on a few of the first-year spells they had learned, but as she had finished the conversions already and was waiting for the teacher to call time to go over their work, she decided now was as good a time as any to ask.

"Professor Vector?" Hermione asked, raising her hand.

"Yes Miss Granger?"

"I learned recently that spells used to have much more work involved in creating them and that some 'shortcuts' had been developed to skip certain parts that makes them faster to create. I couldn't find any references to that in our texts, and found only vague ones from various books in the library and was hoping you could tell me what you may know about that," Hermione explained, noting, but not looking at Harry when she felt his eyes on her side and could see his head cocked to the side through her peripheral vision.

Septima Vector frowned and leaned back in her seat, pondering the question. "You've finished your conversions thus far, I assume?"

"Yes ma'am," Hermione said with a nod and almost willing to swear she felt Harry's smirk.

"It was something that was touched upon during my own schooling, but I was never taught details about applications, merely explaining what it was and what those shortcuts did," she began. "Imagine, if you will, the letter 'Z'. To write it, you go from left to right, then right to left and down, then lastly left to right again. Picture that letter in your mind, okay?"

"Alright," Hermione said, scrunching up her nose as she did so.

"Now, if you wanted to get from your starting position, to the ending one, you could just do the second step, but alter it slightly, right? Just go diagonally left to right and down, just to get from one place to the next. With me so far?"

"Yes Professor," Hermione said.

"Good. Now, by doing that, you get from point 'A' to point 'B', but you've lost your original shape and the 'elegance' that it brought. You have a single line instead of three separate ones and, while you get to the same place at the end, it isn't the same."

"Now," Vector continued, "if you assume each line in the 'Z' was a step in the process of making the spell, say power for the first line, function in the second and execution in the last, then you can see how each part does something to regulate the desired effect in a particular sequence. However, with the simple diagonal line the shortcut created, we can make it do the same thing at once. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Hermione said with a frown. "But isn't that making it less efficient? That was described to me as weakening the spells in comparison to the ones in the past."

The professor nodded, looking somewhat sad. "Yes. If you have the chance to study the spells from more than a century and a half ago, you'll generally find that current spells are indeed much less efficient, but are also far, far, _far_ less complex and much easier to craft and do the math on, usually by several feet of parchment for just a simple spell. It's accepted as a minor loss since changes tend to be rather minimal when you compare the results and ease in which the spell is created at the cost of a little efficiency. Just add a little more power and you still get the same function, and add a touch more still, and it will be just as strong, usually."

Hermione's frown deepened considerably. "But, when things get more complex, like with a more powerful spell, the Patronus for example, wouldn't that difference between the older and newer methods become far more pronounced?"

"It really depends on the spell, Miss Granger. But in a word, yes. However, I haven't seen any new and powerful spells crafted in my lifetime, as far as I know. If there have been, then it's only known to spell crafters or whoever may have crafted it. And it's possible that you learn that method when you specialize in spell crafting. I didn't, so I didn't learn how to do it. I can simply do the math to understand it all. My Mastery was in other fields of Arithmancy, primarily in breaking down, study and alteration. There are very few spell crafters anymore and they rare teach a class, preferring instead an apprentice to carry on their legacy."

"Will we be able to learn to decode and do the arithmancy on those older spells?" Harry asked, looking forward to learning how to do that.

"Yes," Vector stated. "It's not that there are unique properties to those bits that are skipped, but that spells in the older methods have the spell form and do specific things in sequence as it gets used while the newer methods basically tell it what to do without those extra steps and they do it all as a mishmash of things at once. The math is all the same, just a _lot_ more of it. You're muggle-raised, so think of what you are learning here as basic math and geometry, while those older forms would have a bit of Calculus as well."

"Would there be any texts in the library that may be simply difficult to find regarding this?" Hermione asked.

"None specifically regarding what you're looking for except in the Restricted Section, and they're restricted for a reason," Vector said with a genial smile. She so enjoyed teasing the smarter students with the hidden nuggets of knowledge from that section of the library. She didn't do it to be cruel, but to see them scowl and see if they would try to sneak into the Restricted Section or if they'd ask for permission.

Well, maybe it was to be a _little_ cruel, but just because she was willing to go with them to help them find things until she learned who could be trusted with permission alone and who not, so it wasn't _truly_ being cruel. But even teachers had to have a little fun.

"Alright everyone! How many components are there in the Lumos spell? Mister Potter?"

"Three."

"Correct! Miss Granger, what are those components?"

"Power manipulation and regulation, conversion of the energy to light, and distance properties so the light comes at the end of the wand or an object," Hermione said, as the class progressed and they followed the time-consuming and repetitive motions of breaking spells down to their base components to be identified for the following fifteen minutes until the class was over.

"These are such fun classes," Harry told Hermione as they left the classroom together and wondering why he hadn't taken the classes his original time through. "I wonder what it'd be like to make spells from scratch."

"Uh huh," Hermione muttered, looking around nervously and fidgeting with her robe. "Hey, I've got to visit the loo. I'll meet you in Runes, alright?"

Harry blinked before he realized what was going on. "Ah. I understand. I've always got to go around certain times for some reason. See you there," he said, giving Hermione a seed of an idea to use each time their classes overlapped with Divination.

Hermione smiled gratefully and rushed off, though not in the direction to the nearest restroom.

Harry chuckled as he left to find his way to Ancient Runes, only to find Hermione already there and awaiting him.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 15, Last Period – Ancient Runes**

"Alright everyone! Pass up your Runic definitions to the front," Professor Babbling called out as soon as the class began. It was the first assignment given to get the students to learn what the various symbols meant as the foundation of the entirety of the class was wholly based on knowing those definitions.

"Now we're going to play Devil's Advocate," the professor said. "I'll call on you to answer my questions, and you have to defend the study. We'll find out who read the first chapter of their texts properly," the young woman warned with a fiendish grin spreading across her face as a few of the students shifted uncomfortably.

"Who shall the first victim be, hm?" She asked darkly, looking at a few of the Ravenclaw students and Miss Granger raise their hands. That wasn't the point of this exercise, however. Runes was a demanding class that didn't suit students looking for an easy grade or to simply coast through. So, she found a student with a history of slacking off but with high demands.

"Mister Potter. How can drawn lines or etched symbols possibly _do anything_? What makes them so special in comparison to, say, the alphabet?"

Harry blinked, wondering why he was called upon. He hadn't even raised his hand! "Er, special inks have to be used that are infused with magic so they actually hold power. The symbols themselves are drawn while charging each symbol which is where they get their power. And a rune etching kit has tools with special tips that etch the runic symbols and leaves fragments of crystals in place that can be charged so those hold power."

"Correct. Miss Patil, what can be used to replace the special inks that are pre-made?"

"Blood is popular and is actually a first-choice," Padma began, "because it contains the very essence of life which is something more powerful than magic itself as even muggles are alive without magic. You can use regular ink and simply put in a little blood, or ink with powdered crystal. Also, as Harry said, you can use straight powdered crystal in etched runes as well, Ma'am."

"Correct. You can also use gold and silver. The goblins and dwarves were famous for using that in their buildings, armors and weapons, but the book didn't tell you of that since most humans would rather spend those. Miss Granger, can non-magicals use runes?"

"They can, assuming they have runes that were charged in advance with the correct properties. But without a source of magic, they can't write a rune and make it function. Well, unless they want to use their blood. That's why most muggle legends have it all as bloodletting and dark or evil things. Some of them learned about Runes and did some pretty bad things with them because of that."

"Correct," Babbling said with a smile. "And that leads us into a discussion on that very function. Charging magic. In Mister Potter and Miss Patil's examples, they both mentioned crystals. Why is this an important part of the rune etching kit? Or even the ink that is used?"

Harry's hand was the only one up after two seconds, which surprised the professor. Not because his was the only hand up, but because there was one hand raised at all. "Mister Potter?"

"Crystals, particularly those with as few flaws as possible, are extraordinarily efficient at storing magic. So much so that, they're used in place of precious gems like diamonds or emeralds in some of the older ornamental weapons and armors that you were talking about dwarves and goblins making earlier. The composition of the structure to each crystal makes it highly suited to storing and channeling magic. Muggles have used microscopes to sort of make the crystals so large, you can see the smallest fragments and it looks like bricks on a wall all connected together."

"That's correct, Mister Potter, though I'm unsure of the ... miscrope part. But this book doesn't go into that information. How did you come across it?" The professor asked, rather curious. Storage crystals were not touched upon until they got into runic seal arrays, which were far more complex and generally needed more power than a single witch or wizard had. That's one reason rituals were so complex and almost purely outlawed in Britain. Once a ritual was started, and the magic being drawn from the user, it couldn't be stopped, and so many people performed rituals incorrectly that it required massive amounts more magic than expected, thus killing those attempting them.

"I've got a book from my library that talked about runes and seals and it talked about that and some jewels that were excellent for holding magical charges. Rubies were the only ones that were better than crystals, though, and they have to be perfect, so it was almost too expensive to use them in comparison to crystals for the boost since a flawed one is almost worthless. I couldn't figure out why, though."

Professor Babbling blinked and sighed. "Yes, that's true and what you said is accurate as well, but please refrain from looking through other books and don't look _too_ far ahead or you run the risk of getting into things that you really do need much more experience to handle. Especially with seals. Those can go so bad that we'd be lucky to find your body if they blow up."

"I've ... er, kind of been reading it to learn more about the runes," Harry admitted sheepishly. "It's got dozens of other symbols that these don't talk about and is really comprehensive."

"Could I see this book some time, if it isn't a book from your family-only archive, of course. I'd rather not become a married woman this early in life," Bathsheba said with a grin as a few laughs filtered through the room and caused Harry to blush. "But I'd like to be able to make sure it's both accurate and not too advanced and risk causing you harm."

"I can bring it by later, yea," Harry said, slouching into his seat. The woman was young, compared to most of the faculty, but the idea of marrying her because she read a book sounded like something only Hermione could get herself in to.

Which made him resolve to look over everything his rings would tell him about sharing his family magic that night.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – September 18, Midday**

"Ku ku ku!" Peeves laughed evilly, having finally come to implement his most masterful prank since ... ever, really. He had been told by Potty that he could attack, well, _prank_, anyone aside from a few. Opposite popular belief, he really _was_ capable of learning and showing restraint. He just never had reason to.

A rather large trunk filled with things to be used was an almost fair compromise for not getting a couple children. In fact, Peeves was sure he was so generous that he would consider the two of them even for that arrangement.

Cayenne pepper on the Slytherin bog rolls, itching powder in their bed sheets, laxatives in their chocolate supplies, dyes in the shower heads, candy left in their common room to turn their teeth black, dung bombs attached to the top of their canopies to explode at one in the morning and plastic wrap on the toilets themselves had taken care of the Snakes and his promise to Harry about them, ensuring that only the first-years would remain safe and protected from harm, assuming they didn't take things that didn't belong to them, at which point Peeves felt they got what they deserved.

The Hufflepuffs got off much easier. They merely had green, blue and red dyes in their shower heads and fake spiders and snakes put in their bed sheets. His promise to Potty meant they got off much lighter and that a few other than first-years didn't get trapped.

The Ravenclaws were different, however. They were given laxatives much like the Slytherins and their toilets wrapped in plastic as well. But he had run out of liquid dye for the showers, so he got the Weasley twins to assist in making little launchers for his paint balls, set to get them all at night except for those who had to remain safe, of course, and put some colored powder into their shampoo bottles. He wasn't sure what a 'Nair', was, but he understood 'hair removal' well enough.

The Gryffindors, however, had several that he couldn't hit with pranks. Not only were several on the protected list, at least in comparison to the other houses, but his help from the Weasley twins required a few caveats of protection and he had finally been running out of prank items. At least that weren't already planned for elsewhere. So unfortunately, all he could do was put a good number of fake spiders and snakes into second-year dorm beds and whatever bed was closest to the door in the third-year male dorm.

The screams had been wonderful! And the youngest male Weasley had run straight from his bed to the common room where he had the protected Granger girl go to his bed to take care of the fake spiders and had taken the offered chocolates Luna had found in her common room.

It was perfection at its finest! The Slytherins had been running back and forth between beds, toilets and showers the entire night! And from that Wednesday night to the end of the week, not a single one walked properly, first years excluded, of course. They had all been forced to take a cream made by Professor Snape and handed out by Madam Pomfrey who couldn't help but advise the Headmaster that the entirety of the Slytherin House second-year and above had developed questionable rashes on their anuses.

The resulting questioning had made them all quite uncomfortable.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – September 18, 23:20**

Luna pulled back her curtain and sighed as she found exactly what her little Thundercat friends had warned her of, that her blankets and pillow were taken from her bed once again and the sheets were in place, but lifting those up revealed the white itching powder one could purchase from Zonko's. It would only take about half an hour of laying on that before her skin would begin to prickle and another ten minutes for it to become rather painful.

A quick flick of her wand and the majority of the powder appeared to be vanished, but a quick scan for magical properties showed that the joke powder was only disillusioned, much the same way that an idea the twins would soon have for fireworks to multiply if an attempt to vanish them was made.

Luna methodically checked her clothes and found that her knickers had been sprinkled with the powder as well, but rather than coated in it, it was only lightly applied and to the sections that would touch the most delicate of her parts. Even her shirts were tainted with the caustic substance in the juncture where her armpits would rest, meaning she couldn't dress in layers of clothing as she had done in the past when her blankets were stolen.

The blonde sighed once again and levitated all of her clothing to her personal clothes bin to be washed by the next morning, along with her sheets. While the house elves would refuse her requests or service in the hallways, they were duty-bound to clean any clothing that was put into the hamper and did that dutifully and happily.

After several long moments of debate in which she considered flipping her mattress and sleeping on the other side, Luna realized a warming charm wouldn't last nearly the full night and her extra clothes wouldn't be washed and ready until the next morning after the elves checked the students' hampers for their sleeping attire. So, she had no additional clothing to layer herself in and would be quite cold. She had slept the night like that anyway in the past, wearing only her robe and her cloak, but she still had a tendency to awaken with the sniffles from the colder night air.

Perhaps this was another time to use her very own, personal password into the Gryffindor dormitories? Luna smiled as she quickly left the second-year Ravenclaw rooms and, after ensuring no one was in the common room working on additional homework, left the tower and began her trek up to her Gryffindor friends.

While she walked and listened for the pesky caretaker and his even peskier kitty friend, Luna pondered on what may have started this particular prank. Three nights ago, the resident poltergeist had pranked the entire school in a similar manner, leaving mostly Gryffindors, first-years and only another handful of students unharmed. After much observation, she found she had been the only non-first-year Ravenclaw not attacked during that time, which was something the other Ravenclaws had noticed as well.

Luna honestly couldn't understand why so many of them were so vocal about their displeasure. She was aware of each and every one of them, save the Head Girl, Clearwater, who wasn't even attacked having her own room, knew she went through those types of things almost every other night, but she never complained about it. Yes, it was generally quite painful, but they didn't speak up against it when she was the target.

Of course, that was about the itching powder. While Luna dealt with that more often than she did Transfiguration and Charms homework combined, they also had to deal with their showers making their skin turn color and apparently, they had to deal with some rather questionable loo time. But even that, Luna still couldn't understand their outrage about. Honestly, she felt becoming all blue or red would be interesting for a day or two and they had forced her to eat things far worse than bad chocolate.

She did feel a little bad about those colored balls that splattered them with paint, though. She was hexed on occasion, but those things stained clothing. She wouldn't mind her skin being an odd color, but clothing was usually nice the way it was.

"Moonbeams are the bridges to our dreams," Luna told the Fat Lady, stepping in as the portrait swung open.

She was about to head up to Harry's dormitory when she paused at the bottom of the stairs and turned to look at the female dormitories instead. Hermione had explained that going to a boy's bed at night while naked was generally unacceptable behavior and the only reason it was okay then was because her options had been so limited. Her bushy-haired friend had also said that it would raise questions that may be uncomfortable to answer, especially if she didn't want people to know what was happening to her.

Hermione had gone on to say that she was always available whenever Luna felt she needed her and could share her bed with her if she wanted to.

Well, she had already had a slumber party with Harry. Perhaps Hermione would like to have one?

Luna giggled and dashed across the common room and up the stairs to the girls' dormitories and then up to the third landing, listening for any sounds from the closed door that may indicate anyone still being awake even though there was no light coming from under the door.

_'I do hope that snoring isn't Hermione,'_ Luna thought with her head cocked to the side and picturing Hermione half laying on the floor in a position so uncomfortable that snoring was almost required. Shaking her head, the blonde cracked the door open and realized everyone was asleep, so she hurried in and shut the door before walking over to Hermione's bed, pausing only diagonal from it to see who the snoring culprit was. _'Ah. Lavender, I think her name is. I wonder where she got a stuffed Harry Potter plushie from. Or if Hermione knows about it, for that matter.'_

Luna shook her head and parted Hermione's curtains, blinking at the sight that met her. The bushy hair she knew, and had come to wonder how it managed to stay so poofy even though she didn't plan to ask the other girl, was acting something like an extra inch of pillow under the older girl's head while Hermione herself seemed to be nibbling on her pillow and mumbling incantations in her sleep.

Though the incantations were being spoken backwards.

_'That ... takes some considerable talent,'_ Luna pondered before shaking the brunette's shoulder. "Hermione. May I sleep here tonight?"

Hermione blinked groggily at the blonde hovering over her. "Whuzzit?"

"May I sleep here tonight?" Luna asked again, smiling gently.

"Did'joo bring m' uh knicker launcher?" The brunette asked, still somewhere between awake and sleep. Most likely closer to the latter. "The trolls er try'in to take my books an' on-lee ah knicker launcher kin keep 'em a'way."

"No, but I can make us one," Luna responded without skipping a beat. They hadn't taken her wand away from her this time. She wasn't sure where the trolls were, but she would be sure to help as best she could.

Hermione scooted over and allowed Luna to climb in before latching herself to the newcomer and cuddling into the new warmth. "Take no priz-ners er the pyrits'll get us."

Well! Luna certainly didn't want that! Pirates were notorious for being bad people! "No prisoners," Luna agreed, yawning.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – September 19, Morning**

Harry grinned as he rolled the parchment with the multitude of copied book-related spells up and tied it shut with a ribbon and large bow and pulled out a wrapped, thick tome he had made from a specialty shop in Diagon Alley over the summer. It was actually a very large diary, but was nice and thick and had heavy covers with a nice, but ultimately simple, Celtic design that he felt would appeal to her sense of aesthetics. The covers were a dark green with bronze edge-work, and the Celtic knot that acted as the binding to hold it closed latched to the center icon, which was the Tree of Knowledge, whose roots seemed to seep off of the open book it was on top of.

It was the nineteenth of September, Hermione's birthday, and thankfully a Sunday so they wouldn't have to worry about classes. Harry had asked Dobby to make her a large birthday cake and gather several different types of drinks and have them all delivered into the Gryffindor common room at noon, where the Gryffindors were always willing to have a party, regardless of the reason.

That, and there was always room for cake.

He had originally planned on getting all of the Gryffindors in on the party, but realized that Hermione had never really been one for being the center of attention like that. Much like him, she didn't feel comfortable having so many people looking at her. So, while the whole house would have the benefit of the cake and drinks, he only brought it up to Ron and Luna, both of which spent much and most of their time with Harry and Hermione, respectively, feeling Hermione would appreciate a smaller and more intimate gathering than a large party. Ron still seemed to have issues sitting too near and talking to Luna, but had begun to spend more time with his original friends and decided he would show up even though he didn't have anything to give her.

Maybe he could get her cake for her.

Harry happily bounded down the stairs into the common room where the birthday girl and Luna were waiting for him to head down to lunch.

Or so Hermione thought.

Harry snuck up behind Hermione and wrapped her in a hug from behind, remembering just in time to move his head from the head butt she attempted to throw his way in surprise. He had learned his lesson during the summer. "Happy birthday, Hermione!"

"Harry! What are- ACK!" Hermione was cut off as Luna pounced and wrapped her in a hug as well, squeezing the laughing girl between her blonde and black-haired friends.

"Happy birthday, Hermione!" Luna chirruped, grabbing a package out of her pocket and handing it to Hermione as she pulled back to sit next to the surprised brunette on the couch.

"I ... thank you," Hermione said with a smile. She watched Harry set his two gifts onto the table and sit opposite Luna and watch as she divested the small box of the shiny silver wrapping paper and opened it, pulling out ... "Luna? What is this?"

"A knicker launcher!" Luna chirped brightly. "Shrunken, of course."

Harry repressed the urge to laugh as Hermione set the contraption down and enlarged it, seeing what looked like a three-foot long trebuchet. Hermione squawked indignantly as soon as it was full-size. "Are those my knickers!"

"Uh huh!" Luna said happily with a cute bob of her head and looking rightfully pleased with herself. "You said last night that trolls were coming for your books and that you needed me to bring a knicker launcher and we couldn't take prisoners or the pirates would get us, so I brought it! I haven't seen any trolls, so I assume they know of our arsenal." She opened a flap on the side of the wooden base, revealing a wide assortment of Hermione's underwear, several of which made Harry choke.

Who'd have thought the brunette had a thing for lace and thongs?

"Harry James Potter! Don't you dare look!" Hermione scolded, covering the boy's eyes with one hand and trying to close the door with the other.

"Hermione, it's okay. I've seen you in your bikini when you swam at my house. Underwear isn't that different," Harry consoled the mortified girl. And it wasn't like he hadn't already pictured her in her underwear...

"That isn't the same, Harry," Hermione muttered.

"Did I do something wrong?" Luna asked, wondering at Hermione's reaction. She had gotten Hermione what she asked for, and all of her own knickers were with the house elves in the wash. Well, all except the two sets of clothes that she had stored in Harry's wardrobe, anyway.

Hermione allowed Harry to pull her hand from his face and looked to the blonde who looked truly concerned and couldn't find it in her to be upset with the girl. She could vaguely recall her dream and, considering she had awakened next to the blonde that morning, she assumed she had brought it up somehow and knew Luna was probably working on short notice for her birthday. "It's wonderful Luna. I don't think I'll have to deal with another troll for a long time. Let me just go take this to my room," she said, shrinking the three-foot contraption back down to pocket-size and dashed up to her room where she could hide the pilfered panties where they belonged.

"I think she just didn't want me to see her undies," Harry whispered to Luna conspiratorially.

"I liked the black ones with the green cat's eyes on the butt side of them," Luna said with a bright smile.

Hermione returned with a minor blush and sat back between the two of them as Harry handed her the large present first. She opened it, glad Harry wasn't bringing up her unmentionables, and gasped as she saw the book held within.

It was about fifteen inches tall and wide and six inches thick in a dark green color that was nearing black with gold-colored accents on the spine and trim that looked like rope with a beautifully carved, bronze medallion inscribed with a Celtic knot that acted as a lock with a latch that came across to hold it closed against a round section that looked like the Tree of Knowledge and filled with heavy-weight, cotton paper that was designed to last for a long time.

"It's lovely, Harry," Hermione said, stroking the embossing and opening to see it empty aside from an ownership tag on the inside front cover. She smiled as she read the message, '_To Hermione Granger. Brightest witch of any generation and more precious than all the gems in the world.'_

"It goes with this," Harry said, handing her the scroll.

Smiling, Hermione pulled on the ribbon and opened the parchment, reading spells for restoring books to mint condition, including restoring faded writing, spells to protect books from water damage and bugs and finally, the item that made her gasp, was the spell to make books like Harry's own by combining books and scrolls into one to make a true grimoire.

"H-Harry?" Hermione asked, her voice just as shaky as her hands holding the parchment.

"We can use a copying spell on my book and then add it to yours," Harry told her. "You can have your own family grimoire and even copy many, if not most, of the books in the library for your own use."

Hermione stared slack-mouthed at Harry for all of two seconds before she was up and running for the door before Harry grabbed her by the back of her robe and pulled her backwards into the couch with a laugh. "Hey Luna. There's a really fun muggle tradition on birthdays that I'd like to introduce you to," Harry said, grinning wickedly at Hermione who looked on in confusion.

"Oh? What's that?" Luna asked.

"Have you ever heard of birthday spankings?"

"Harry James Potter! Don't you dare t- ACK!" She was cut off as Harry pulled her into a hug that kept her arms pinned between the two of them and locked his legs around hers while she glared up at him with a fierce blush.

"If you would like the honors, Luna? It's one for each year and she's now fourteen."

Luna let out a joyous squee and hopped out of her seat to whack Hermione one good one right on her bum, followed by a second as the brunette laughed and tried to escape. "One nargle, two nargles, three nargles..." Luna counted.

"I am _so_ going to make you pay for this, Harry," Hermione growled into Harry's ear.

"You say that now," the unrepentant boy said, smiling as he stared into her brown eyes as Luna finished and he let Hermione sit on the couch beside him after a fierce punch to his arm. "But what about after this; Dobby?" Immediately, the large cake and several sodas and bottles of butterbeer popped into existence, along with a sight that Hermione couldn't tear her eyes from.

"Harry? Is that..."

"Pepperoni, sausage, pineapple and extra cheese, your favorite," Harry said as he opened the top box to show Hermione the pizza Dobby had obtained. He had tried it the first time over the summer when her parents had hosted him for dinner and Hermione had shared her love for the tasty device that could be eaten with one hand. Though he decided not to read with the other. "I thought Ron would be here, but I guess he's eating lunch in the Great Hall first."

"What is it?" Luna asked, poking the strange food and able to appreciate how round it was.

"Pizza!" Hermione half yelled, half growled out happily. That _almost_ made up for the birthday spanking, though not quite. She'd get him when he wasn't expecting it.

Harry set out a few plates and set the pizza on them while Luna sampled the orange soda, letting out a surprised burp and then giggling as the fizzy drink tickled her nose.

"Ah! I'm on time!" Ron exclaimed as he entered through the portrait hole. "Happy birthday, Hermione!" He came forward and sat in a chair while looking at the round pies of some sort.

"Thanks Ron," Hermione said warmly. "How'd you guys find out it was my birthday, anyway?"

"Harry told us," Ron said, taking the plate Harry provided and sampled the food the same way he watched Harry eat it. _'Sweet Merlin! We've gotta get the house elves to make this!'_ Ron, it seemed, rather liked four-meat pizza.

"Well, let's hurry up and eat so we can get to cake. Whatever's left can be left to let some of the others try. I'm guessing by Luna's reaction that purebloods don't really get much pizza?" Harry asked, taking some of Hermione's pizza. He'd gotten a dozen pies of different types, along with three of Hermione's favorite since he rather enjoyed it also, and figured a lot of people would like it.

"Is that what this is?" Ron asked. "They should serve it here."

"Dobby learned to make it over the summer, so he may be able to do it," Harry said. "It's even better with hotwings."

Hermione looked up in surprise before looking for the tiny box that delivered the hot-sauce-coated goodness that was the chicken wing.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – September 20, 12:00**

"Mister Potter, would you stay behind please?" Remus asked the next day as the class was leaving the Defense classroom. After the events from their previous class, they hadn't brought in another boggart and most of the class had stayed a small distance away from Harry after his ... excessive reaction. Hermione and Neville had been the only ones who were willing to be around him in the room and the Slytherins had adopted a 'watch but do not aggravate' mentality.

At least for the most part.

"What is it, Professor?" Harry asked, wondering what was going on.

"First, I'd like to ask if everything is okay since our last class. You just kind of left and Miss Granger had to pick up your wand to get it back to you," Remus began, sitting on the table across from Harry.

"Yea, I'm fine. It was something from a really bad dream I had a while back that sometimes comes around now and again. It just kind of shocked me to see it while I was awake," Harry explained, using a story he had planned that same day of the incident.

"I see," Remus said, not really understanding at all, but certainly understanding what a nightmare can do to a person. "There's something else I've been meaning to ask. On the train, you called me 'Moony'. I was hoping you could explain that," he began, not providing any information just in case Harry knew less than the older man worried he did.

"I ... have a lot of dreams," Harry said slowly, looking out of the window and into the Forbidden Forest. "Sometimes, they don't seem like regular dreams, but memories. You looked different, but not by a lot. There was you, a guy who turned into a dog and a fat guy who turned into a rat that I didn't like."

"I ... see," Remus responded, watching Harry intently. That didn't tell him a lot and he was too worried about asking. "I had been friends with your parents. That may be it, then."

"It could be," Harry allowed. He had once been upset at the man for apparently not showing up at the Dursleys', or writing him while he was there, but after his talk with McGonagall, he realized that even if the man had tried, the wards would have prevented that.

"There's one last thing I'd like to talk to you about," Remus said with something akin to a smile. "I'm not asking if it's you or not, but this 'Bolt' character is casting a lot of attention towards his possible pranks as being yours. What, with the green eyes, a name referencing your scar and the lightning in the background."

Harry blushed slightly. He had noticed that people believed he was Bolt. It was partly because he had never really had a Marauder name and because he really had no real experience in the pranking field on remaining subtle. But also, it was partly because some slightly vain part of him that hated how he acted in his past wanted to be acknowledged and recognized. "Yea, I've noticed that too," he said nervously.

Remus chuckled in amusement. "Your father and I were a part of a pranking foursome in our Hogwarts days," the werewolf reminisced. "We were called the Marauders. I'm pretty sure we turned McGonagall's tabby form gray before its years."

Both laughed before Harry shook his head. "Yea, I've heard of you guys. The Weasley twins idolize you. They found your map in their first year and that is what inspired them to become pranksters."

"Ha! I had all but forgotten about that thing," Remus said happily.

"Yea, I've got it now, but I'm keeping it locked up. Mostly," Harry replied with a grin that Remus knew all too well.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

"How did you guys become animagus? Or is that just something from my imagination?" Harry asked, wondering if he could get the secret out of the older man.

"That really happened, but ... is something we should probably talk about another time," Remus said nervously, not wanting to get into exactly why it had been done. "If McGonagall found out I had said anything about that, I'd be dodging hexes for weeks."

"I understand," Harry said with a smile. "I'll talk to you later. I'd like to get some lunch before the hour's up."

"Of course," Remus got up and gestured to the door. "I didn't mean to keep you." As Harry left, Remus wondered at why Harry hadn't asked any questions about his parents.

xXxXxXx

"It has been two weeks, Mister Potter," the Fat Lady scolded as Harry tried to enter the Gryffindor common room.

"Excuse me?" Harry asked, confused. "Two weeks since what?"

"You have yet to even _attempt_ to speak to Hogwarts," the older woman sniffed, looking frighteningly like Molly Weasley when angry.

Harry shifted nervously and looked at his feet in shame. "I ... er, had forgotten about that," he explained.

"She is getting most insistent that you attempt to. Perhaps you could try some time tonight?" She asked, sounding far more like a demand. Hermione had that tone when she asked Harry if he was studying. Perhaps it was something in the female genetics?

"I'll, er, try that, Ma'am," Harry said, uncomfortable by the woman's stare. Honestly! She was a painting! "I promise I will..."

"I'm glad to hear it," the Fat Lady said, finally opening the door and allowing Harry to rush through before the woman changed her mind.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – September 24, After Dinner**

Hermione's eyes darted about, looking for the ever-elusive Madam Pince. Her back was to the book shelves and her personal grimoire and the scroll for combining books was in one hand and her wand in the other for quick and immediate copying.

Seeing the librarian talking to a Ravenclaw, Hermione spun and darted between bookshelves, ensuring no one saw her as best she could and made it to the back of the library where some of the older and more obscure books were hidden.

As she arrived, she giggled like a woman not totally right in the head. "You, my pretties, shall soon become a part of my collection."

"Miss Granger?"

"ACK!" Hermione spun and saw the stern features of Madam Pince looking at her critically. "M-M-Madam Pince! Hello!" She exclaimed, looking decidedly nervous and as if her hand were caught in a cookie jar.

"What 'collection' were you planning on adding these books to?" The elderly librarian had known enough students to have something of a sixth sense when it came to nefarious actions within her library. If she liked the child, she had a tendency to turn a blind eye, but when those that knew the rules and generally followed them acted like a common burglar, and badly at that, then she took notice.

Hermione gulped and was suddenly unable to come up with a good lie. "Harry gave me a bunch of spells to take care of books, restore them to perfect condition, protect them from water or bugs and make a copy that can be added to my own book so it _doesn't_ harm the original and I have it in my own collection," she rushed out, holding the scroll up as an idea came to her. Never let it be said that Hermione Granger wasn't an intelligent woman! "And I'm willing to share the book care spells if I can have your permission to copy any of the books."

Madam Pince's eyes widened as she heard of the book-care spells. Such spells would be the envy of every library in the world! She reached forward to grab the scroll and see for her own eyes, but it was cruelly snatched from her grasp.

"Uh, uh, uh," Hermione tutted. "Do we have an accord? I share the spells, and you pony up the goods."

Madam Pince looked into the eyes of Hermione the Horrible, as she decided to begin calling her, and knew she was making a deal with the literary devil. "As long as you're sincere in those spells. But I can't let you copy the Restricted Section. Students aren't allowed to read from there."

Hermione grinned. "I wouldn't be reading. I'd be copying and reading from my own, personal book. But you can't share these spells with anyone or write them down."

"Then we have an accord, my dear."

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – Yes. That was Pirate Hermione!

Time line: Starts Sept 12, Sunday. Pranks and first two classes are Wednesday, Luna is pranked on the eighteenth and then the Remus scene is Monday, the twentieth.

Again, Soul Mates will be explained in a few chapters and I ask that you give me time to explain that. I've hinted at it (more than one or two lines,) but haven't explained it outright to most of you. That was deliberate.


	12. Calm Before the Storm

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter11** – Calm Before the Storm

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Language, Suggestive material (see A/N for details.) This is likely to be the only time it is in the story.

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Suggestive Material**: In this chapter, Hermione goes through Harry's mind and looks at dreams/fantasies focusing on her after he sees something in her own mind (turnabout and fair play and all that.) The material is NOT explicit, but quite suggestive. **_Nothing_** is shown, but it suggests things happening. Worse is shown in movies that are deemed suitable for young teens.

**This story will not have sex.** This story, while being a little more mature and risqué, is not expected to have sex. Will it happen at ALL? Possible. But NOT during this school year, I can promise that (though, dreams/fantasies/thoughts WILL happen). Nudity will occur. It already has. But other than similar situations, cuddling and maybe kissing, I don't plan on writing anything naughty in this. If it DOES happen, it will NOT be graphic or on-screen. There will be other stories for that (Check out my other story, "Darkened Paths" if you want that.) I want this story to remain pretty tame on the naughties.

**Review Reply** to Orca1967 who asked about three things (possible mistakes, one of which WAS a mistake on my part.) I should probably mention this to everyone anyway, so here you go. These are the points given (in bold), followed by my response. This is why I LOVE constructive criticism. You guys can catch things I don't. Thank you.

**In chapter 10, you had McGonagall talk about the blood wards and what they did. But you didn't have Harry confront her on the fact that what she said was wrong [compared to what Lora, the death angel, said]. In the very first chapter of this story it was pointed out that the blood wards only protected Harry from being possessed. **

In chapter one, Lora tells Harry the protections on himself (the power used against Quirrell) was all but exhausted and would take years to gain that kind of strength back. All that was left were the wards, which kept him from getting possessed. However, the other wards (as far as McGonagall knows) were still in existence. Protection against those magical forms of scrying/searching for him. McGonagall is telling Harry what she knows, which is what Dumbledore told her. Dumbledore added his OWN wards. As such, she knows he was protected from those harmful owl posts (and saw the evidence of that.) Beyond that? You'll learn in an eventual (not too far from now) confrontation with Harry and Albus.

**There's also the fact that she said only Dumbledore could get past them to the Dursley home. Then how do you account for Fred, George and Ron saving him before second year. **

The wards in place are like any others. You can be keyed in. Dumbledore, with Harry befriending some of his most ardent supporters, will have given access rights to all of the Weasleys and various faculty and people he, himself, trusts or thinks he can't keep Harry from (like Remus, Sirius, Hermione, etc). There is no way of knowing who he'll need to allow access. And the wards that exist to protect him, like those owl redirection wards? Who says those are the blood wards? Dumbledore has NEVER struck me as the type of man to tell a person all of the story if he doesn't feel he needs to (and we know Canon!Albus didn't, at ALL). And not telling McGonagall everything means she can't divulge everything. As far as she, or anyone who may capture her for information finds out, knows is that he is fully protected by those blood wards.

**[Edited for length] Harry mentioned "rings" plural, rather than "ring" singular, regarding his family rings. Why didn't the girls catch that? Also, why hasn't anyone noticed the bracelets?**

Yes, Harry did say "rings". No one else knows he is more than simply a Potter but Harry, Gringotts and Lora, thus far, though some know he is a Gryffindor heir like Albus. And when I wrote that, I wrote it as the girls assuming he meant family rings in general except where he admitted to heading others vaguely. That is a small detail that not everyone will catch. Most of the time I'm talking with someone, I don't always catch those tiny slips, or I may catch it, but not really think much about it and pay attention to the continuing speeches or the topic rather than the words used. I only catch things like that when I'm looking for key words or lies. With friends? Almost never, ESPECIALLY if we're discussing something serious unless I'm suspicious or curious about what they may be hiding and looking for clues like that (particularly when caught in the middle of something and trying to find the truth.)

**As for the bracelets,** I will be honest and say that I just hadn't let the characters notice it. I looked back to see that it was actually a tiny plot hole. I didn't WANT anyone to notice them, but I didn't write in the solution for that. I was stuck between two options and forgot about it. I will correct that this chapter with a slight change, but so it is said, I meant to have Harry cast a disillusionment charm on them before going back to Hogwarts so they just wouldn't be seen, though I totally forgot about people feeling them (Luna in bed with Harry or Hermione grabbing his wrist and the like, even if she already knew about them). Sorry about that.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Return of the Elemental" by Flyin Eagle (H/Hr – Complete)

**xXx Previously xXx**

"_We can discuss unhappy laws later," Luna said with an airy wave of her hand. "Let's talk about Transfiguration instead, shall we? I want to make a monkey out of my socks."_

_[Edit]_

_Luna let out a joyous squee and hopped out of her seat to whack Hermione one good one right on her bum, followed by a second as the brunette laughed and tried to escape. "One nargle, two nargles, three nargles..." Luna counted._

_[Edit]_

"_Uh, uh, uh," Hermione tutted. "Do we have an accord? I share the spells, and you pony up the goods."_

_Madam Pince looked into the eyes of Hermione the Horrible, as she decided to begin calling her, and knew she was making a deal with the literary devil._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Tuesday – September 28, 05:30**

Hermione woke up, uncurling the sleeping blonde's arms that had encircled her throughout the night, and let Luna remain asleep in her bed while she got up. Quickly, the shambling brunette went through her morning rituals, relieving herself, showering and getting dressed. Once finished, she gathered her school bag and then made sure all of the other girls were sleeping soundly before rushing into the hallway and turning time back two hours before dashing down into the common room where Harry would have just left for his morning exercises. She never wanted to remain long in the place she turned time, constantly worried about creating a paradox because of it.

Since her first full week at Hogwarts, this had been a major part of her schedule. She would wake up and do what she needed before turning back time and then going where her 'past' self would not be until after she turned time backwards, thus ensuring she would not have to worry about crossing paths with herself. Hermione did her best to give herself two extra hours in the morning to work on her homework and study where no one would ever question her dual presence and an hour after dinner to work on her mind magic in the dustiest corner of Hogwarts she could find to keep herself far from anyone who may realize there were more than one of her.

Then, every Wednesday she was forced to go backwards in time two hours for two classes rather than just the single hour each class demanded because she would constantly be late since, as she went back after one class was over, it would be after the other had started and her time-turner didn't have minute increments, only hours. And finally, she gave herself two hours of time for research on days she didn't have classes that required time-looping.

That meant anywhere from five to upwards of eleven extra hours on days when two of her overlapping classes were double-length. It was really playing havoc with her sleeping schedule and she was having trouble controlling her magic. It wasn't that her magic was running wild and acting independently of her, but when she tried to pull it from her core and mold it into her spells, they would sometimes be ... wobbly, was really the only word she could think of. Perhaps jerky. It was like it was trying to stretch out like a gas would and she had to really concentrate on some of the things she had been casting occasionally.

Not to mention the apparently very odd conversations she had with Luna when she didn't fully wake up that the blonde shared with her. She _still_ had to keep the excitable girl from trying to give Hermione her panties. It wasn't that Hermione wasn't flattered, honestly it wasn't, she just didn't know how to tell the younger witch that she wasn't nearly as obsessed with Luna's underwear as her sleepy self appeared to be.

Were she able to be concerned with more than what she was already dealing with, she would greatly question why her sleepy self kept bringing them up.

And why always with Luna.

Hermione pulled out her new grimoire, happy that Harry had copied several of the assimilated volumes from his own that he had been carting around, rather smugly she thought, and allowed her to absorb it. While the false version wouldn't have survived for long, only about an hour for her she had come to find out, once added to her grimoire, it was quite permanent she was happy to note. So she now had a portion of his own shared with hers, including the section on mind magics.

She was very thankful Harry had been so boyishly dense and gave her an easy out with her odd needs for solitude, associating her daily trips to the loo as just a time of day she had to go. Though, perhaps he wasn't _quite_ that dense since he seemed surprised she had made it to their shared class before he did when he didn't have to make a stop on the way. And went straight to the classroom. Thankfully, he always seemed to want to talk about something or other when something like that came up.

Had she not been so relieved during those fragile moments, she may have caught how odd that, along with how he never questioned the shared classes between her and Ron that occurred at the same time, seemed. But those moments where she had no idea of how to answer his questions without risking the trust in their friendship by collapsing lies and any free time she may have had was so filled with extra work that she had no time to really think about it, only be thankful for it all.

She hated lying to her friends like this, though. _Hated_ it! Harry and Ron were her first true friends. Lying to them like this was just horrible! She had _never_ lied until she met those two. Now, she felt like it was second nature to her and she hated that McGonagall was forcing her to do this. Of course, she was still a bad liar, but she was getting better at it.

After all, she had a massive trial by fire with her dorm mates their first weekend at the castle. Hermione had been very tired, having used a large amount of magic when Harry gave her her first lesson on the Patronus. Apparently, from their perspective, it had been a very suggestive series of events with Harry whispering sweetly into her ear that seemed to cause a blush, followed by a lengthy hug that their romance-obsessed minds saw as far more than it really was.

The little vultures got her as soon as she entered their dorm room!

Hermione stifled a yawn from the near-constant lethargy she found herself under and buckled down on her homework. She had been falling behind the past few days since her birthday after copying several books into her personal grimoire and in an attempt to find information on some of the laws Harry and Luna had mentioned in the library, along with the various topics Harry had brought up that she didn't know and her school work had been suffering because of it.

She would have to thank Harry later for asking Ron to play chess or talk Quidditch whenever he asked about their coursework when she realized that he always did it when Ron began to ask questions.

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – September 28, After Dinner**

Ron stared at the scrolls in his hands with his mind running furiously as he tried to understand Hermione. It was only a few days to the end of September and a good many assignments given throughout the month were soon due. Naturally, he hadn't so much as thought about them until the end of the week after Hermione's birthday when the teachers reminded their pupils that they would be wanting the completed essays finished.

His first stop, of course, was Hermione. He knew of no one smarter, except maybe Percy but there was no point in asking _that_ git for help, than the brown-eyed girl. After he had asked for help with his Potions essay, she had grabbed the empty scrolls from his hands, the only text being the title, essay assignment and his name, and written the essays for him for each of the assignments he had at the time, Potions, Charms, Herbology and Transfiguration, knowing he would soon approach her for those as well as was his habit.

She just sighed, slumped her shoulders and took them, doing the work without a word of complaint or even a glare for not doing it himself.

It wasn't natural. There was always a good ten or fifteen minutes of arguing and petty name-calling, asking Harry whose side he was on, then complaining when he told Ron to do at least part and ask their friend what he needed to work on more thoroughly, and then a compromise where Hermione wrote an outline for things he had to write about in his own words and then rewriting the Ron-written project to correct for spelling, grammar, punctuation and full-out incorrect information and making him do it all again.

She just ... wrote.

It wasn't that Ron wasn't glad to have the work done, even happy that she had thought ahead and only barely did the required amount so he could copy it in his own handwriting and adding in nothing extra like with her own work, or lately Harry's. No, he was ... confused. And he had this really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Like there was this cold rock in his belly that didn't want anything to do with the essays, and he didn't understand what it meant. That cold rock was telling him to destroy the essays, and he knew that some Slytherin had hexed him, as that was really the only explanation.

But he didn't even care, as odd as that was.

Something was wrong with Hermione. She would have to be healed if she were to help him plan vengeance against the Snakes. And once he got some hits in, he wouldn't have to feel bad about this and everything would be how it was meant to be. Harry would agree with him, at some level anyway, and Hermione would basically do his work for him, and he could do whatever struck his fancy.

Knowing he was hexed, and suspecting it was during Harry's last school wide lesson but not knowing for sure, Ron put the essays in his trunk to copy later, '_no point in letting good essays go to waste'_, and went downstairs to the common room where Harry and Luna were sitting and talking over some big book with animals in it while Hermione was hunkering over several books and scrolls in one of the large chairs where people knew to not bother her.

_'Poor bloke,'_ Ron thought to himself as he approached his best mate. _'I wonder what Hermione got on him to force him to study more. Whatever it was, it had to be really bad. Maybe she got a picture of him naked or somethin'?'_ He mentally smiled as he considered the possibilities for something like that. He knew he wasn't nearly as smart as any of his brothers, academically. He had seen some of the twins' pranks and knew they revolved mostly around potions. And the others weren't even in the same league, being so far advanced as a dragon tamer and curse breaker. Even Percy seemed to be headed for a Ministry job. But Ron was sure he could perform some wonderful pranks with nudie shots of _the_ Harry Potter.

Or at least make a lot of money.

_'Something to think about later,'_ the redhead thought as he slumped down into the couch next to Harry, furthest from the weird blonde girl, and made sure Hermione wasn't watching them. "Harry mate, I'm worried about Hermione," he muttered quietly enough so the stressed brunette that chose just that moment to growl at her paper and scribble something furiously wouldn't overhear him.

"Us too," Luna responded before Harry could. A small part of her realized this was one of the few times the boy had approached them without plans for his Quidditch club to discuss with Harry or because everyone else was busy. At least of his own volition. The rest of her was focused more on the somewhat cranky friend who was scratching out part of the Runes assignment she had placed on her Arithmancy essay. "She's been becoming more irritable and ...-"

"-Grouchy," both boys finished for her, quietly.

"Buggering, bollocking, piece of, grrr," Hermione muttered, unaware of the three pairs of eyes on her.

Luna nodded in agreement. "Well, yes. That too, but I was going to say 'scary'."

"I've been sayin' that one for two years," Ron grumbled in annoyance. "But still, what d'you figure it is? You think she was hexed or something? I mean, she ... er, _helped_ me with my homework and didn't even say nothin'. She just ... helped."

Luna discreetly rolled her eyes since she knew exactly what that 'help' had entailed, but said nothing so as not to cause a disturbance, no matter how wrong she felt it was. She had no problems with truly helping a friend, but leeching from someone when they were obviously overworked and stressed out was just wrong. Especially when that someone was her friend. "Something is different about her, but she is not under any hexes. She just seems to always be tired. She even quotes her essays and spells in her sleep." Luna felt, given Hermione's strange habits of not wanting to discuss underwear during the day, that she wouldn't bring up how she usually seemed to pretend that Harry was with Luna and asking their opinions on how she looked in her various knickers.

It was kind of amusing to bring it up just to watch her eyes go buggy and to see her jabber unintelligibly, though. It always made Luna smile...

Ron looked at Luna, plainly horrified. "How'd you figure _that_ out?"

Harry noticed Luna's eyebrows bunch slightly as she tried thinking of a way to answer him without admitting to sleeping in the same bed as Hermione, since the brunette seemed averse to anyone knowing Luna was sleeping in the Gryffindor tower, and decided to change their focus. "We'll give her a little time and see if she gets better. If not, then we can talk to her about it. She's a smart girl and knows how to take care of herself." In his mind, he continued, _'at least I hope so.'_ In his memories, Hermione hadn't become this stressed out until the middle of November. Or at least, he hadn't noticed anything until then. He wasn't sure if it was him being a bad friend to her, or if it was that she was getting worse faster, but he wasn't happy with this particular change.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – September 29, 5:20**

"Mister Potter!" The Fat Lady screeched as he left the Gryffindor common room for his morning workout.

"What?" Harry asked indignantly, spinning in shock to the angry portrait, half expecting to see Molly Weasley. It was far too early for howling, angry women. Even if they _were_ only a portrait.

"This is the last time I shall tell you to try and speak to Hogwarts! I won't even allow you back into your common room if you don't! You promised you'd do so the other day and you didn't!"

Harry winced. "I'll do that before I even start my workout. I'm heading there now," he said, hoping to appease the angry woman.

No such luck.

"You had better," she grumbled. "I will know if you don't and this is not some idle threat. You will find yourself sleeping in the halls or the loo; I don't care _who_ you are heir of! Now get along!"

Harry's face betrayed the horror at the thought of having to sleep on the floor of a boy's bathroom. There was a high doubt that even a vanishing charm could really remove certain ... messes.

Looking green around the gills, Harry scurried to the Room of Requirement and began pacing back and forth frantically. _'I need a place to speak to Hogwarts. I really, really need a place to speak to Hogwarts!'_

The room he stepped into was roughly the size of the Great Hall and had nothing in it except for a large sphere in the center that was twelve feet tall and shiny like a giant, liquid gold marble. It reflected the torches and stones on the walls, but did not seem to reflect Harry himself.

Warily, Harry walked to the giant ball and looked at it carefully. "Are you Hogwarts?" He asked, watching as the section of the sphere directly across from his mouth rippled gently like a pebble thrown in a pond.

"**Yes."** A very loud voice responded as ripples on the sphere spread out, much larger and faster than when Harry spoke. It sounded female in nature and echoed heavily in the room, making Harry feel the speech reverberate within himself. It was odd, he thought, as his own voice didn't echo.

The voice also sounded frighteningly weak, as if its speaker was exhausted.

"I, er, was told you wanted to speak to me?" Harry hedged, wondering what to expect. He had thought there would be some human-like thing he could talk to, but he hadn't expected ... this.

"**Yes, Father,"** the sphere spoke again, making Harry blush.

"What about?" Harry asked, hoping to ignore the 'father' comment. There was nothing, _nothing_, that could prepare him to become a father at thirteen, no matter _how_ old he was mentally!

Though, seeing Hermione and Luna's reactions to the news that he was one could have been somewhat interesting...

"**It is your place to command my defenses. To protect me and those inside of me. I know what you know, Father. I do not wish to allow the Death Eaters to violate me as they did in your memories,"** Hogwarts said, sounding something like an actual frightened child. It was more than a little disconcerting. Especially with the way she finished her statement.

"You don't need to worry about that," Harry said warmly, to his own surprise. Very strange trying to comfort a castle. "I am hoping to make sure that never happens again. I'm actually removing the devices that were used to make that happen soon." Mentally, he winced. _'At least, I am now that I thought about it. Maybe the cabinet thing can help that John guy from the alley with those portal things for the trunks.'_

"**Thank you,"** the voice said, speaking more quietly than before. It was almost like a whisper, even though it was still just as powerful and loud.

Harry shivered as he felt a warmth surround him and squeeze gently, feeling extraordinarily like one of the hugs he got from Luna or Hermione. The next moment, he felt a pressure on his chest that seemed to seep in and into some part of him that was far deeper than his chest should actually have gone as the spirit of Hogwarts bonded herself to his magic so she was always connected to him before mostly pulling her essence out. As the feeling abated, Harry had to ask the questions running through his mind, unsure of exactly what had happened and not really paying enough attention to worry about the weird feeling tingling in his chest for now. "How do you exist? I mean, did the Founders make you have a mind?" He asked, feeling a strange sense of confusion somewhere within himself that wasn't his own.

"**I learn what is known from those who step within me. All books, all devices which hold memories and all knowledge within the people. I am not sure when I was, or how, but I became me. I continue to grow as I exist,"** Hogwarts said, sounding as though this was some form of rite.

"What do you mean, 'became you'?" Harry asked.

"**'I think, therefore I am'. A student long ago knew that knowledge and I have grown from it. I am unsure of who decided or when I became female, but since I am always referred to as such, I must, then, be female, just as I am therefore your daughter."**

Harry blushed again. "Well, uh, I've never been a dad before," he said with a strange expression on his face. "But I'll do my best. So, you just kind of grew?"

"**I was not created, but born,"** Hogwarts explained. **"I am not sure of what or how, but you must somehow be my father. I believe you may have chosen Hermione as my mother. But as you have not yet procreated, I am unsure of how that happened, though I suppose it could be some form of time-travel I am not yet aware of, as you are not yet aware of it."**

Harry squeaked as visions of a smiling and very naked Hermione popped into his hormone-driven mind as Hogwarts spoke of them 'procreating'. From the sound of ... his daughter, he would have thought she was more Luna than Hermione.

Still though, he thought he had an idea of the basics of what may have happened. In the muggle word, his cousin Dudley enjoyed playing video games where the enemies had artificial intelligence and could adapt as they fought you, moving this way instead of that or using different weapons.

Hogwarts' wards were much like that. There were several that activated under certain conditions, such as keeping out undead creatures, as none of them would ever be seen as needed within a school of children, though that posed the question of how the dementors got in. Then there were also the wards that could be activated to lock the school down to keep invaders out. And all of the wards could be activated manually for one thing or another.

The difference between a game's artificial intelligence and that of Hogwarts, however, was that a game's was set to do something specific and grow a certain way and there were always reset points. Hogwarts, it seemed, came about after a thousand years of altering, adding and upgrading wards and the ambient magical energies of thousands of magicals roaming through her halls. Literally billions of spells being cast within that time and a room that had been created to absorb knowledge so it would never be lost as long as Hogwarts stood and be whatever its creator needed. So, it was as though the magic had latched onto the realization that all of the previous headmasters, faculty and students thought of the castle as a safe haven that was meant to store and teach knowledge and protect the students within it and, like boats or cars, was generally referred to as female.

It would take a long time to prove, if he ever could, but Harry felt that what he was speaking to was a sentience that came into being over the last millennia based on everything that was attached to it in some way and its original purpose, along with the hormonal urges of hundreds of thousands of students of its thousand-year existence that was geared towards baby-making and thus, the creation of life.

Was it really so surprising a life was eventually created?

The Founders crafted Hogwarts as their final baby. Their final child after their own had grown and gone and it was meant to protect the students within.

And she had developed, much like a child, and was still in her infancy or early years, mentally speaking. She was dependent on Harry since she could not take over control over things that she was never meant to, so she needed her daddy to do it. She needed Harry to help protect her and those she was meant to protect.

Though her own thoughts that it could be some weird form of time-travel were certainly interesting, too...

"Um, I don't know about that," he said, feeling very embarrassed to be talking about naughty things with anyone, really, but the castle especially, "but you're here now, so it doesn't matter. So, since you're here, what do you want me to do?"

"**I needed you to come to me so you could help me grow and take control of my defenses. They will obey you at your request, but only if you can speak to something that can manipulate them such as the gargoyle to the Headmaster's office or the entrances to the common rooms. Now that you are connected to me, we can speak and you can give me the orders so I can do what is needed to activate them as you choose once you learn to speak to me through that connection."**

"Connected?" Harry asked. "How did we connect?"

"**I connected to you,"** Hogwarts stated simply. She had never before bonded to anyone like she was now with Harry because none of the other Headmasters held the same rights over her as he did. They connected to her wards and defenses, but never to her, specifically. So she really didn't know how else to explain it other than blunt and brutal honesty the likes of which only a child could really employ. **"You are my father. It is only natural for you to tell me when I am to do something as any parent to any child. It will take time to do so when you are not where I am, but I know you will not abandon me."**

Harry felt oddly guilty and ashamed at that moment, unsure of why or how. But at the same time, he felt like this may be some actual being, even if not like him, Hermione, Luna or even the git Draco. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he knew she could feel. He knew that the school itself was of her body, the students of her blood and this sphere of her essence or soul. He was never really one who delved too much into philosophy, but he felt that if Voldemort could still exist without a body, and Peeves could come into being without ever even having one, why couldn't another life be created without one in the first place?

"No," Harry said, thinking of the school, of Luna, of Hermione's notebook of dreams and goals for the wizarding world and of what he was sent back to do, "I won't abandon you. Will Dumbledore still be able to control the wards?"

"**He can until you say otherwise. He cannot do anything to impede you, however."**

Harry nodded. "Thank you. Are you able to conjure a body and roam around? Or are you stuck as the castle?" Harry watched as a ripple started out at the edges of the sphere and rushed to the center in front of him, giving Harry the odd sensation that Hogwarts just blinked in surprise.

"**I have never attempted to do that. I will try to learn how to do so. I know I will be able to control a form in this room, but it would be much like a marionette. It would be a puppet. Not me. But that could be fun. I will try to learn,"** Hogwarts said, sounding enthusiastic and the large sphere began to bounce up and down slightly.

_'Definitely reminds me of Luna,'_ Harry thought. "I see. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about right now?"

"**No. I just wanted you to know me,"** the voice said, sounding something like a child again, even with the big, booming voice. Her tone sounded shy and hesitant, making Harry almost sure he saw her mentally scuffing a toe to the ground. It was going to take a _lot_ of getting used to, Harry decided. If he didn't know better, which he wasn't sure he did, then he would have said the voice sounded curious and hopeful.

"Well, I'm glad to have met you. I'll try and learn to speak to you without coming here. That's what you meant by connecting, right?" Getting an affirmative, the green-eyed boy left to recall the Room of Requirement as his training room, wondering at the idea of being a dad at thirteen.

He could never allow Daniel Granger to learn of this!

xXxXxXx

**Friday – October 1, 21:20**

"Harry, I was wondering," Hermione asked Friday night as Ron took the essays she had written several days before to a corner to rewrite in his own hand. Harry had suggested not forcing the redhead into doing his work in hopes that Ron would take more initiative by learning a lesson. However, he had procrastinated so long that he was now a full day into October and late in turning them in and was finally buckling down and getting them done.

The teachers were nearly in a fight over who got to give him detention first. Snape, the dirty fighter that he was and still smarting over Harry's wriggling out of detention, had won and planned on making the son of his school nemesis suffer by making his best friend suffer.

Hermione didn't have to correct Ron's work, since he was basically just rewriting what she had written in his own handwriting and found herself with an odd night of freedom from her schoolwork or intellectual debates with Luna since the blonde Ravenclaw was using some of the books from her own common room library for reference material and wasn't allowed to bring it to the Gryffindor's abode, regardless of how friendly they were with her. There were some things she knew even Harry Potter couldn't allow her to get away with, and that was certainly one of them. So the quirky girl was doing her work in her own common room. "How long do you think until my own mental defenses are strong enough for what you were wanting to tell me?" She allowed herself a big yawn as she waited, laying back into a large pillow she transfigured out of one of her shoes. The other shoe was currently being used as a book stand.

Harry blinked as he put his Charms essay down. He had actually thought they were basically done with trying to get into each others' heads for a little while since they couldn't test his without taking her off the allow lists, and in all honesty, he hadn't thought that her own defenses would be all that different. "I don't know. We can try if you want."

Hermione nodded. "I think I've got my walls and the like nice and strong. But I haven't tried them yet. I also added some stuff after seeing your mindscape."

"And you're okay with whatever I may see? I mean, you don't want to see if Luna can do this since she said she knew how to or something?" Harry asked delicately, unsure of what he would see or what may happen while in her head. If he were honest with himself, he was actually quite scared after Luna's somewhat ominous proclamations.

Interested, too, but still scared.

He was worried he would find her interested in someone other than himself. Harry wasn't sure if it was always there, or if it was the soul mate thing, but he was constantly looking forward to the day he could call her his girlfriend. A part of him still didn't want to be alone, but mostly, it was that he was so astounded to realize that Hermione really _was_ a wonderful girl.

He was also angry with himself that he hadn't pursued her before basically being told to. After so much time being told that Potter men loved redheads and being pushed towards Ginny, and honestly believing they would end up together, he was somewhat amazed by how ... _natural_ the idea of Hermione as something far more than friend truly was. They got along so well he couldn't understand why he was so oblivious to it the first few times through. Hell, even _Luna_ had heard more of his life story and darkest fears than Hermione had until they were stuck in a small living space together. Ginny didn't know him at all. Ever. Heck, he had even had a stronger relationship with Luna than with Ginny, even though they weren't a couple! The only reason Ginny had been in a higher place than Luna as his friend was because he had snogged Ginny.

"I trust you, Harry," Hermione said with a tired smile. "I like Luna and think she's a great friend, but you are my _best_ friend. I don't think there's anything in there I don't mind you seeing, especially since you were willing to let me poke about in your head, too."

Harry nodded, feeling somewhat better. "Alright. Get comfortable and let me know when you're ready."

"Okay. I'm ready. Keep going until you think you find something I don't want you to see or if you think we should stop. I want to try and force you out like you were letting me," she told him, taking a deep breath and then nodding at him.

Seconds later, she nodded at him. "Legilimens," he incanted, looking into her brown eyes.

It was strange, Harry decided immediately, but not totally unknown to him as he felt himself rush forward from his own mind into that of Hermione's. It was actually eerily similar to when he remembered entering Voldemort's mind, only minus all of the pain and anguish.

Until he found himself freezing his danglies off in what felt and looked like an arctic tundra.

"_Bloody hell this is cold!" Harry yelled out to anyone who could be listening as he wrapped his arms around himself and spun in a half circle, turning to face a huge monolithic building that gleamed brightly as light shone off of the ice covering it._

_Harry ran forward and thrust out his hand, pushing his will forward and splintering the wall. Growling as the wall cracked and splintered but didn't open, he did it a second time to make the crack large enough to slip through and shivered as the cold was removed from him, only to be replaced by a heavy weight that seemed to hold him down. It was interestingly like what he imagined swimming in a pool filled with pudding would feel like._

_Something he had never considered before meeting Luna._

_Perhaps it was somewhat unfair to Hermione for her to be defending herself against Harry for her first time. The boy had developed a natural form of mind-magic control as he fought to keep himself separate from the soul fragment in his head from near-infancy and during the various mental assaults by Voldemort, but neither Harry or Hermione were aware of that developed talent. Harry was never one who could defend and not take an assault head-on. That was where that natural talent came from. It was also a direct cause of his battle prowess. Defending against the soul fragment had gifted the boy with a natural fighting talent. _

_That was also why Snape's method of occlumency training was such a failure. He was teaching Harry to fight off any mental probes while Harry had no idea what he was doing and thought he was supposed to create some kind of mental barrier. He had just tried letting the defenses come as if by magic, which was exactly the _wrong_ thing to do, regardless of what Snape tried to tell him about it happening that way. So, he was never able to handle those 'remedial potions lessons' other than the one time he fought the man's probe off, doing what was natural to him. But then, that was also why he had to develop a mental defense. Snape's usual methods, or Dumbledore's, was too subtle for him to recognize and defend against while Voldemort tended to make it as painful as possible to keep Harry from any defense. So, Harry going into Hermione's mind was actually using skills he was subconsciously adept at using, making the whole activity lean in his favor. Severely. _

_Harry wasn't really thinking about fair, however. He was simply happy it was warm inside of the building as he shook his arms to clear off the ice that had frozen his arm hairs and pinched his nose for ... much the same reason ..._

_Then his eyes widened and he yelped in shock as what looked like a horrific ghost rushed forward with an even more horrifying wail and rushed through him, applying pressure as it tried to drag him back through the opening where the icy wind was causing a screeching sound._

"_Oh hell no! It's freezing out there you bloody spook!" Harry exclaimed and pushed forward, fighting against the spirit-like thing even as it began to get colder and emulated the cold from moments before, weakening his concentration just as it had outside. Knowing he had to fight it, Harry grabbed it by its creepy neck and threw it aside and into the wall, making a disgusting 'splat' sound as it lost its shape and formed a glowing puddle on the ground._

"_Oh that's just gross," he said, crinkling his nose as he looked away and tried to make heads or tails of the place he found himself in. It was like a giant hallway that split into three different directions several feet down._

_It caused an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach as he got to the end of the hall and realized he was in a large maze. And for whatever reason, his brunette friend seemed to have a strange fixation on cold, which only made things worse as the cold air mixed with warm stone and left a thick fog on the ground, possibly hiding any traps that lay about._

"_Hermione is a bloody scary girl," he muttered to himself, stepping slowly. The idea of falling into spike traps had him moving very slowly indeed._

xXxXxXx

_While Harry was moving about, Hermione was in a place she had not actually been in before, leaving her somewhat confused and unsure of how to respond to Harry's advances. She was aware of his exact position within her and exactly how he was moving inside and what he was doing. When he had broken through her barrier, the wall of the monolith, she had felt the destruction and, while it didn't hurt aside from a strong stinging sensation as he punched through, she was aware that she was somehow no longer complete. Well, not her, herself, but her mental wall._

_Her first instinct had been to cry out and tell him to try to be more gentle, but instead, she released one of her wraiths to try and push him back out, but he just pushed right back, slowly gaining ground. She had received the idea from seeing the various guards within Harry's mind, but she hadn't anticipated having to fight through the wraith's actions. She also hadn't anticipated just how ineffective she would be at it. She was winning in the beginning, but then he fought back and she was quickly overpowered!_

_She also naturally had a defense that was supposed to keep intruders feeling heavy and the air was supposed to be so much thicker, for lack of a better term, that he shouldn't have been able to move nearly as fast as he was. He was almost moving naturally! _

_And after he made his way to the fourth hallway where he came across one of her first bait memories, where the memories themselves were mostly meaningless and totally harmless, she lost the strength to fight him or his exploration throughout her._

_It was suddenly quite obvious to her that she was simply too tired to keep him out of her mind. She had been exhausting herself while working on so many classes and extra learning that her mind was simply too weak to really defend with, while his was all but completely fresh._

_And he touched her memories with a feather-light touch, all but a gentle caress, and she was lost to his explorations, letting him explore and move forward freely, unable to deny him._

xXxXxXx

_Harry smiled warmly as he found a floating, pale blue orb that he touched gently and then watched a two-year old Hermione reading a book upside down next to her parents as she sat beside them while they read their own. The amusing aspect was that it was one of their dentistry manuals and didn't really have many pictures other than of teeth, but she was telling them a story based on them._

_He chuckled as he left the floating orbs of memories and walked down the halls again, curious about the various statues of minotaurs and other ghost-like things like what he fought before at nearly every corner. Had Hermione been fully rested, each one would have been set to capture him. But she wasn't. And they didn't._

_As he walked, he began to move more efficiently, feeling less resistance and finding more memories of her childhood. He had seen her learning to ride her first bike and a large number of simple primary school days that made him realize just how alone Hermione had really been in her life in a way that hearing it from her in the tent while they slept together for warmth simply didn't get across. He always knew it wasn't quite the same as himself, but she really had been just as lonely and had wished for friends like he did._

"_I don't understand," he mumbled to himself as he came to another dead end. "Why haven't I seen any stairs or ramps or something? This thing was huge on the outside."_

_It didn't take long for him to come up with a solution. "Well, if _I_ can do it, then the others could, too. May as well try it." With a frown, Harry looked upwards to the ceiling and raised his hands, palms facing upwards and pushed. He wasn't really sure what it was, but he knew his body wasn't really here, so his reach wasn't, either. It had certainly worked on the outside wall. And whatever it was that actually made his body here reached forward and the ceiling gave in, pushing upwards and opening into a new level._

_Harry jumped and he felt the floor above him pull as if it had its own gravity, bringing him the rest of the way in and letting him hit the ceiling of the next floor with a grunt. _

_He blinked owlishly as he realized the hole he made was now in the ceiling again, meaning he was either upside down compared to his previous location, or he was simply tricked into believing he had changed levels. It was as though every other level was upside down so floors and ceilings met._

"_That's just weird," he muttered, deciding to see if he could find any memories that were either new or the same he had seen to find out if it was a different floor or not._

xXxXxXx

_Hermione couldn't believe what she was feeling! Harry had found a way to get through her various levels and whatever he did let him past through more than a single level at a time, letting him get to some of her medium-important memories!_

_That wasn't supposed to happen! Each floor was separate from the others! There was no way to them without passing through each of the halls in the right sequences and with the right timing! The inside of the monolith was like a three-dimensional maze with each floor being twisted and turned to keep things as complex as possible to prevent something like what Harry had just done, but it apparently didn't work._

'Oh no!'_ Hermione thought frantically. '_Not that one!'

xXxXxXx

_Harry couldn't hear Hermione's frantic thoughts as he approached a vibrant sphere that held a pinkish hue. The others had, up to this point, been blue, making this one stand out. "Oooo," he said happily. "This is new."_

_He approached with a smile and gently touched his palm to the orb, taking in the scene within._

"Hermione," Emma Granger asked, knocking on her daughter's door and popping her head through.

"Yea, Mum?" Hermione asked, putting her bathing suit into the hamper for cleaning that night. She had just come home from swimming with Harry and her parents at Potter Manor and still had a large, goofy grin on her face as she tightened the belt of her robe. It had been guys versus girls in water volleyball, and the girls had stomped them silly!

Emma came in and sat on Hermione's bed, gesturing for the young witch to sit across from her. "I sent your father away for a few hours so you and I could have a chat about boys, hormones and sex," she said without preamble.

"Mum!" Hermione exclaimed as she palmed her forehead. "I really don't need to hear this!"

"Oh, don't give me that, young lady," Emma scolded with a small grin. "You and I both know this conversation is long overdue. Especially with you and Harry spending so much time together and you spending so much time at school where we can't really have this conversation properly."

"But I've already read up on all of this and know how it works," Hermione said with a huff and an air of desperation. "And it isn't like I have to worry about those things right now. I'm not even in a relationship. With Harry or anyone else." Had her mother not been hinting that Harry was perfect boyfriend material ever since they had gone shopping, this conversation would have come as more of a shock. The topic of conversation would have been more uncomfortable as well, except that they had always been rather open about things, including nudity and the like.

Kind of hard to vacation at topless and nude beaches without being pretty open about the subject, after all.

"Hermione, I am your mother, but I'm also a realist. While I hope you'll make the smart and right decisions, I know what it's like to be caught up in the moment. I have no illusions that I can tell you to not do something if you want to do it. And the right time for various things depends entirely on who those involved are."

"Mom, I'm not sixteen yet and-"

"Oh Hermione," Emma sighed out, shaking her head in amusement. "I am sure age doesn't mean anything to you. You're more mentally mature than most teenagers old enough to have sex. You and Harry both, if I'm honest. Hell Hermione, at your age, I was in a relationship with two long-term girlfriends so I know exactly what you may get up to."

"What!" Hermione squawked, blushing lightly. That explained _so_ much about Aunt Rebecca!

"Hermione," Emma whispered conspiratorially, "you are _far_ too much like me to not have received a good many of my perversions."

Hermione gurgled somewhere in the back of her throat, which Emma dutifully ignored. The elder Granger woman knew she was pressing her daughter, especially regarding her alternate lifestyle at her age, but she was hoping to put Hermione at ease by being more like a co-conspirator than her mother right now. That, and teasing her daughter like this was a rarity and something that amused the hell out of her.

"I know I can't stop you if you want to do anything with Harry-"

"I am _not_ dating Harry," Hermione interrupted with a sigh, which Emma also ignored.

"-and I'm not even going to try," Emma continued without missing a beat. "I'm just going to explain what you can expect and answer whatever questions you've got and the like. Basically, answer whatever questions you may have that I only wish I'd been able to get answered before I started. And besides, there's no way of getting out of this conversation."

Hermione sighed and leaned back, looking for sincerity in her mother's eyes. She found it, too. "Dad doesn't learn of this conversation," Hermione deadpanned, causing Emma to break into laughter.

"Oh honey, if he had any idea, you wouldn't be allowed to see Harry-"

"I am _not_ dating Harry."

"-for the rest of the summer. Now, let's talk how far I think you can be okay with and then answer any questions about what you can look forward to later."

_Harry's face after the instant in which he basically relived the memory was bright red. He learned far, far, _far_ more in the past second or two about sex, and what Hermione expected with some of what her mother called 'stepping stones' to becoming a woman, than he had ever even considered before._

_That book on how to please witches Sirius had given him didn't go into _any_ of what Emma had told Hermione boys (and she had specified him, he noticed) almost always failed to pay attention to._

_And he had _no_ idea Hermione was _that_ interested in those stepping stones!_

"_Hermione is going to kill me," he gasped out loud as soon as his mind was his own again. It was only pure shock and an absolute fear of his brunette-haired friend's wrath that had made him realize what Hermione was about to do when her mother had left. And the glimpse he had gotten of the girl under the robe would probably be the closest he would come before she killed him. Slowly. Methodically. _Painfully_. "Gonna kill me, gonna kill me," he began chanting as he backtracked at a breakneck sprint and made his way back through the original hole he created to the original floor and then rushed out of the monolith. The cold was actually welcome this time._

Harry wasn't totally sure how he was supposed to leave Hermione's mind after rushing back into the frigid air outside the huge building. In truth, the key was meant to be different to each person's mindscape. But, since it had been working up to that point, and staying any longer than he had scared him more than anything else at that point, he pushed his mental avatar to his own body as he closed his eyes before the rushing cold and the howling wind turned into the chatter of the common room.

He opened his eyes to see a massively blushing Hermione staring at him with her mouth agape. If he didn't fear the girl's vengeance, he'd probably think her widened eyes were comical in size. But he did fear the girl's wrath. He feared her wrath very much. "Please don't kill me," he begged in a little voice.

"I ... I ... I'm not going to kill you, Harry," Hermione said as she looked down and off to the side in embarrassment. She knew exactly how much and of what Harry had seen and had never felt so vulnerable than in that moment. "I ... said you could look and ... wanted you to test my defenses. I ... they just weren't strong enough. I ... we should go to bed, er! Sleep! We ... should go to sleep. It's late," Hermione forced out, trying her best to not just simply bolt out of the room and not look at Harry. She wanted to put up a strong front so he didn't realize just how embarrassed she was.

It didn't work, of course. Harry was embarrassed as well, but knew Hermione was much worse off and probably felt vulnerable. He had just strolled up to a very personal memory and he knew, with years of getting to know the girl, that apologizing just wouldn't make things better. She would appear thankful and let the incident slide and would truly forgive him for witnessing it, but she would still be embarrassed and possibly a little hurt that he found such a personal memory.

But, considering something similar had happened while they were together in the tent during what would have been their seventh year at Hogwarts during the Horcrux hunt, he knew how to fix this. At least a little. He would just do what she did when she walked in on him when he was bathing. Act like it wasn't a big deal and try to play it off like it was nothing big while trying to put them on equal ground. She had seen him in his entirety at that point and he had only seen her stomach and her hands disappear under her robe. So this was certainly not quite as bad in the serious-factor. At least in comparison.

"Not yet," he said, making the blushing girl look up at him in shock and a little amount of horror that he wasn't allowing her to leave yet. Granted, she knew she could at any time, but that he didn't agree right away was ... well, it was going to make things awkward, she was sure.

"What?" She asked.

"It won't make things any less awkward, but it would at least put us on equal footing if you saw some of my embarrassing memories, too, right?" He asked, doing his best to look curious and not as hopeful as he felt. He had come back with one major rule for his friendship with Hermione: be a better friend to her. That included being as honest as possible. And, if he wanted to let her know what he thought of her without having to say it, occasional coward he was when it wasn't life-or-death, then why not show his own fantasies?

"What?" Hermione asked with wide eyes and a new blush. _'He isn't really offering what I think he is, is he?'_

"Well, I saw something that was more personal, so I can show you the same. That way, you don't have to feel funny about it alone. It'll be like a little secret we can share. Do you want to see some of my fantasies or dreams about that stuff with you?"

Hermione hesitated, actually wanting to see them and being too embarrassed to actually admit as much. Harry had been giving off a lot of signals the past three months and if she were honest with herself, she _wanted_ to believe in them, but she never really thought anyone could feel that way about her. Now ... now she had the chance to see exactly what he _did_ feel about her.

"I just figured you may feel more comfortable if we were on even ground since you'll see some of mine about you since your mom found it funny to keep saying my name," Harry said, trying to give a tiny nudge and carefully _not_ bringing up what she had begun to do when he left the memory. He had never really planned on something like this, but he was willing to do anything to keep her from withdrawing from him. Even let her see how he had thought of her.

"J-just to make us square?" Hermione asked, her embarrassment fading at the idea of knowing Harry thought about her in some naughty way, meaning what he told her when they went shopping _wasn't_ just some charity case where he wanted her to feel better. That, and he was giving her a way to make it seem more like a way to make them even than making her feel like she was perving by watching his fantasies.

Being caught up in her own thoughts and embarrassment, she never really noticed that him having these thoughts of her meant that he was the one perving on _her_.

Harry nodded. "Whenever you're ready."

"A-are you sure you want me to?" Hermione asked, feeling like it was only polite. "I mean, if I see your ... _fantasies_ about ... _me_ ... Well, they might be private and you might not want me seeing them."

Harry smiled warmly at her blush, even as his stomach twisted into knots as he realized he had no idea what all she would be able to see. He prayed to whatever gods may be listening that his Inner Hermione kept the ... _raunchier_ ones locked away. "They're definitely private," he mused, "but you have the right to know about them and it makes us fair and I trust you to not hate me for them. I don't mind."

_'He's got a lot more courage than I have,'_ Hermione thought to herself as she raised her wand.

"Legilimens."

"_It's really creepy how quiet it is in here," Hermione muttered as all life was suddenly gone from the common room she found herself in._

"_I always thought it was kind of comforting," Harry said from behind Hermione, startling the brunette who turned with a gasp at his voice. _

"_You should really stop appearing from where I can't see, Harry," she scolded. "What are you looking at?" He was staring at a space above her head and following it up and down with his eyes in what she called his 'thinking face'._

"_I'm just kind of curious about what kind of probe or lead I may have had in your mind," he said, looking back to Hermione. "I don't remember seeing one. Definitely not a glowing gold rope like you've got."_

"_I don't know," Hermione admitted. "It was like I was able to see you from a top view from high up, even when the ceiling should have been between us. I just ... always knew where you were and could watch you move about."_

"_I guess it's something to focus on next time," Harry said with a shrug. "Up the stairs to the girls' dorms, you should find a door that leads into a room with dreams and fantasies and the like with your name on it. Just come back when you're ready."_

_Hermione's mental avatar blushed, actually letting off a small aura that had the lightest shade of pink that he almost didn't notice it. "Alright. Are you sure you want me to-"_

"_It's okay, Hermione," Harry said as he sat on his couch and decided to explain at least a part of his reasons. "I trust you with everything I am and everything I have. That's why you've basically got unlimited access in here. I feel like I could ask or tell you anything without fear of reprisal. All this is, is me trying to point out that I know what I saw was personal, and I want you to know you can trust me with that sort of thing just as much as I feel like I can trust you."_

_Harry blushed and looked away slightly. "Sure, you'll see some of the things I've thought about you and see how I've put your face on some of my fantasies, but that type of thing is natural."_

_At least, that's what she told him before. In the long run, it had made him feel much better, but the conversation was still a little awkward. But, getting this far meant it had been helping so far. It certainly should have, anyway. It was the method Hermione, herself, had used, so it had to have been something that would make sense to her. That was what he was hoping for, in any case._

"_Just ... promise me you won't be angry with me for this?" He asked in a small voice that was different from before. _

_Something overcame Hermione and, since the moment Harry saw her memory, she felt assured and confident for the first time enough to take the few steps to him and hugged him gently. "It _is_ natural, Harry. And unless you're imagining hurting me in any of those, I promise I won't be angry."_

"_I'd never think of you like that," Harry said with a frown. It was odd how he was suddenly the one who was feeling insecure and embarrassed. "Go ahead."_

_Hermione didn't say anything else as she walked up the stairs and turned right, finding herself facing a door labeled _"First Year"_, but without any names. Curious at the lack of any other doors, she walked up the stairs at the end of the hall and too a second landing that was pretty much identical, but labeled _"Second Year"_ instead and still without any other doors._

"_Odd," she mumbled, heading up the stairs to the third landing and stopping suddenly as she saw Harry standing at the end of the hall. "Oh! Harry, stop popping up like that!"_

"_I'm not Harry," Harry's lookalike said in a frightening monotone. "I am a guardian. No one may pass beyond this level without defeating me. I warn you for being important to my creator; my speed, power, reflexes, strength, vision, hearing and ability far surpass what my creator is currently able to utilize. The only way to defeat me is to be better than The Creator's mind. Once defeated, you would then have to beat the other defenses, assuming you survived long enough to see them."_

_Hermione felt a chill race up her spine as the entire speech was delivered in the same heavy monotone and the only part that she could tell moved was his eyes that stared into her own. "O-okay," she said, looking away from the guardian and noticed two doors on this floor. One was labeled _"Third Year"_ and the other was her name, just as Harry had promised._

"_Am I allowed to open the doors that don't have my name on them?" She asked, more out of curiousity to see how far her access really went._

_There was one second of hesitation where the guardian's eyes glowed green before they returned to normal. "Yes. Warning shall come to anything you may not access. Speak with The Creator to alter your privileges."_

"_Thanks," she said, not sure how to take this version of Harry. Somehow, she felt that this was a possibility for how he could have turned out and was totally against allowing it to happen._

"_Your thanks are not necessary."_

_Hermione allowed herself to stare long enough to blink before turning to her door and opening it and stepping through so she didn't have to stay near the creepy Harry._

"_Eep!" The brunette jumped slightly as the door closed behind her. The room she was expecting would have looked much like a bedroom or dorm room, but it looked more like the Great Hall._

_With a large, marble statue of Hermione right in the middle, dressed in the barest amounts that looks almost Roman in design, causing the real Hermione to blush. The cloth that was used to cover her statue appeared frozen in the middle of a strong wind, showing off the statue's tummy and legs and Hermione couldn't help but wonder at the oddities of Harry's mental structures because, just as the girls roaming the hallways, this version of Hermione appeared older and slightly more developed._

"_What _is_ it with boys and girls' bits?" Hermione mumbled as she looked around. After a dozen feet, where the statue stood, the room beyond was lit by what could only be nearly a million orbs floating about like fireflies. "How the hell am I supposed to figure out what to look for? Or even look at them?"_

_Hermione frowned at the ten-foot tall statue. "Nothing to say?" She grumbled, half expecting an answer. Everything else in Harry's mindscape could apparently speak. Sighing, she looked at the glowy orbs in the room, noticing an interesting number of blue-white ones, probably the majority of them, and a few that were various other colors, alternating between pink, red, dark blue, black and even five gold ones that shone so intensely, they almost looked like tiny stars._

_They naturally gathered her attention._

xXxXxXx

_Harry sighed as he lost sight of Hermione up the stairs and sat back in the plush couch, more nervous than he was even a few seconds ago. Before, he had Hermione, to focus on. Now, he was alone with only his thoughts._

_The same thoughts Hermione was about to look at._

_He had never planned on this. Truth be told, he had never planned on letting anyone into his head. He knew he would tell Hermione his secrets, but she wouldn't have to be in his head to learn it. So, he put everything in its place and made sure his plans accommodated hiding future memories so thoroughly that even _he_ would have trouble finding them._

_Well, to be honest, he had given that job to the Hermione up in the Headmaster's office for a large portion of it, which was why he was so worried. He knew there was no one he could trust more than Hermione for anything._

_But they did disagree on occasion._

"_I have _got_ to stop doing things on impulse," Harry groaned as he palmed his face. Then he remembered something. "Wait. I always relived the memories when Snape broke in... Oh crap."_

_By some unholy coincidence, or the depraved hand of Fate, the very first flashes went through his head._

xXxXxXx

Hermione's Avatar looked around curiously, seeing the students in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, as proven by Lockhart's presence, and listening to the fool blather on about his fake exploits. This was obviously a fantasy memory because all of the students were apparently much older than they would have been in second year and the real Lockhart would have never been seen in a chicken costume.

Nor did he lay his own eggs.

Hermione would also never be caught dead sitting at the back of a classroom, where she and Harry were talking in the middle of class! _'Honestly! I'm talking in the middle of class?'_

"Harry, can you speak in Parseltongue whenever you want?" Dream Hermione asked Harry in their bubble of space where the world seemed to ignore them as seemed to happen during dreams or daydreams.

"Pretty much," Harry admitted, smacking Hermione's hands.

Dream Hermione scoffed and put her hands under Harry's, now attempting to slap his. This was one of those games she felt was pointless, even in a fantasy. "Did you know snakes don't have ears? They only hear vibrations."

"Uh, no. Not really," Harry admitted in confusion.

"It's true," Dream Hermione stated. "They have cavities in their bodies that feel vibrations, meaning they can 'hear' anything as long as it makes pulses they can feel."

"But everyone else can hear me," Harry said, yelping as Dream Hermione's hands smacked his and left a stinging palm print.

"That's all sound is, is vibrations," Dream Hermione stated. "So, if it's within the decibel level we can hear, we'll hear it too. But I was wondering, do you feel your tongue move when you speak?"

_Avatar Hermione's eyes widened as she realized what her other self was thinking. During second year, it was something that several muggleborn girls in the upper years had commented on. She never realized Harry had heard of it, too!_

"Uh," Harry pondered before Dream Hermione had an idea and held her hand up with the back facing Harry.

"Here. Speak in Parseltongue and let me see if it feels different."

Harry shrugged and did so, making Dream Hermione's eyes cross as her body shivered. "Oh my... Low ones."

"What?" Harry asked as the class was apparently dismissed.

"Harry, it seems your tongue vibrates when you speak in Parseltongue and, I guess it releases magic to make it work or something, but there's a rather interesting activity I think I would like to introduce you to."

"Is it fun?"

"I'm sure I'll love it," Dream Hermione said. Smiling and with a rather excited gait, she dragged her friend somewhere much more private.

Hermione's mental avatar squeaked when her dream self dragged Harry into a broom closet, that looked more like a luxurious hotel room inside, with a smile and shut the door. She saw the rest of the world around her fade to bleary gray and the only thing that remained in detail was the door, which she hesitated only a moment before opening and peeking through.

"You _do_ have a vibrating tongue!"

Then immediately shut the door again.

"_Oh my god," Hermione said as she imagined herself being back in the room in Harry's mind with her eyes closed. "How did they get naked so fast?"_

_She had a brief moment where she considered going back in and watching, but decided it would be better to see others and find out what she could of what Harry thought of her. _

_It wasn't as if she couldn't finish that one herself, after all._

_Hermione let the gold orb float away from her, swallowing as she wondered if there was something specific about the colors and if that meant he only had five naughty thoughts of her like that._

'One way to find out, I suppose,'_ she thought, looking at the next one from the corner of her eye as if hoping to sneak up on it. She didn't really want to admit that she was hoping for something similar. It was ... liberating ... knowing that someone she knew respected her thought of her that way. Granted, seeing it was a little more advanced than she really cared for at the moment, but she certainly understood that those thoughts were normal and wasn't unfamiliar with them herself._

_It was just such a taboo thought that _she_ could be a focus of one of those types of fantasies that it surprised her. But ... it wasn't exactly bad. Just not something she was used to. It was actually kind of flattering._

_She approached the second glowing gold sphere and reached out to touch it._

xXxXxXx

_Harry gasped as he was released from the first memory Hermione found, so far beyond embarrassed that he wasn't sure if he should make a hole under the couch to crawl into or just crawl into the mouth of one of the dragons flying about._

"_Note to self," he mumbled, "set all pervy memories into a hidden place. Or maybe let each dragon hold onto some."_

_Then he began to relive another fantasy starring Hermione, only this one had been one of his own creation and not from a dream._

"_Oh god! Why isn't she leaving this one?"_

xXxXxXx

_Hermione nibbled her bottom lip as she watched her other self and Harry play in the pool at his house. That wasn't the part that had her breathing deeply or staring so intently._

_It was that they were naked. Still playing with each other, though. They also looked just like they did now, which suggested this was a very recent fantasy._

_And this time, she couldn't pull herself away and watched until the end._

_The very loud, screaming, ... climactic end._

"_I know I'm supposed to be seeing some of his fantasies, but ... oh my god... I wonder how much he really knows about these things?" Hermione mused to herself as her doppleganger threw her head back as a second ... end ... hit her. "I also wonder how in the hell he knows I've got a freckle there..."_

xXxXxXx

Hermione sat in peaceful silence, smiling gently and warmly as she watched the scene before her play out. Her mind and body were flooded with contented, happy feelings as she watched Harry and herself, and what was apparently four of their own children opening Christmas presents in a moderately-sized, comfortable home. The kids were opening their presents with wild abandon while two somewhat older versions of themselves, perhaps twenty years from then, sat and cuddled on the couch and watched.

This was obviously not a memory because she certainly didn't have children and her own parents were also dancing in the background, a little more gray, with a few wrinkles and swaying gently to an older Christmas song without lyrics.

There was also an older, smiling and balding man that Hermione didn't know removing every sign of mistletoe that was hanging up and adding booze to eggnog and an older, pregnant Luna playing tug-of-war with three other kids around the tree that had her blonde hair, sticking out wildly and messily, each trying to get to be the ones to eat the popcorn from the decorations; each already had a pile of candy canes behind them.

"Thank you, Hermione," Harry whispered into the older girl's ear, hugging her tightly and kissing her behind the pink-tinted ear. "I love you."

"You always get lovable and cuddly during Christmas," she accused gently, blushing as she raised a hand behind his head and turned enough to kiss him on the lips.

"What can I say? Christmas isn't Christmas without family. You taught me that, and I will never forget it."

Hermione hummed in the back of her throat as she coaxed his hand down to rest on her robe-covered tummy. "Well, you've got one more present coming. A girl, this time."

_The real Hermione's mental avatar barely withheld herself from crying. This memory sphere had been the warmest and most impressive one she had come across until she realized what this memory really represented: a very deep longing for a family._

_A very large family, apparently, but still a family._

_It was humbling in a way that little could really be. Many people craved and fantasized over power, fame, fortune or being someone important. But Harry, who always had those things, wanted nothing of it and preferred to look for and fantasize over being something common and simple: a husband and father! He wanted to be a part of a _family_! What kind of thirteen-year old really fantasized over that!_

_She was now a fourteen-year old girl who shared a room with thirteen-year old girls and she _knew_ that when they dreamed of having a family, it was usually by means of some man who _had_ those things that boys fantasized about getting! They wanted to marry into fame, power, wealth or strong circles of influence._

_Those dreams and fantasies tended to become more realistic as they got older, of course. Hermione knew by now she would rather have a partner than someone who had those 'perks'. But what she wanted in a partner was still something she had never put all that much thought into._

_Harry, apparently, didn't have that problem._

"_How can you already want this?" She asked quietly, not being heard by the others in the world around her. "How could _any_ thirteen-year old boy want something so simple as his deepest desire?"_

_Hermione hugged herself as she watched the older versions of herself and Harry cuddle, finding herself longing for something like that. Something meaningful and with so much promise. She wanted someone to hug her and love her like that._

_The brunette sighed and looked away from the scene, not really sure what exactly she was feeling. The only one she could recognize was jealousy over a dream. A dream of all things! Hermione just knew she didn't want to leave the memory from that location, so she walked out of the happy room and down the hall, passing the smiling portraits of their large family without a glance in case they would confuse her more, and then willed herself to the room in Harry's mind._

xXxXxXx

_Harry watched as Hermione went through a few other memories, some of various times with the two of them in their past and some that were actual fantasies he had either thought up or dreamed for what felt like hours. Though, that was just because each fantasy lasted a good time and she began staying in them after the first. Her confidence in watching the fantasies and memories raised with each viewing and she had begun to care less about keeping a balance between the two of them and more about watching forbidden moments and more about the spheres where it was some form of daily life that hadn't actually happened, which meant they were dreamed or fantasized, which caught her attention. _

_She had begun to notice a pattern to the spheres. Fantasies held a tendency to have the two of them, or whatever their dream selves focused on, in high detail, while the rest of the fantasy was blurry and inconsequential. Memories and dreams, however, were all vivid and sharp with all details in excellent resolution and, other than rules that didn't seem to exist in real life like Lockhart being in a chicken costume, appeared normal for all intents and purposes._

_After ten more of Harry's memory spheres were observed, he stared forward while blushing profusely as Hermione came down to sit in a chair across from him, also blushing and having mixed feelings about everything she had seen. She enjoyed the knowledge that he thought of her as a girl, and even thought of her as an indication of having a future, but as interesting and warm as that was to her, it confused her thoroughly that ... she actually liked it. She was more than just a helper with homework and one of the guys. Hermione knew she was important to him._

"_Does being a Parseltongue actually make your tongue vibrate?" She asked, being unable to keep herself from it. There was really so little information in the library about it. It was only briefly mentioned in a book about magical abilities she had picked up when she learned about the magical world, which was the only real reason she knew about it when he spoke it in Lockhart's dueling club. She also felt it was a safer topic than about his fantasies about the future or how he used that ability on her dream-world self._

_Harry's blush intensified, but he nodded. "Yea."_

"_Oh," she said simply, wondering at what that could actually mean and how he figured that out._

"_You're not ... mad at me, are you?" Harry asked nervously. "I mean, I know I didn't ask to think about you or anything, but-"_

"_It's okay Harry," she interrupted him with a small smile. "It's ... kind of flattering to know you don't just see me as one of the guys or some ... genderless _thing_. It may be a little more naughty than I expected to see, but it's natural and normal, just like you said. I don't mind."_

_Some part of Harry that had developed while sharing a tent with Hermione made itself known, and casual banter from a time when amusement was low and romances were close to forming flowed from his mouth before he was even aware of it. "So, I've got your permission to think naughty about you?"_

_Hermione squeaked in surprised and nervously looked to the side. "Er ... yes," she admitted before grinning and looking at him. "Assuming I can do the same."_

_Harry blinked, but took this as a good sign of things to come. "Sure. If you ever need material to work with, just let me know. I'd be happy to assist you in any related endeavors."_

'This round to you, but the war shall be mine,' _Hermione thought to herself, unable to think up a suitable response. _

"_Maybe we should go to be- er, get some sleep now. It's late and I'm exhausted."_

xXxXxXx

**Friday – October 1, 23:25 – Hour after Harry & Hermione go to bed**

While Harry and Hermione were playing in each others' heads and bantering back and forth suggestively, Luna, being a good little Ravenclaw and wanting to get started right away just like all the others, was working on her Charms essay for October to explain the amorphous history of how Charms were used in the past compared to their current uses. The charms classification she had selected were very difficult, rarely known and even more rarely used, so she was using the Ravenclaw common room library's referencing system, created by a muggleborn using some system by a man named 'Dewey'.

The man had way too much time on his hands. But the Ravenclaws reaped the benefits.

Her particular Charm class was something her mother had expounded upon before Luna was even born: illusions. Magicals used a smaller, bastardized version of what they once wielded in the form of glamors, but at one time, they were able to create entire plays or change the environment. Her own mother used illusions to create a place to send their minds to teach her faster than true time would allow.

Now, they did nothing more than hide pimples or boils or made themselves look like someone else, usually for naughty role play or nefarious deeds, just because most people now lacked the ability to do more. It really was quite sad.

Her mother, Celeste, believed that it was at least partly the result of declining mental faculties of wizard-kind. Whether it was because they closed their minds off to look at things with short-sightedness, mating between closer and closer family members or because of such a strict adherence to old ways of thinking and acting, the elder Lovegood woman had never been sure of. As abilities decreased, the number of squibs in existence also seemed to be on the rise, making her wonder if it was some form of punishment to man for some evil deed they had done. It could have also been that there was only a set amount of magic within the world and the number of users caused it to be weaker for all parties, but a series of tests Luna had never been privy to had proven that to not only be a foolish sentiment, but laughable. Celeste Lovegood had been able to prove, and only a month before her death, that magic was the single-most abundant form of energy in existence, proving that even if all creatures in the world were magical, there would be more than enough to go around and still have much left over.

However, now that Luna had written her notes and copied all of the information from the books she thought she would need and written her outline, it was time for bed. It would really be quite wonderful to do her homework with her friends. They let her sit wherever she wanted, though both Hermione and Harry seemed to find it amusing when she sprawled across their laps so they could read their books off of her back.

She didn't mind though. They were warm, which was the whole point. She also loved the physical contact. Before Harry befriended her, she never really received a touch that wasn't meant to hurt her in some way; pushing, hitting, hexing, forcing her to drink or eat something, taking her clothes and other such things. It really got very tiresome after so much time and so many occurrences. She hadn't realized just how used to it she had become.

Which was part of why she was so thrilled with their cuddles, in whatever form they took. Even if she had to sprawl out in their laps so they could use her back as a table for their reading materials. And they wouldn't tell her 'no', either. They tended to readjust, sometimes moving pointy elbows out of sensitive locations in Harry's case, but continued to let her sit with them. Or on them. Luna wasn't picky. She could really never get enough of them.

So, she gathered all the information she could possibly need to take with her to the Gryffindor common room now while most everyone was doing extensive revisions and the Ravenclaw common room was too populated to fear any kind of prank. Their personal library books weren't allowed to be taken from the common room, so much of the House's upper years were present even with the late hour.

"Another essay and one step closer to valuable research discoveries," Luna said to herself with a fond smile, thinking of her mother. She put everything into a knapsack and disillusioned it, thankful Harry had taught her the spell in case she had to make it to their common room without clothes again. She immediately used it to start hiding her bag and homework so it wasn't taken again. A quick sticking charm to the wall seven stones up and three across, chosen as magical numbers just in case, and she didn't have to worry about anyone tripping over it.

Luna hummed to herself as she skipped over to the stairs and up to her dorm room. She couldn't wait until third year when students in Ravenclaw got their own rooms for late-night research, even though the communal library books couldn't be removed from the common room. It wouldn't stop things from happening, she was sure, but at least no one would have to see the results before she could clean them up.

Luna continued humming as she took off her robe and opened the curtains on her bed and saw the inside of her curtains and sheets covered in blood and her mother's glassy eyes staring back at her, her clothes singed and her body broken and savaged.

Luna dropped her robes and covered her mouth, stepping back as she muffled a scream before choking back a sob and falling to her knees. _'Mama!'_ She bit her fist and tore her eyes away from the sight, closing them and trying to will the vision away before opening them, hoping it was gone.

It wasn't.

A horrified sob broke through and she dashed from the room, tears now streaming down both cheeks, and out of the Ravenclaw common room.

"Looks like the confundus actually worked," Mandy said quietly, waiting with the others. A quick glance around showed that those who saw Luna's mad dash just shook their heads and went back to work, while the others in the room didn't even bother to look. "I didn't think a confundus could be used to make her see something specific."

"I was hoping to hear her scream, but crying works," Marietta admitted, correcting her Potions essay so Snape didn't get his crusty knickers in a twist.

"A confundus doesn't normally make you see anything, just get confused and make it easier to make you think you saw something while not really being able to remember what in any definable detail," Cho explained, making notes on her Charms essay on how she added various charms to get a specific effect. "It makes you suggestible. By adding the compulsion to it, it explained what she should see and using the Lestat Principle, I made it something she's seen in her past, either real life or a dream."

"Impressive," Marietta said with a nod. "So what did she see?"

"Her worst memory or darkest fear based on it. She'll know it wasn't real, eventually, but it seems like it was frightening enough to keep her from thinking too clearly right away. I decided to see if I could replicate the dementors' effects using charms and it appears to have been a success. But in order to claim that, I would have to retest and get the same results, of course."

In the hallways, Luna wasn't concerned with whether or not what she saw was real. It was horrifying and painful and there was really only one place she wanted to be to make the pain go away and feel safe again.

She practically flew through the halls and into the Gryffindor common room, not knowing if she even gave the password and then up the stairs to Harry's bed where she crawled in next to him and slowly wrapped her limbs around her sleeping security blanket, taking a shuddering breath as he unconsciously wrapped his arms around her.

Soft sniffling woke Harry, making him aware of the shaking body in his arms and the warm spot on his chest. "Luna?"

"H-hi Harry," she mumbled into his shoulder, still shaking heavily. She was suddenly glad that only Ravenclaws really seemed to stay up so late in their common rooms and dorms on Friday nights. From the number of snores, all of Harry's dorm was apparently asleep, something she hadn't even considered until that moment. Or if any were up, it wasn't in Harry's year. They didn't seem to care about staying up past midnight. If anyone else was up and about, they probably weren't where they could get caught doing whatever nefarious deeds they were up to.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He asked, looking over what he could see since she was holding him too tightly to pull away from her to do a more thorough job. She was a tiny girl, but she had a grip like a vice.

"Ju-just a b-bad dream," she said, holding him tighter. "I k-know Hermione s-said I shouldn't slu-sleep with you, but c-can I? Just tonight?" She looked up and into his green eyes, her own silvery ones, now turning dark blue and tear-stained cheeks begging him to agree. "Please?" She whispered.

Harry doubted he'd ever be able to deny Luna something she asked for. She always went out of her way to be as accommodating as possible and never ask for anything, so when she did, it was rare and meant everything to her. More than that, she was fully dressed in her daytime clothes, which meant she hadn't been sleeping, so she lied to keep him from doing something stupid. And he had learned the last time through his life that her eyes only turned such a dark blue when she was crying so hard they actually hurt. "You can always stay with me, Luna," he told her gently and quietly in an attempt to help the shaking girl calm down. "Hermione didn't want rumors to spread, but none of these guys will do that." _'Or else,'_ he mentally added.

"Thank you," Luna said with a sniffle. _'Just don't let go.'_

"You sleep now," Harry said, wrapping the blanket tightly around them. "I'll be here when you wake up."

Luna sighed and curled more tightly into a ball under his arm, taking comfort in his warmth and embrace. She felt him kiss her forehead gently and most of the hurt left with his lips.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – October 2, 05:00**

The first Saturday of October bloomed dark and dreary, the students sleepy and weary with thick fogs covering the school grounds, due in part to the horrible dementors' influence and in part due to the time of year. Harry awoke with cold toes burrowed underneath of him and found Luna laying straddled on top of him and cuddled into his chest with her feet bent so that he was laying atop them, keeping the little digits warm as she drooled onto his chest and her fingers clutching his shirt.

At least she hadn't taken the covers this time.

Harry had noticed a trend in the blonde girl's sleeping arrangements that both made him feel proud, and furious. Most nights, she spent her time with Hermione and apparently hearing some rather amusing things when the bushy-haired brunette was asleep before her arrival, which was every night save two that were filled with talking. He wasn't sure _what_ they spoke about, but was glad Luna was able to gain a friend in Hermione that she hadn't ever really had the first time around. His prospective love had been just as bad to Luna as Harry had been, not that either of the two girls were aware of that. But Harry was, and that was part of why he was so determined to take care of Luna, no matter what he had to face or do to do it.

She was his friend, and becoming more important to him as time wore on. Her friendship with Harry was sincere and, if he were honest, almost frighteningly gracious. She gave of herself and tried not to discuss or bring up her problems unless either he or Hermione forced it from her, usually by finding Luna after someone played some cruel prank on her.

And knowing how bad she had things right now, and how it never seemed to stop, made Harry truly sick to his stomach when he realized he was aware of all of this before coming back in time and he had not only purposely ignored it, but he ignored it all because he was ashamed to be near her so he wasn't lumped in together with her.

In only the one month Harry had been her friend after his return, Harry knew without a doubt that he truly enjoyed the girl's company and her views, something he had not been comfortable considering before. They were refreshing and she was one of the few people who showed who they truly were and spoke their minds around him. When all was said and done, he liked Luna. She was a good friend, both in this time and in his past, and she deserved far better than her lot in life. And he would _never_ betray her again as he had before.

"You seem to be thinking a bit harder than necessary for this early in the morning," Luna observed sleepily as she yawned and arched her back, pushing her hands into his chest to raise herself a little before flopping back down on him and burrowing into his warmth.

Harry smiled and hugged the girl to him gently. "Just thinking about friendship and how great it can be," he told her. _'And how crappy a friend can be, too,'_ he finished in his head.

Luna grinned warmly and molded herself to his side as she slid over a touch and fell onto his mattress. "It's certainly great," she agreed. "I'm glad to have friends now. I don't ever want to be alone again."

"You won't ever have to be, Luna. I promise."

Luna looked up and into Harry's eyes with such a sudden and piercing gaze that Harry's own eyes widened. "Do you really promise?" She asked quietly.

"Of course," Harry agreed, trying to sound as sincere as he felt with as little of the sudden nervousness her expression incited.

"Then it would be okay to tell you you've got bad morning breath?"

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – October 9, Early Morning**

Hermione yawned as Luna led her into the Gryffindor common room, still wearing her paw-print pajamas and really wishing Harry would have let her sleep until she had to wake up. "This had better be good, Harry. I've not been sleeping well and I could still get another two hours before I have to get up to keep to my research."

Worse yet, with this little meeting, it would throw her usual schedule all out of whack. There was no way she could do her work down here if it was already being used.

"I've got something to show you, both of you," he said, indicating both girls. "I'd like to keep it secret for as long as possible, though."

"What is it?" Hermione asked, letting her blonde friend curl into her side for warmth. Luna certainly was a cuddly little thing in the mornings.

"Get dressed and I'll show you. I think it will really help with your studies, too." Harry could almost swear he saw his bushy-haired friend's ears twitch.

"Fine. You take the cuddle-bunny, I'll be down in a few minutes."

Twenty minutes later, Harry was pacing back and forth in the seventh-floor corridor, causing a door to appear, which he opened and showed both curious, and now wide-eyed, girls. They looked in to see a comfortable sitting room that looked like a much smaller version of the Gryffindor common room with the Hogwarts library right behind it. Both female heads bobbled to the side to see a window on the same wall as the door, showing there shouldn't have been anything beyond the wall, and then back into the room.

"I don't really know how to respond to that," Luna admitted simply.

"This is the Room of Requirement, or the 'Come-and-Go Room' as the House Elves like to call it. The creator of the room can make it shift into whatever they need while inside, or walk back and forth three times in front of the door while thinking of what they need and it will provide it to the best of its ability," Harry explained, ushering both girls in and closing the door behind them. "Whoever's in control of the room stays in control, too."

"Nothing it makes can be taken out of the room, though. So you can't create medical supplies or food and then take it out since it is still like a standard conjuration. You can even use it to recreate areas based on your memories or libraries, but only with books that have been in Hogwarts or someone who's been in Hogwarts has read before. But I've been using it to create a place to exercise in and practice dueling."

"So, I couldn't recreate the archives from Alexandria?" Hermione asked with a rather put-out expression, causing Luna to giggle.

"Not unless Dumbledore is a lot older than he lets on," Harry said with a smirk.

"What about ghosts?" Luna asked while checking under the furniture, curious about what she may find hidden underneath. "The ghosts in the Headless Hunt come by almost yearly and a few of them were alive during the period."

"Uh, I dunno," Harry admitted, looking lost for a moment before shaking his head.

"This can recreate the Hogwarts library? Even the Restricted Section?" Hermione asked, nearly vibrating in excitement.

"Yes, but for some reason, I can never copy the books," Harry said, knowing what the girl was thinking. "From what I understand, everything is a construct of magic, just like conjuration. But unlike copying a book with a spell, since they aren't copies of an original, it's like it doesn't want to work. I don't know exactly. I'm just guessing. But at the same time, I can't even make a copy of a book I brought into the room, either. So it could be some sort of protection."

"What else can the room become?" Luna asked, molding a handful of dust from under the couch into a small giraffe. She suddenly began to contemplate a bunny... a dust bunny, if you will...

In response, Harry pulled both girls close, quietly noting that they didn't fight his actions or even ask what he was doing and merely wrapped their own arms around him and each other, and began to cycle the room between each common room, the Great Hall, the library by itself, the Burrow, Luna's home, Hermione's home, a large field, a lake, Potter Manor and even a few fast food restaurants he had visited over the summer that he had always been curious about. Several places flashed into and out of existence around them, sometimes putting them in small areas that made their closeness a good thing, and showed a wide range of recreational abilities the room could provide.

"Oh, that _is_ amusing!" Luna chirruped happily, hopping in place as she clapped. "Can you have it create wildlife?"

"Yes," Harry said, creating the field scene again, complete with dozens of rabbits, a few birds and a large number of cats.

Then there were a few less rabbits...

"Whoops," Harry mumbled, quickly creating the original room again.

"Make it create a Snorkack," Luna demanded with a weird glint in her eye. "Many Snorkacks."

"What's a Snorkack?" Hermione asked, wondering at the topic shift. She had heard Luna bring them up before, but they hadn't gone into detail, really.

Suddenly, the original room was filled with lemur-like creatures, half of which had mouse-like ears and the other half had bunny-like ears, though the ones with bunny-like ears also had little, rounded bone horns sticking off of their foreheads.

"They look a lot like the Thundercats, only monkey instead of feline," Hermione mused while Luna rushed the little critters with a battle cry that sounded suspiciously like a 'squee' and tried to catch some.

"I can't believe I've never tried that before," Harry mumbled with wide eyes. They wouldn't have been created without actually existing, which meant Luna got a _lot_ more grief than she deserved over the things in her dad's newspaper. _'I wonder who knew about them before. Luna has always gone on about them, but claimed to have never found them.'_

"You're right, Harry. This room should help our studies tremendously," Hermione said happily, pulling off one of the bunny-eared animals from the book it was gnawing on. "I can also see why you want to keep it secret. If everyone knew about it, we'd never get to use it."

"Well, if one person makes the room, and someone else makes one, it will support both separately. I don't know if there's a limit to how many, but I know it should support at least a few different users at once unless they ask for the same thing. I thought about using it as a place to get extra sleep, but decided against it since I don't get up too early for it," he told her, smiling internally as her eyes widened and she realized what he was suggesting. Harry wasn't sure if she would sleep there or not, but if she did, then no one could disturb her. He'd talk with her in a few days to possibly see about dropping Muggle Studies and Divination.

If he could figure out how to do it, that is.

"My tummy is rumbly," Luna told them, bringing over an armful of struggling Snorkacks. "I think it's time for breakfast. But can we come back?"

"I agree, on both counts," Hermione admitted, looking longingly at the imitation library behind the blonde girl.

"You can come by any time," Harry said, leading them towards the exit. "Just try not to tell anyone for a little while or let them follow you here." At a later time, when Hermione was more awake and didn't have so much knowledge at her fingertips, she would question why Harry didn't share this magical room with Ron.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – October 9, Breakfast**

"Oh wow," Hermione said after swallowing a muffin. "Look at this." She handed over her copy of the Daily Prophet for Harry and Luna to read.

_**The Founders Are Back!**_

_By: Allowwin Lyez_

_Yesterday around mid-day, the Wizengamot chambers were being cleaned for a meeting when the member chairs were in a new formation. It was determined a total of five chairs were added to the active seating arrangements. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Potter all are now active._

_The chamber has not had anyone enter for nearly four months due to the Wizengamot members working with the ICW out-of-country, so it is unknown as to when all the chairs became active and many are looking forward to finding out who holds these seats since three have been long-thought to be dead lines._

_On another, possibly related note, the Potter seat is now active as well. Could this mean that Harry Potter, aged thirteen, has taken up his Lordship? Could James Potter, who died before he could take up the mantle of Lord Potter, have faked his own death to hide from the Death Eaters during the war, possibly leaving his only son to the clutches of You-Know-Who? _

_We at the Daily Prophet are looking into genealogy lines within the Ministry to see who the most direct descendants are of all four founders, but it is a slow process and we ask our readers to be patient while we scour the records and look to this publication each day to see our progress._

_A Wizengamot session is still scheduled for its bi-annual meeting in nearly six weeks on November twelfth and we will learn who the mystery seat holder(s) happens to be._

Harry gulped as he set the paper down and looked to Hermione who was watching him carefully. "W-wow! All four Founders," he said shakily.

Hermione quirked an eyebrow, but nodded slightly once, indicating she understood. "I agree. It should be interesting to find out who took control over the families." The brunette took a bite of her breakfast while thinking, _'and it should be interesting to find out why you are hiding so much.'_

"You have no idea," Luna said in shock, rereading the article. "The Founders are considered royalty in the wizarding world! They created our standard of living and the foundation on which we've built our entire society! Before Hogwarts, all magic was either self-taught or done through apprenticeships. It's also said that Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade and even part of Diagon Alley is owned by them!"

"Really?" Hermione asked, intrigued. "That's a lot of land and businesses."

"Makes sense, though," Harry reasoned out. "Buy the land around the school, and then allow a magical community, it would generate revenue to keep the school functioning, at least in part. And it provides an easier source of food and a place for older years to let off some steam when things get stressful."

"Daddy also sent along your first issue of the Quibbler," Luna said, pointing out the owls coming with the paper.

"Morning guys," Ron yawned out, sitting beside Harry and filling his plate.

"You're up early for Saturday," Harry pointed out while Hermione asked for and commandeered his Quibbler to see what had made him want it since Harry was still eating.

"Yea, McGonagall said she allowed me a week and I had to turn in my essays before she had breakfast today or she'd mark it as a failing grade," the redhead grumped, still resenting that his friends didn't tell him they were due earlier. It didn't matter that Hermione wrote them for him almost a week ago. He didn't rewrite them and Hermione's handwriting was much too neat for his work. He learned from that mistake in first year. They never told him they were coming due so he could rewrite them the night before, and that was what mattered.

"Then maybe you'll complete your assignments sooner," Hermione not-so-subtly suggested without looking up from where Luna was pointing things out.

"Yea, maybe," Ron shrugged, biting into a mishmash of breakfast items. "Hey Harry, what are you showing everyone at the thing next week? More Patronus stuff or something better?" Ron asked, hoping for something awesome during the dueling club. Hopefully something to use against the Slytherins.

"I was originally planning on shields again, but I think I'm going to work on dodging first," he said, glancing at Luna, who was still talking to Hermione. "I just need to think of the best way to prove it is necessary to dodge rather than block." Harry allowed his gaze to flit over to the Ravenclaw table where he was looking for prey for a poignant demonstration. _'Maybe something that'll get a message across.'_

Cho Chang shivered so violently the eggs on her fork were flung across to Marietta's plate and into her lap as a feeling of foreboding washed over her.

"Cho! What the hell!" Marietta exclaimed, wiping the egg off her clothes.

"Dodging is so boring and a lot of work, though," Ron said around his toast. "Shields are much better."

"Shields fail," Harry said simply, speaking from more experience than the redhead could possibly imagine.

"Harry, could you pass me the nanners?" Luna asked, pointing out the bananas to his side. She proceeded to make sandwiches out of peanut butter and banana slices while Ron spied the headlines in the Prophet.

"Bloody hell! The Founders are back!" After a few seconds of reading, he looked at Harry with wide eyes. "Whoa, Harry! Your seat on the Wizengamot is active, too! Do you know how your seat opened up? Or do you know who the Founders are?"

Hermione stared at Ron with her mouth agape, honestly not believing what she was hearing. She glanced at Harry and noticed his scared expression. Apparently, he didn't know how to respond to that. She didn't know why he was hiding this, but assumed it was probably for the fame aspect. "I know wizards aren't supposed to have the most common sense, but this is ridiculous," she muttered to herself.

"Hm?" Luna asked, swallowing her sandwich. "Why do you say that?" She dropped several strawberries into her milk and began to mash them mercilessly, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth and curling it up in concentration. She'd show the lone surviving 'nanner' who was boss in just a moment, as well.

"I've seen some wizards in the muggle world," Hermione explained, watching the senseless slaughter of fruit in front of her. "They can't even get the way muggles dress right. Snape even used a logic puzzle to guard a priceless item in our first year that was actually very simple."

"Oh," Luna said quietly, leaning closer to Hermione and speaking very softly. "You mean how it isn't likely a coincidence that _all_ of those seats became active at once and almost no one seems to be noticing that?"

Hermione blinked at Luna, feeling somewhat ashamed that she had lumped the blonde girl into the same category. "Er, yes. I mean, look around. Everyone is talking about this, but normally they're all staring at Harry whenever he's involved in something, but they're all chattering on about 'Founders this' and 'Founders that' and completely ignoring him."

"Not exactly a bad thing," Luna murmured as she drank her fruit smash, looking at the green-eyed boy who was trying to sidetrack Ron with talk of Quidditch.

"True," Hermione said with a small nod. The only ones who seemed to be paying Harry any attention was parts of the staff, Ginny Weasley who always seemed to be looking at him, and Draco Malfoy, who was glaring more than normal.

xXxXxXx

_'This can't be happening!'_ Albus Dumbledore screamed within the safe confines of his mind as he poured over his Daily Prophet. _'Harry cannot have access to so many potentially dark resources! I can't allow him to become another Tom.'_

With a deep breath, the Supreme Mugwump stepped forward and began to make floo calls. He had to reverse this travesty. He knew Harry was emancipated. The boy had said as much in a letter to him over the summer. But Albus was not aware he had learned so much of what he was capable of and what he had access to. What was worse, he knew who the descendant of at least one line of the Founders was, and all four becoming active meant that either Harry was in cahoots with someone else, some unknown entity that he couldn't guide or control, or there was far, far more to Harry Potter than even the Great Albus Dumbledore had been capable of learning.

He honestly wasn't sure which would be worse.

"Albus?" Minister Fudge asked in surprise. "What can I do for you?"

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – October 9, After Breakfast **

Harry sat in an empty, unused classroom after telling his friends he had to visit the loo. He had originally used the Room of Requirement for his reflecting needs, but Hermione and Luna had all but barricaded themselves into it, engorging themselves on books from the Restricted Section.

He was lost. He realized he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing and was beginning to question his actions and path. And his reasoning was very simple.

He had already failed! Many times! And in the worst of ways, at that. He died.

Now, he was thrown back in time and told to get it right because there would be no more second chances and other than orders to move out, train and get emancipated; he wasn't told what to do or where to go. He had no ideas where Voldemort's horcruxes were other than the few he already knew about and still wasn't sure how to find those he hadn't been able to find out about. And he had already died trying to get one of them! Going back now would be pointless since he still didn't know enough about warding and trying to get Dumbledore to help would be all sorts of trouble.

In all honesty, the whole purpose of the dueling club he was in charge of was just an excuse to get the students better-prepared for the fighting that was sure to come and so he had an excuse to practice dueling and learn more than the school was teaching. All he could really think of to plan for the future was to do what he knew had already been done, sooner, so that it could help and be out of the way, but after that? What was he really supposed to do after that?

"I miss going to Hermione with my problems," he admitted to himself. "Or just venting together with Luna," he considered, thinking of his fifth year talks with the quirky Ravenclaw. The blonde girl had a vicious streak in her when she would hear of someone getting hurt unless it was herself and she loved to help him think up pranks to get back at the others. Harry was beginning to think they weren't all original, either.

He looked around, half-expecting and half hoping that Lora would pop in and give him more advice, sighing after several seconds when she didn't show up. "Okay. Let's try _thinking_ like Hermione. What do I need?" He pondered for barely a second before snapping his fingers happily. "A list!"

Harry pulled out a parchment and quill and began writing.

_Voldemort:_

_Horcruxes, Death Eaters, Kill._

_War:_

_Resources like potions, food, protected location, weapons other than wand if it's lost? Maybe armor from basilisk skin? Information sources?_

_Allies like goblins, house elves ... um, owl army? I suppose Hedwig could try to help or something._

_Personal:_

_Physical, mental training, try to learn more wandless magic, emergency portkeys?_

Harry sighed deeply as he looked at what was an admittedly short list. But oddly enough, it made him feel better to have made it. A part of him felt like maybe a piece of Hermione was right there with him at that moment and he didn't have to keep all of his thoughts jumbled in his head, now.

He couldn't really do anything for the horcruxes. He was at school and didn't know enough to keep himself alive considering the wards that had killed him this last time. "Actually," he thought aloud. "The tiara, diadem thing is in the Room of Requirement. I can get that one-" his eyes widened and he shot out of the room, shoving the list into his pocket and pushed his legs as hard as he could up to the seventh-floor corridor, suddenly more thankful than ever that he had taken up running. "No, no, no!"

xXxXxXx

Dobby belly-crawled his way over the beams of the Malfoy home's arched ceiling, using only his fingers and toes to move himself forward as he made his way through the home, taking note of any books he could find that he felt should rightfully belong to his master, the great Harry Potter.

The excitable creature knew he couldn't use magic. Lucius had been so infuriated by his loss of his slave to Harry Potter that he had called in debts that were owed to take two other house elves who were now bound to the blonde death eater and they would detect magic in a moment.

Apparently, Lucius had wanted something so far against what he had once before that he had obtained two female elves in place of the male and forced them to wear quite literally nothing, ensuring they were aware of their constant shame. They were more aware of that than ever when he took them to his bed chambers for the first time when he didn't even share them with his wife. Lucius Malfoy would keep these elves broken so they could never take the initiative to help out one of his greatest enemies. Dobby wasn't sure exactly what happened in there. It was impossible to find out without using his magic, and the other elves were tasked to kill any house elves that showed up and used magic that weren't pre-approved. But each of the female elves came out worse in the mornings.

Dobby had gone through as many safe houses as he could find that he knew had once belonged to the Malfoy family and emptied them of every potion, book, weapon, wand and movable item and left only a pile of elf poo in the middle of each floor as his own, personal message. Magic ensured each figure looked like his former master.

The tiny house elf had gone through an awful lot of fiber to get each and every floor properly ... conditioned.

But, Lucius Malfoy had sworn loyalty and all that was his to the Dark Lord. Dobby's master, Harry Potter, defeated the Dark Lord as a baby and twice since then, even. By magical rules, everything that belonged to the Dark Lord then became Harry Potter's, including that which belonged to his minions.

That somewhat unorthodox line of thought is what made Dobby feel he was rightfully charged to help his Master Harry Potter with what the house elf felt he needed.

So for now, Dobby was playing scout and mole, going into the death eater's den to see what was needed and how best to help Harry Potter.

xXxXxXx

"Albus, we've been over this," Fudge whined once again. "Potter's emancipation is legal and complete. We checked and the paperwork was signed by his guardians, which you yourself are on record as having selected for him. Unless he does something illegal or proves himself unfit to govern himself, then there is nothing that can be done. You know this! Stop trying to force me into a position I can't back up."

"I am not asking you to overturn his emancipation," Albus soothed the ruffled politician, even though that was exactly what he had, in fact, asked. "I am merely suggesting an order to assign a proxy to his Wizengamot seats or to bar him from participating due to his age and to restrict his actions as an adult while he is still actually a child. He does not have the wisdom or knowledge to sit in that chamber. He is much too young."

"His family ring accepted him, Dumbledore. The laws in place allow him to sit his seats for himself and to be held to the same laws as an adult. His family line is too old to fight. It's one of the oldest Pureblood lines in existence. The laws favor such things far too heavily. You know that! You wrote some of them over a hundred years ago."

Dumbledore frowned, still wondering how he was unable to repeal his own laws. "He is still young. He could prove to be detrimental to the whole process."

"We have no choice, Dumbledore. Either he selects his own proxy of his own accord, or he sits for himself," Fudge said firmly. What he wouldn't give for control of those votes!

Dumbledore nodded gently, thinking to manipulate the man into bending the laws a little for 'the Greater Good', but was worried about being found out later on down the line. He normally did such things without fear of reprisal, knowing most people would take his word when he told them he had a good reason and not to delve too deeply into it. Sadly, that wasn't the case with pureblood politics. They would question his every motive and every move he took, fearing any potential loss of power in a domino-like effect. If Dumbledore could take one seat from them, then what was to stop him from others? The Potter seats were amongst the oldest currently active, if not the oldest, that was for sure. As such, they had the highest number of seats-by-proxy than most of the others, outclassed by only three other families. Taking control of that by force would be nearly impossible. Many have tried and failed in the past.

"I understand, Minister. I was merely trying to do what was right, for the greater good. I do hope your resilience won't cause any disruption in the factions."

Dumbledore got up and turned, leaving, well aware of the stricken look on the Minister's face. _'If I cannot remove him, my only choices are to get him to renounce his emancipation, admit me as his proxy or prove him unable to take care of himself, one way or another.'_

Plots of accidents of childhood actions and ignorance began flashing through his mind, coming to the fore with thoughts of the future and Harry Potter's destiny. He would fight Voldemort. He would die, one way or another. It was inevitable.

Another thought struck the aged Headmaster. All of this talk of the Founders and their descendants gave rise to another situation. Perhaps it would be best to take care of an issue of heirs at the same time as having one of those accidents?

_'Yes. I do believe that would be best,'_ the headmaster thought, stroking his beard as he meandered to the men's loo for a quick respite. _'It appears I will have no choice but to speak to a few people and activate a few plans ahead of schedule. A suitable mate will have to be chosen. He has shown a substantial liking to Miss Granger and Lovegood ... What is that muggle saying? 'Do not put all your eggs in one basket'? Yes ... And young Miss Weasley could be a good fall back option as well. He certainly has strong ties to that family. Perhaps Miss Brown. She's got quite a few admiring glances from the young lads lately...'_

_'Then again, causing the death of one of his friends could be even better. Such a waste of life, but necessary for 'the Greater Good'. That is what makes this all acceptable. All for the 'Greater Good'.'_ Dumbledore pondered on who the best candidates were for his plans, determining those who were useful and those who were expendable. On one hand, there was the option to create life, but that could be spun in a way that could be totally opposite of what he wanted to happen. After all, Harry was now the last of his family line and these were the people who demanded that pureblood lines continue. On the other hand, he could take a life, proving Harry unfit to pass judgement for anything, much less a body of leadership in their government. Decisions, decisions.

xXxXxXx

"Hermione! Luna!" Harry rushed into the Room of Requirement, slightly relieved to find it looking like an exact replica of the library and not a storage room or something with a possessed girl laughing darkly over the body of the other.

"Harry? What's wrong?" Hermione asked, rushing out of the bookshelves and waving her wand about, followed closely by Luna who held hers more at the ready by her side, neither wearing anything shiny upon their heads. "What happened?"

Harry's shoulders slumped as he sighed in relief. "Could I borrow the room for a couple of minutes? Nothing's wrong, I just need to use it for something really fast."

"You ran in here like there's a mountain troll at your heels just to ask to borrow the changing room?" Hermione asked in surprise. "I thought you said it could handle multiple people at once."

"It can," Harry confirmed, feeling rather small at the moment. "But, there's something I need to do with it and I don't know what it will do since I'm asking for its natural state, which is a room filled with a bunch of junk and no magic. It'll just take a moment," he finished, trying to usher the girls towards the door.

"Harry! We can walk on our own!" Hermione exclaimed, wondering why Harry was pushing them. Luna just kept leaning back into his hand with a maniacal grin, making him push her the whole way.

"This _is_ more fun, though," the blonde said through a giggle.

"Sorry," Harry said, shutting the door and pacing quickly, causing another door to appear. "I'll be out in just a second."

Harry rushed into the room and shut the door before either girl had a chance to come in after him, knowing he was going to be in trouble for it later. Still, he transfigured the crumpled list he had made earlier into a large leather satchel and then summoned Ravenclaw's diadem into it before taking the time to shrink and store the vanishing cabinet that had been forgetting about in there as well.

Sighing at what could have been a horrible disaster avoided, he opened the door to find Luna playing hop-scotch on the castle floor's stones and Hermione standing directly across from the door, her arms crossed under her breasts and glaring at him. It was a surprisingly impressive sight. "Er..."

"You could have just asked," Hermione muttered, watching Harry grin weakly back at her and rub the back of his head. The bushy-haired one couldn't help it. She forgave him instantly. "I'll expect a suitable act of forgiveness for this horrible, atrocious act of utter barbaric behavior, of course," she said primly, sticking her nose up in the air.

Forgiveness didn't go hand-in-hand with not watching him squirm, of course.

"Er, what did you have in mind?" Harry asked.

"Back massage!" Luna chirruped, hopping from stone to stone without missing a beat.

"How about you copy the books we noted to get in the library later today?" Hermione asked, wondering if Luna's suggestion may not be worth merit as well. Harry's hands had begun rubbing gently and kneading tense muscles when they were lounging and reading and both girls had fallen asleep against him more than a few times.

"Done and done," Harry said with a grin.

"Does he know we've already marked down several dozen?" Luna asked, coming up to them.

"I don't mind," Harry said with a smile. "As long as it's reasonable."

"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione said warmly, placing her hand on his upper arm affectionately. It was something she had done many times in the past, but after the night before, she suddenly felt a jolt of adrenaline shoot through her body as memories flashed through her mind's eye. "We won't overextend you. We'll just have you get half a dozen or so."

Harry chuckled as Hermione and Luna went back into the room after refashioning it to its previous appearance. He turned and left quickly, making his way to the one place he knew no one could ever hope to get at the newly acquired Horcrux without him being aware of it. "Hello Myrtle," he called out as he entered the girl's restroom.

Strange how he didn't feel awkward about that...

"It still surprises me that you keep coming back," Myrtle said, visible from only the nose up from the sinks at the side of the room. "I wasn't expecting you to come back until tomorrow for our Sunday talks."

"Something came up," Harry said. "I was wondering if I could ask a favor."

"Oh?" Myrtle asked, narrowing her eyes. She had been wondering when this would happen. No one ever wanted to talk to her for real! "What kind of favor would that be?"

"This," Harry began, holding up the leather satchel, "holds something very dangerous. It's something that Tom Riddle left behind that can possess people permanently. Hermione and Luna almost stumbled on to it, so I wanted to put it somewhere they can't ever get to and take it down to the Chamber until I learn how to fix it. I was hoping you wouldn't tell anyone about this so they don't ask about it."

"That's it?" Myrtle asked. No spying? No helping to distract to take pictures of naked girls like the Weasley twins once asked? No helping to hurt anyone? _Help_ her friends remain safe and _not_ possessed by the evil monster that ordered her death? Why did Harry asking something so small, and make it sound so big, seem normal?

"That's all. No one can go down to the Chamber until I learn how to break whatever enchantments are on this thing."

"What is it, though?" Myrtle asked, now intrigued despite herself, floating closer inch by inch.

"Don't get too close," Harry warned, pulling the mystery item back. "I don't actually know how it would affect a ghost and would rather you not have to find out. It's some of the darkest magics around and deals with necromancy. I don't think that'd mix well with spirits."

Myrtle backed away so quickly and with such a stricken face that Harry almost felt bad to warn her of that much. "Why on earth are you carting it around, then!" Myrtle screeched in a tone of voice most people knew her by.

"Would you have rathered Hermione or Luna activate it?" Harry asked rhetorically, frowning at Myrtle.

"Well, no," Myrtle allowed slowly. "But would they have known how?"

"The type of item it is, and what they would know it to be, would make them use it like it is intended, which would activate it almost immediately. I know them. They wouldn't even think twice if they knew what it was and would be lost forever," Harry said gravely. He actually didn't know if it would be permanent, but he knew Ginny's only hope had been removing the horcrux diary when it was stealing her life force. Whether it was possession or killing the girls to get his own body, it was not something he could allow.

"Okay, Harry," Myrtle agreed. "None of the other ghosts know about the Chamber, as far as I know, and I won't go down there without you. I've tried to look about but can only seem to go through the door when you opened it and can't go through the walls, so it'll be safe down there if you want. To be honest, I've been thinking about taking a trip that would probably have me gone for a while, so I wouldn't even be here to try."

"Huh? Where are you going?" Harry asked, wondering what the girl had in mind. She had never left before as far as he knew. She was infamous for always wailing and crying and peeping on boys.

"There are many things ghosts are famous for that I haven't tried yet," Myrtle said primly. "I decided there are some that I'd like to try, but I can't do them here because everyone knows me."

"Like what?"

"Haunting people," Myrtle said with a silvery blush. She had made herself invisible and moved about enough to practically know every piece of gossip in the school, and even things that no one else was privy to. Such as Harry's home life. Hermione had written her fears to her parents, which Myrtle _just happened_ to read about, or information that Madam Pomfrey had in each child's medical files. The Dursleys were very bad people, all three of them. Bad and muggle. They wouldn't see her, but she could certainly ruin their happy little lives for a little while.

And stop up the toilets. It wasn't as though she weren't used to doing that on those who were mean to her now.

"Oh," Harry said with a blink. _'I guess that's something she probably did in the past and I just didn't notice. It can't take that long to do that and get tired of it and come back.'_

As quickly as he could, Harry deposited his haul, still-shrunken and with a sticking charm, to the inside of Salazar Slytherin's nose in the bust of the face that the basilisk had once come out of and left, not wanting to remain any longer than necessary. He had been lost when he realized how close to danger Luna and Hermione had been and not even realized it. Now, however, Hermione had once again helped him and hadn't even been aware of the assistance she had given him.

_'That girl deserves a cookie or something,'_ Harry thought. _'Hm. She _does_ enjoy those sugar quills...'_

It was a relatively small thing, at first, but it was a seed that could grow to help him in his end-goal. The dueling club would eventually be working things where he couldn't help everyone at once.

"_We won't overextend you"_ Hermione had said.

"The girl's a bloody genius," Harry muttered, watching Neville from a small area near the greenhouses. He had several people to meet, and this was one who he knew could really help while helping himself at the same time. The boy was just too skittish to approach around moderately dangerous plants.

But _not_ too skittish to approach right after leaving said dangerous plants.

"Hey Neville!"

"AH!" The Longbottom scion dropped his books and spun around, fumbling with his wand and dropping it into the grass before looking up at Harry in shock. "H-Harry! What ... er, are you doing?"

Harry smiled slightly as he helped Neville pick up his things. "I was wondering if you wanted to help me out next weekend with the dueling club. I'm going to be doing shields and am going to train a ... er, teach a few people shields in advance to have help walk around."

"What?" Neville squeaked, his pudgy cheeks reddening. "I-I can't do that! I'm not a good wizard! I-"

"Neville," Harry cut the other boy off before he had a nervous breakdown, "I _know_ how powerful you are. I can sense it. Your wand fights you every step of the way and you can still make it work. I know you can do it. And it's very simple. I'll teach you everything. Do you want to at least try?"

"Y-you can sense magical power?" Neville asked in wide-eyed awe. "I always thought that was a myth!"

"When you try to use the wand, yes," Harry admitted, finding he actually _was_ able to feel magic when someone was using it. It was rare and wasn't something that made him stop to stare, but he _had_ felt it on occasion. It was usually Hermione and lately Luna, and any time Dumbledore used wandless magic, but Neville had surprised him quite a few times. Even if the majority of them hadn't happened yet. "You tend to have to put a lot of magic into a spell in order to force the wand to do what you want, which both makes your spells wonky and proves you're quite strong since you have to be strong to last as long as you do with so many overpowering spells."

Neville's blush was brighter, but not enough so to overpower the obvious signs of pride: head held a little higher, shoulders not hunched as much and a small smile.

No one had ever said anything so kind to him! That he, Neville Longbottom, could be not just average, which he had always dreamed of, but actually _powerful_!

"I-I'll try," Neville mumbled, much of his sudden courage leaving him.

"That's all I ask, Neville," Harry said with a smile to ease the boy's obvious fear of failure. "Meet me in the antechamber to the Great Hall at seven after dinner, yea? And make sure to eat well. You'll want the energy."

Neville nodded once and Harry turned to leave, jogging to where he knew the Hufflepuff common room to be. _'Time to get Scary Susan, Howling Hannah and ... Cedric.'_

Cedric was something Harry had been debating with himself over for the past month. When he had seen the boy during the return to Hogwarts, he had realized the Hufflepuff could still be saved, but didn't really know how. Hopefully, by ensuring he didn't end up in the graveyard, that would be all there was to it, but if something happened sooner, or different, Harry had no idea how to save him. Maybe by letting him be one of his lieutenants in the dueling club, he would have the skills to survive long enough to get away.

Which was the whole point of the club in the first place.

Well, it was more a sneaky way to train his friends more thoroughly than they had before, but he couldn't exactly be discrete about it, so the dueling club had been officially created.

However, walking through the first floor hallways, he came across two others on their way to their own common room that he decided to invite as well. "Hey Greengrass, Zabini, hold up a moment!"

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – October 2, After Dinner**

"So what do we do, Potter?" Cedric asked as he, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom and strangely, two Slytherins, Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini, gathered in the unused classroom on the third floor. There had been several curious glances as the group filed away, but by the time any student or faculty member decided to look, Harry had already lured them to a new location.

"First, Daphne, Blaise, get away from the door. This isn't a trap and anyone attacking anyone else will suffer far worse than they can dish out before getting stopped," Harry said, rolling his eyes at the fidgety Slytherins. Not that he blamed them. Ron had been glaring at them since the beginning of dinner when he learned they would be learning in advance with the others. "Second, a bit of clarification."

"The entire point of this group in front of you is to learn advanced techniques compared to the others so that, when I teach something new, you guys can walk about and help in places I can't get to. In exchange, you learn more than they do, learn it faster and you'll get a galleon each session, or two a month."

"You told us that, Potter," Daphne said, watching the others for signs of foul play. "What you didn't tell us is why you want us to join your band of merry men."

"Hey!"

"And women," Daphne corrected, nodding an acknowledgement at Susan.

"I'm going to be working on basic defense from the ground up and I want to progress as quickly and efficiently as possible between shields and tactics. Since I'd ask you to do the physical stuff that makes this unhappy work, that's what you're getting paid for." Hermione had been a little upset at him for paying them all what was basically a hundred pounds for just showing up at the defense sessions and helping to teach such simple things, but Harry had plans for the future.

Specifically the Slytherins. Ron could glare and huff all he wanted, but he wanted to try and get some people on the inside who could potentially warn them of deceit or an attack. In his memories, Draco had allowed the Death Eaters to enter the school and kill with abandon and, while they had run them out, there were still too many casualties. And many of those within Slytherin were aware of what was happening. Harry had hopes that he could show them that whatever they planned in the future, he was now another choice and hopefully, he would be considered someone they wanted to work for and assist rather than blood purists.

These two, while having eventually become enemies in his fifth year, had never really gotten very bad. They stayed quiet in the Inquisitorial Squad that Delores Umbridge had created that basically went around enforcing her will, and they didn't actually tend to take active measures against Harry or his friends. It was his hope that he could turn them to his side and his people first.

Worst-case scenario, he had to dispose of them quietly at some point to ensure they didn't hurt his friends. Yes. These were kids, but they were people he knew would become enemies if they were forced to choose, or just simply denied that choice. And the people Harry was fighting for most likely wouldn't give them the chance.

Probably the best thing about coming back in time from a state of war was his lack of hesitation to use former enemies in place of allies where they may suffer because of it. He was not cold-hearted, but he was hardened and would be ruthless if needed. And that was going to come forward.

It had to.

"We're getting paid for this?" Ron asked, his eyes wide and a grin stretching across his face. "Alright! Hey! Why only one galleon!"

"Ron!" Hermione scolded. "We're Harry's friends! If he asked us, we'd do it for free!"

"Not now we wouldn't," Ron rebuked with a scoff. "I'm not letting some Slytherin get paid for the same work I'm doing and not me!"

"Ron!" Harry barked out, making everyone jump and cutting off the two Slytherins' obviously heated retorts. "If you're going to be in this room and learn with us, you'll keep your temper down and be good! Disrespect _will_ have you thrown out and you can forget being a part of it. I don't want dicking about in this, understand?"

"You're gonna let them-"

"They haven't done anything!" Harry cut the angry redhead off. "There is no middle ground. Be nice or get out!"

Ron rocked forward, barely stepping himself from taking a step as the thought of shiny galleons crossed his mind. "Fine," he huffed, crossing his arms and settling for glaring at the two in green-trimmed robes.

"Not to be mean," Hannah began, raising her hand. "But I think a valid question of _why_ you have Slytherins here could be asked? I mean, as a general rule, you and them don't really seem to get along with one another. There's always been an obvious hatred, I thought."

Harry sighed, wondering how he got here and noticing everyone was watching him, but the two Slytherins most intently. "I'll admit I don't like Malfoy. Do I think he's evil? Probably not now, but he's heading that way. Most Slytherins are pureblood and the social hierarchy in the wizarding world almost dictates acting a certain way, and I bet it's much the same in their House."

The two Slytherins' eyes shifted to each other and then back to Harry. The Gryffindor was frighteningly well-informed.

"And I _know_ that some families will use the actions of their children, or inaction, however they can. So, rather than make enemies of people whose parents are in a position to hurt their families, or themselves, it's just easier to go with the flow and not risk anything one way or another."

The two Slytherins were now somewhat more pale and shifting nervously as the eyes of the others flickered to them randomly.

"Is that what's happening?" Harry asked rhetorically. "I don't know, but it sounds like it'll work for me, so it's what I'm assuming. If I see something that proves otherwise, I won't discount it, but I'll always keep my eyes open, just like I will for anyone from _any_ house, no matter how well I know them."

"As it stands, I don't see Slytherins asking for help from anyone if they can get around it and I don't see them accepting any that's freely given. They weren't too receptive when I was showing them the Patronus, though more than I had expected. I figure they'll get more help if it's someone from their own House."

"But you can't trust Slytherins-" Ron began, getting cut off once again.

"Not everyone who goes evil or dark comes from Slytherin," Harry snapped. "You told me that everyone who went bad was from Slytherin in first year before our Sorting and we've seen more than enough proof otherwise. There've been plenty of people from other houses, too. I'm tired of arguing. Either accept it, or leave. Make your choice."

Harry watched again as Ron grumbled and looked away, his face and ears reddening, but staying put. "Good. Now we'll continue learning shields in the next school meeting, but after that, my plan is to eventually get you guys to wandless magic and-"

"What!" Multiple voices asked in shock, the only one remaining quiet was Luna, who was more focused on drawing a face and ears on a sock for future use.

"If you lose your wand, most people are no more defended than the average muggle," Harry explained. "It's actually not nearly as hard as you may think. It's just something that requires a lot more focus."

"Can you do it?" Blaise asked, his expression neutral.

In response, and figuring a show of strength would be better-suited than much else, Harry left his eyes locked on Blaise's and raised his arm, pointing his hand to the desk. Suddenly, a dark blue oval shape erupted from his hand, surrounded in what looked like neon purple lightning, and took flight with a dull whump before crushing into a desk, blasting fragments into the far wall and bouncing back, only to hit a shield Harry had also cast wandlessly, keeping the dust and debris at the far wall and off of everyone watching.

"Most of what I can do without a wand is ... er, _messy_," Harry admitted, looking sheepish. "My focus has been on combat-related magics and making sure I'm still standing, but my enemy isn't, so I haven't learned a lot that's useful other than those, but I thought I'd teach the summoning charm so you could reclaim your wand if it was lost."

Blaise's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Duly noted."

"Bloody hell!" All the other males said in awed unison.

"You've got to teach us how to do that!" Ron exclaimed happily.

"Later, perhaps," Harry said, not promising anything. Especially when the redhead was angry with him only a few seconds ago and now was playing the friend again. It reminded Harry of the many times that had happened, both in his future and in the past already. "But you'll learn the basics to that after next week's school meeting unless you get the shields down pat before that."

"Now, the reason I brought that up," Harry began standing before the others with his posture radiating a presence that sent a thrill through the girls. In Hermione's case, this was that same version of Harry she had seen come forward several times, only now, it hit her with much more force as she acknowledged, silently, something she had been hesitant to do until that moment.

She _liked_ it!

Luna was thinking much the same, though for her, she realized this was the Harry that she knew enforced his promises to protect her and the backbone of the Harry that would remain her friend, no matter what he had to suffer alongside of her for association. This was the _pure_ essence of Harry Potter that was her friend, her confidant and ... damn if it wasn't something she wanted desperately to keep with her forever.

Susan and Hannah saw The Boy-Who-Lived and wondered secretly if all those children's books had actually been fiction.

Daphne saw _power!_ Raw, unadulterated, controlled power. Power in Magic, power in Fortune, power in Politics and the power of simple Success. He _could_ do the things he said he would do and would be firm in his loyalties. She and Blaise had accepted the Gryffindor's offer because they knew he wasn't likely to lure them to a trap and because it was an interesting idea.

Not to mention the spying opportunities.

Blaise was, oddly, a mix of thoughts between Daphne's and ... Hermione's.

"I don't want to teach the students wand movements, but focus and intent, which is basically the key to wandless magic. I don't even want them _learning_ wand movements. That's why I'm teaching you in advance. If you ignore wand movements and incantations, you'll cast faster and can do more complex things like two spells in one."

"You never said anything about silent casting," Hermione said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh...," Harry mumbled with a blush. "Uh ... Surprise?"

Neville snorted, then looked up at the others with wide eyes. "Di-did I do that out l-loud?"

"Don't worry," Cedric clapped the nervous Gryffindor on the shoulder with a grin. "Anything Harry's likely to do will probably end quick."

They all heard Neville gulp.

"Alright," Harry began with a smile, "I want you to pull out your wands and hold them steady in front of you and just imagine the magic going from you, through your wand, and then out the tip in the shape of a ball or a wall. Balls can generally take a little more punishment because they'll deflect some of the energy and not just block it, so are usually better, but a wall is easier to picture. When I think you're doing it, I'm going to start sending stinging hexes."

A few seconds later, yelps were heard in quick succession as various body parts were found to be tender.

An hour later, the group was heading out the door, rubbing sensitive flesh and groaning. Most of them had managed to make the shields work, but still needed a moment to think of what they needed strongly enough to make it happen, and the shields were as likely to shatter under the first hit they received, but the goal had been obtained. The shields were functioning. Only Ron and oddly Cedric hadn't managed to make them form other than once or twice in Ron's case.

"Harry, you're a right bastard, you know that?" Ron complained, ignoring Hermione's reproach about his language. "Couldn't you use tickling hexes? Or cheering charms? Why'd you have to use something painful? You got me twice in a row once, you know!"

Hermione refused to complain about Harry hitting her twice in a row as well. She had turned around in an attempt to dodge his spell and he had hexed her left butt cheek, grinning as he did so.

"If I used a cheering charm or something amusing, you would have been less-inclined to block them," Harry told him. "You _wanted_ to block these, so you had more focus, drive and desire to do so."

Neville, who had been third behind Hermione and Luna, grunted. "Is it too early to ask for a raise, boss?"

As the majority of the others stared at the boy in shock for making a joke, Harry laughed. "Ask me after I see how well you can show this stuff to the others."

"I just want to take a long bath and go to bed," Susan muttered, unaware of Ron or Neville's blushes or sudden glances at her body. "That wore me out."

"Me too," Cedric admitted. "It's like it uses more magic than the usual method."

"Not so," Harry rebuked immediately. "It actually uses less or the same, but you _can_ use more, which you will do when you start out. You have to learn to regulate the flow of your magic. If you imagine your magic coming out and hardening into a shell, then it does. If you imagine it rushing out of your wand and forming a shell around you that moves so fast it pushes the spell away before it breaks through, it'll do that. But that way uses a _massive_ amount of magic, but could block far more."

Luna and Hermione looked at Harry quickly as he continued talking, wondering at the sudden implications of that statement.

"It all depends on how you control it. But I went through loads of my magic before I realized how to control it. I just always thought I had to push as much into it as I could to make it stronger. And it does, but it doesn't have to be for everything."

"This is where we split up," Blaise said, stopping at the end of the hall at the stairs. "Thank you for ... an enlightening evening. And may you suffer from bedbugs for the pain."

"Aw, I'll miss you too, Blaise," Harry said, grinning and putting his hand over his heart as if he had just heard the most endearing thing ever. It made the boy's stoic face crack just a bit as his mouth twitched.

Shame Harry hadn't been privy to his earlier thoughts.

"We're gone, too," Cedric said for himself and his two Hufflepuff friends. "G'night Harry. Ladies."

"Are you coming with us or going back to your dorm," Hermione asked Luna as Harry and Ron walked off, signaling to Harry that they needed a moment and telling them they were headed to the loo, which was true. It had been a long night after dinner, after all, and a lot of pumpkin juice.

"It's nearly curfew," Luna said. "I suppose I should head back so Filch doesn't get his knickers in a twist."

"Oh. I just figured you'd want to stay the night with me again," Hermione said casually. Luna had begun spending almost every night with her a week and a half ago, save for the night before with Harry. But those seemed different since she was less ... _Luna_ in the mornings after those nights. She was extra cuddly, and almost attached to whoever sat closest to her between herself and Harry, and, if she didn't know what it wasn't, she may have been more worried with Harry.

Still, this was a chance to see if Luna would just rather sleep with a friend or if she actually had things happen that often that she couldn't sleep in her own bed.

"You mean I don't have to wait until someone does something nasty?" Luna asked, shocked. "Are you really going to just let me stay?"

Hermione swallowed. It seemed it was a bit of both. Luna appeared far too pleased and sincere to be otherwise. "It's easier than running about after curfew."

"I would like that. Thank you," Luna said softly.

"Can I ask ... Why don't you let us tell the teachers?" Hermione asked, wondering why Luna was willing to let things get so bad she couldn't even sleep in her own bed.

Luna knew Hermione was too intelligent to not notice what was happening, but she had hoped she wouldn't ask. "It will just make things worse. I have somewhere I can sleep if I get locked out and it isn't usually so bad I can't sleep in my bed. They've just been a little worse this year. If I go to a teacher, they will just get in trouble and then they will either get worse or I will not be able to prove it was them because they will leave less clues about, making the argument moot anyway."

Luna looked to Hermione and grasped her upper arm firmly, but obviously pleading. "Please don't tell anyone. It won't do anything but make it worse."

"I don't like it, Luna. They have no right to do those horrible things to you! I mean, you've shown up naked before! Harry's even seen you! Doesn't that upset you?"

"It's just skin," Luna admitted, feeling rather confused at the other girl's focus. "When I'm at home, I'll swim or dance in the glades, or even walk about the house naked. I actually prefer to not be clothed. I know it is the social norm, but I also wouldn't walk around Diagon Alley nakie, either. And, I know Harry's seen me, but he was very gentlemanly about it and seemed more embarrassed than I was. And he hasn't told a soul about it, so I know he doesn't find some form of accomplishment out of it."

"Harry wouldn't do that!" Hermione quickly said, feeling the strange urge to defend him even though she knew Luna knew better. There was also a strange sense of ... something that she wasn't familiar with. She could vaguely remember something similar from his letters during the summer, but it was certainly much less direct than this.

"I know," Luna said calmly, glad Hermione was now no longer focusing on her tormentors. "It's strange. I would feel bad if anyone _but_ Harry saw me. Or any boys, at least. I don't feel awkward at all when you see me. But I also have no problems when I go to places with my father where clothing is scarce or ignored all together."

"I know," Hermione admitted, washing her hands. "I'm the same way when my parents and I go on holiday to places with beaches like that. I don't think twice about it, but here, I would rather not."

"Well, if you ever do decide to try it, I would recommend Harry's bed. It's really quite comfortable and he's _very_ warm."

Hermione choked as her mind became active with possibilities. _'Why the bloody hell did I want to see his fantasies!?'_

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – October 9, During previous scene after Hermione & Luna go to the bathroom**

"Hey Harry, I've been meaning to ask you about something," Ron said after the girls begged off to go do something girly.

"What's that?"

"Those rock bracelets you've got. When did you start wearing them?" Ron asked, gesturing to Harry's wrists. "I usually only get a glance at them since you have been wearing robes with long sleeves an' all, but I remembered about them while you were flinging hexes at us."

"Oh," Harry hesitated, putting his hands down so the sleeves covered the items in question. I got them towards the end of the summer. A ... er, friend gave them to me."

"A 'friend', huh?" Ron asked suggestively. "Would that friend happen to be a girl?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yea, but I've only seen her a few times."

"Ah. That's good. I had been wondering if you were ... you know..."

"Know what?" Harry asked, truly unsure.

"You know," Ron gesticulated with his hands, trying to speak through them to imitate ... what was probably some elaborate dance or an entire conversation, Harry wasn't sure what. Eventually, seeing Harry wasn't getting it, Ron leaned in close and whispered, "you know, a _poofter_."

"I'm not gay, Ron," Harry groaned out. He was really beginning to wish spells would stick to the stone bracelets. He had tried disillusionment charms and Notice-Me-Not charms, but they wouldn't take hold for whatever reason. The magics he had tried to use to hide them just before Hogwarts had acted as though the bracelets weren't even there.

"Just makin' sure. You wanna play some chess before bed?"

"I've been getting up early to do some exercising, remember?" Harry asked with a yawn. "And Oliver wants to get the team together tomorrow to discuss some Quidditch stuff. How's your plan for a club for that going, anyway?"

"Not great," Ron grunted. "Old McGonagall says I can't start a club like that unless I can get my grades up and I had to get my essays turned in earlier. You guys could have told me the end of the month was coming, you know."

"You know the date, Ron," Harry said, feeling rather put off that Ron was basically blaming him and Hermione for not telling him to do his work. "It isn't our job to force you to do your work. Everyone was told a week in advance to get them done and turned in and Hermione had even written your essays for you. All you had to do was rewrite them and then turn them in."

"I was worried about her!" Ron defended. "I couldn't do it 'cause she was acting all weird!"

"Making her do your work for you isn't showing you care," Harry scolded, actually sounding upset which Ron picked up on.

"Whatever."

The remainder of the walk to the Gryffindor common room was done in silence, both boys refusing to talk to one another. Behind them, all but forgotten, Neville was too worried and nervous to say anything.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – October 9, As the Gryffindors and Luna meet back up**

"Master's Luna will be joining his Hermione without going to her bed tonight," Spots told Twinkle as they followed Harry, Ron and Neville. They were sticking to the shadows in an attempt to practice their stealth, which they hadn't been working on since they found that the younger years, or almost any of the females, would provide treats.

Sweet, glorious treats!

But all things have to come to an end. At least until meal times when cuddles and treats were quite abundant.

"That's good. They did something to her sleeping area again to try and recreate last night's events."

"Forgive my impertinence, but myself and others are curious as to your reasons for withholding our retaliation against Master's Luna's tormentors. We are finding it increasingly difficult to stay our paws."

"I know. If I'm honest, I feel just the same."

"Then why-"

"Because Master will defend her. I can feel his anger swell each time he sees something that upsets him about her treatment and it has nearly reached a breaking point. But more than that, something is telling me that waiting will prove to be better. Not just because Master will take action, but something ... darker."

"Master's Luna...?" Spots asked, worried.

"Not _to_ her, no," Twinkle assured his subordinate as their master made it to the seventh floor. "But ... something bad will happen that will define ... _everything_. And Master's Luna will be the harbinger."

"..."

"I know, Spots. I know. But whatever is guiding me, it is persistent."

Spots followed for a few more seconds before nodding with a fist to his heart and then he was gone. The others would need to know to keep the calm for a little while longer.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – October 31, 09:40**

October thirty-first, nearly a month later, found Harry sitting next to Hermione with Luna sprawled out in their laps as all three read their selected books. Both of the third years were contentedly stroking the blonde's long hair with their fingers while the second-year girl hummed a slow song gently as she wrote.

Ron was working feverishly on his essays, remembering the events from September and not wanting to have a repeat since the majority of the faculty had been rather clear on what would happen if he didn't turn in a single essay on time again. Luckily for him, the end of the month came on a weekend, so the students actually had until November first to turn in their monthly essays. Sadly, Ron's _daily_ homework was a touch behind as well, so he was busy the majority of the day and stressing more than just a little bit.

Harry was marveling over how swiftly the whole month had flown by. Luna had slept every night in Hermione's bed save for two that she had spent with Harry simply because she 'missed her cuddle time' with him. In point of fact, Hermione admitted that they were the nights when her roommates had remained awake too long to allow the Ravenclaw to find her way to Hermione's bed without getting caught and the Thundercats had explained that her bed was trapped.

It was also somewhat disturbing how no one asked about Luna's nightly absences from her dorm, considering every single person there was aware of it. The faculty also found it curious to note that the Thundercats would only interact with the Ravenclaw first-years and would be somewhat cold towards all the other years. They didn't accept treats, even meat. They wouldn't allow themselves to be petted or cuddled and the last time Penelope Clearwater tried to give one an order, she found all of her clothing had been shredded, and all of the Thundercats had been preening about their claws, and a suspicious liquid in her shoes.

According to the Daily Prophet, no one yet knew who the holders of the Founders' seats was. The secretaries and archivists assigned to the task had all been assuming that whoever held them would take up a Founder's name in place of their own family name, but that hadn't been the case. So they had, until just a few days ago, been looking in the wrong place, which confused the article writers and those at the Ministry greatly.

But Harry knew it was only a matter of time before they found him out. According to the last article, they would be going back through the family lines in the archives starting with the most likely candidates, which were historically pureblood lines. Harry's was one of the oldest, but only because many others had been killed off. But it wouldn't be long before they discovered everything.

The dueling club had been an impressive array of successes and failures, sadly. An unforeseen problem had been habits. Older students, by and large, were finding Harry's methods of spell casting to be a great deal more difficult than the younger years. Surprisingly, with little actual instruction, the first and second-year students had taken to the lesson with almost no problems. And the upper years were getting quite upset over it.

If a firstie can do it, why then, can't they? And the little brats, according to several upper years, couldn't stop gloating. Or casting tiny little shields over the top of glasses so they couldn't drink anything. Apparently, the twins had been corrupting the minds of the innocent.

"Are you going to Hogsmeade today?" Luna asked as she stretched over both laps. Her friends _were_ the cuddly sort. _'Maybe cuddly and nice go hand in hand?'_

Hermione looked to Harry, silently asking what his plans were, which would indirectly include her since she didn't want to go without him; a change from his memories since she had been looking forward to the experience for the entire year.

"Yea. I definitely want to try it out. Do you want us to pick anything up for you?" He asked.

"That's okay. I was just curious if you were leaving or not."

"Not for long," Hermione amended. "It'll be nice to get out for a little while, but I expect we'll be back after not much time, certainly enough time to have lunch here with you. I really don't want Harry exposed for so long with Black out there." The bushy-haired brunette looked at Harry, silently asking if he was going to be a pain over the idea.

"Hey! Don't look at me," Harry exclaimed, raising his hands defensively. "It isn't _my_ fault crazed, demented bad guys have a thing for little boys!"

"Honestly!" Hermione said with a small smile, rolling her eyes as she felt Luna giggle on her lap.

"I asked because the carriages will be leaving soon," Luna said, fiddling with a part of Harry's pants by flicking it back and forth. She didn't want them to go, but knew it was also unrealistic to spend every waking, and sleeping, moment with her friends. That didn't mean she didn't want to try, of course.

"Tempus," Hermione incanted, getting a quarter to ten. "It's really creepy how aware of the time you are, you know," Hermione said with a smile.

Luna rolled over her friends' legs to lay on her back with a grin. She hadn't understood it too much at first, but she knew this was a good, friendly form of teasing and relished in it. She still had to see Hermione's face to be assured it wasn't Hermione turning mean, though. "We all have our talents. You can find information from anywhere, regardless of how obscure and seem to always know relevant knowledge. Harry is always there when you need him and gives great massages and I am the Mistress of Time!"

Both Harry and Hermione smiled at the blonde's antics, wondering at their own histories with time-travel and hugged her, hoping she would change focus. It worked spectacularly. Luna hugged them back with such force it overbalanced them and made them top-heavy, making all three fall from the couch.

"Ugh. I've heard friendship means taking the good with the bad, but this is ridiculous," Harry grumbled from underneath the two girls where pointy elbows and what he thought may be a foot were crushing sensitive locations since he put himself underneath of them to cushion the fall as best as possible.

"That had better be the spine of a book, Harry," Hermione grumbled with a blush as she rose, disappointed that it actually was. It was also what Harry thought had been a foot.

Harry extracted himself and went upstairs as the girls went to Hermione's dorm for whatever Hermione wanted to snag. "Hey Ron. Are you going to Hogsmeade with Hermione and I?"

Ron looked up from the mass of wrinkled parchment and then back down. He only had two of his essays started, much less close to completed. But then again, he could always go and then finish when he came back. "Yea. I wanna go."

"Alright. What about you, Neville?" Harry asked the boy coming from the shower room.

"What about me?" The boy asked nervously. _'What did I miss?'_

"You, me, Ron, Hermione, Hogsmeade, butterbeers and time out of Hogwarts," Harry said.

"Oh. Uh, sure."

"Ten minutes or so and the carriages leave. We don't want to walk. Dementors and bad weather and all that." Harry opened his trunk and got his wand holster, attaching it to his forearm and stowing away his wand.

The group met Hermione and Luna in the common room and made their way to the front doors of Hogwarts where they were stopped by an old man who had been scarce recently, spending a lot of time at the Ministry.

"Hello everyone. Mister Potter, may I have a word with you?" Dumbledore asked, motioning the children by and subtly moving so Harry remained in front of him.

"The carriages will be leaving in just a moment, Headmaster," Harry said. "Can it wait until after we come back?" Harry motioned Hermione and Luna who had waited at the doors to continue on so they wouldn't be late and make Hermione miss her ride.

"That is actually why I wished to speak with you. I would like to ask you to remain here in Hogwarts where it is safe from Sirius Black. I have seen you read the papers and am sure you are aware of his history."

"It was in the papers," Harry said simply, idly noting the carriages leaving.

"Exactly," Albus exclaimed with a smile. "It is for that reason you must remain safe in the castle. I was also hoping to ask you about your emancipation and if you may be willing to name me your proxy for the Wizengamot meetings so you needn't bother yourself with sitting in a stuffy old room with a bunch of elderly men."

"Name the man who was responsible for living in hell as the voice of my votes in a chamber where he makes decisions that affect the lives of countless others like he did with me?" Harry asked with a scoff, smirking when he saw Dumbledore's expression turn grim. "No thank you, Dumbledore. And I will be going to Hogsmeade as well. Have a good day, Sir."

Harry walked past the Headmaster and continued outside where he saw Hermione and Luna still waiting for him, even without any remaining carriages. "What are you still doing here, Hermione?"

"Well, I didn't want to leave Luna out here alone since she wasn't going and I didn't want to leave you behind."

"And now you can't take the carriages because they're all gone," Luna stated as the last carriage went along its way.

"That's okay," Harry said with a smirk. "I've got another form of travel. We just have to get out of the Hogwarts wards. You know," Harry said quietly, slinking over to Luna to whisper conspiratorially, "you could come with us. You just need an adult supervisor and I _am_ emancipated..."

Luna giggled, taking a step back to play evasive. "Sorry Doctor Doom, but I would still want to ask Daddy's permission first. As fun as it would be, I wouldn't want him to be upset with me."

"I can respect that," Harry said with a nod. "Ready to go, Hermione?"

Getting an affirmative, the duo walked out of the courtyard and through the gates of the school. Hermione had given Filch her permission slip and Harry didn't need one. So once through, Harry hugged Hermione to him, waved at Luna and the two faded as their bodies seemed to slide to both sides as if fading out of being.

"That's certainly odd," Luna commented to herself, feeling sad to be alone again, even if it was only temporary. She spun around and began to skip her way into the school, smiling as a group of Thundercats seemed to appear out of nowhere and began skipping along with her.

xXxXxXx

"Wow that was strange!" Hermione said as she looked around herself, finding it interesting that they were in Hogsmeade before the first carriages approached. She could see them, even now, about half way down the lane to the small community.

"Yea, it takes some getting used to," Harry said with a grin. "What do you say we get through the candy shop before the others show up so we can miss the sugar rush and then head to the book shop?"

Hermione grinned at Harry fiendishly. "You had me at 'book shop'," she said as she unwrapped her arms from Harry's waist and they went into the first store. Harry got several boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jellybeans, Sugar Quills, Chocolate Frogs and enough chocolate bars to last even Ron up to Christmas. Then he began getting an assortment of other items like gum drops and caramel candies to share with Luna in case she didn't care for the others.

"You'll rot your teeth!" Hermione exclaimed when she saw his haul as the other students began to dismount their carriages. Her parents would have heart attacks if they saw how much raw sugar he planned to ingest.

"It isn't all for me or for just now. It's partly to reward successes at the dueling club and because I know my dorm mates will want some. Ron tends to eat candy and ask whose it is later," he admitted, thinking of their sixth year when the redhead had secretly borrowed tainted cauldron cakes that Romilda Vane had laced with love potion that had poisoned him. That had been the first time his actions had affected him, but Ron had always taken his candies. Even in first year, he had eaten all of the chocolate frogs Harry's well-wishers had given him and taken the wizard cards out of them.

"Just remember to brush your teeth," Hermione warned with a frown, looking at his trove of sugary delights askance until he showed her the sugar quills.

"No worries. I'll get your candy, too. It isn't like it will add much more to my bill," Harry offered, seeing his friend with a single box of sugar-free gum. "It'll give you more to use at the book store."

A few minutes, and one shrunken bag of sugar-induced coma, later, the two were in the book store where Harry immediately lost sight of Hermione. "That girl is scary fast sometimes," he muttered, strolling over to the section on runes and warding, taking a copy of anything that looked promising. He would have to find a way to get past the deadly traps around the horcruxes he was aware of and how to destroy them.

After making his selection, he noticed another area that seemed much older where the books appeared to be as old as the store itself. It was all about melee weaponry and fist fighting. Harry dropped his hand to his waist where the Sword of Gryffindor rested at his left hip, virtually all but forgotten. Harry had become so used to its weight and moving it when he was sitting that he usually forgot the bloody thing wouldn't remain more than a hundred or so yards away before somehow finding its way back to his belt.

He had taken to shrinking it down to nearly be totally ignored and charmed invisible after an embarrassing misunderstanding with Hermione before she remembered that unique feature.

Still, if he _had_ the silly thing, he may as well try and learn to use it. So he found the larger book on swords, noting the yellowed pages, fancy script and old-style word selections and added it to his pile as well. It would give him a good foundation to learn from and then maybe he could use the Room of Requirement for practical training. It was definitely unlikely to learn enough from a book to get good enough to not kill himself.

After nearly a half hour looking through books, Harry and Hermione took their purchases to the counter where Hermione found that she had forgotten the money pouch that her parents had given her for the year. It wasn't in her purse where she thought it had been. Since the golden coins didn't fit in her wallet, it had been its own, separate bag she hadn't considered.

"Why don't you use the card?" Harry suggested simply, seeing her wallet. "It'll be a good chance to make sure it works since you haven't tried it yet."

"But it's _your_-"

"Here," Harry said, cutting her off. "We'll get mine at the same time. This _is_ what it was for," he said with a grin. "Try it out."

Hermione hesitated only a moment before grabbing her purse from an inner pocket, lamenting how she didn't just leave the galleon pouch in it because of its size. She hadn't wanted to carry anything large or bulky and so only had what amounted to a large wallet. Still, she pulled out the black card and handed it over, watching the middle-aged witch's eyes widen to comical proportions.

"Is this acceptable?" Hermione asked, wondering at the woman's reaction.

"Y-yes! Of course it is! Er, will you be needing anything else, Miss?" The sales witch was ringing up the books and staring between Hermione and Harry with such fervor that the bushy-haired one moved a touch behind Harry to stay out of her gaze without trying to appear obvious.

"Thank you," Harry said, guiding Hermione out of the shop with a hand to the small of her back and staying between her and the sales witch. He was unsettled by the situation as well. "Well, that was weird," he said as the door closed behind them.

"Do you see what I see?" Hermione asked, pointing in front of the Three Broomsticks.

"Do you see a mangy black dog drinking from Neville's bottle of butterbeer?" Harry asked, highly amused.

"Yes."

"Then yes I do," Harry said, approaching the guzzling dog. "Hey mate. What's going on?"

"Not a lot," Neville said with a smile. "How are you two do-HEY!" Neville reached to grab his drink and found the dog with its head tilted back and the bottle emptying into its mouth before it dropped the empty bottle and burped.

"Haha! You got beat by a dog!" Ron laughed, coming up from where he had a small roll pilfered from Dean's plate where the other boy had been finished.

Harry got down to look at the dog so the others couldn't hear. "Obey and you get fed. If you don't, I won't protect you from getting hexed." The dog tilted its head to the side. "Come on, Neville. I'll get you a new butterbeer. You want something, Hermione? My treat," he offered, wrapping an arm snugly around her waist.

"Harry, you don't have to keep buying things for me," Hermione said. Still, it was nice of him to do.

"No worries, Hermione. I've just got one thing I need to do before we go in," Harry finished with a large grin that the dog could swear he remembered from somewhere.

"What's that?"

In response, Harry conjured a large wooden bucket and then filled it with steamy, soapy water. Then three brushes were conjured, and the dog knew something was up.

"URF!" The black dog tried to take off like a dementor was behind it only for Harry's wand to snap out and the dog lifted from the air, growling petulantly with his ears laid back and his tail between his legs.

"Rub-a dub, dub, Black Doggy in a tub," Harry began to sing as the dog got a thorough scrubbing. However, the warming charm afterwards and the extremely large bowl of hot stew Madam Rosemerta was serving for the midday meal had definitely been worth it.

The dog stayed obediently to Harry's side, watching as the young man kept his arm around the brunette girl's waist almost the entire time in the village, impressed to find him flinging about a corporeal Patronus every few minutes to patrol the small town.

It hoped that some day soon, it would be able to ask if the memories provided to fuel the Patroni had been supplied with the assistance of the girl on Harry's arm.

After the meal for the dog and a very small amount to eat for Harry and Hermione, who planned to eat with Luna for lunch in only a few minutes and just wanted to have a snack first, Harry ordered a small keg of butterbeer that had runes to make the inside a bit more than a hundred times larger and filled to the brim and put that in his pouch. Apparently, it was a popular method of using runes because it made shipping so much easier and allowed shops to keep more on hand. Harry made a point of asking for the well-endowed barmaid to order a dozen more.

"Alright dog," Harry said as he and Hermione made it to the edge of the village. "This lovely lady and myself are headed back to school where, unfortunately, you can't follow. Since we don't want to roam about with the floating bastards-"

"-Harry!"

"-to try and suck out our souls, we're going back a different way. Stay warm and, if you happen to know of any places where you can hide out and stay safe, do so. G'bye, fluffy."

Harry got a big lick in the face from the now shiny and no longer mangy black dog that made him spit to get rid of the taste of doggy slobber, causing Hermione to giggle. "Now _that_ is funny," the bushy-haired one proclaimed.

"Yea, yea," Harry said, getting behind Hermione and wrapping his arms around his waist with his chin resting on her shoulder. "Be good dog." Then the two faded from view.

The dog's ears perked up as he saw the two leave, but he immediately set over to the area he had taken the other boy's drink from. Underneath of the bench, caught under some dirt, was a slip of paper that had been sticking out from the boy's trouser pocket.

A paper with the password list for the Gryffindor common room.

_'It was great seeing you again, Harry. But I have to avenge James and Lily! Nothing else can get in the way of that! I'm proud of you for becoming the man you are, but now that I've finally had a chance to learn the password, I have to kill him.'_

The black dog entered into a cave where he had been hiding out and transformed into Sirius Black to move several ratty clothes and blankets he had been able to steal from the garbage into a makeshift bed. The warming charm on his body and the hot food in his belly lulled him into sleep after he transformed back into his canine form for the added warmth of the fur.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – October 31, 19:15 – As dinner is ending**

"Ohhh," Luna let out a pitiful moan. "My tummy is quite upset with me for eating so many desserts, I think."

"What do you expect?" Hermione asked, wondering what the magical equivalent of an antacid tablet was in the wizarding world. "You had two pieces of pumpkin pie with enough whipped cream to make a model of Harry's head."

Harry snorted. "Or it could have been that pudding-eating competition you challenged Ron to." The redhead in question chose that moment to fall backwards with a wheezing sound and hit the floor to let out a loud, pungent burp.

"Definitely the pudding," Luna agreed, letting out her own burp, followed by a contended sigh. "But it was also definitely worth it! He lost the bet, so he gets to walk about like a penguin and quack like a duck for an hour."

"You don't need to worry about him-" twin one began.

"-holding up his end of the deal," twin two finished.

Fred and George put Ron's arms over their shoulders with maniacal grins. "Come Devil Snape or exploding potion-"

"-or Ron's own nose nuggets-"

Hermione blanched.

"-Ron will uphold his honor!" The two finished, carrying their groaning brother out of the Great Hall to visit the loo. Better what was likely to come happen there than in the Great Hall where people were all eating.

"How in the world did you eat thirteen bowls of pudding?" Hermione asked, somewhat horrified by the number of empty bowls stacked next to the tiny waif of a girl. "Where did you put it? In your legs?"

"Tammy, my tummy," Luna responded, wondering how she could put it in her legs. "She isn't very pleased with me, though."

"You named your stomach?" Hermione asked, wondering why she was surprised.

"Of course! Don't you?" Luna asked. "It isn't fun to just talk to it without calling it _something_, isn't it?"

Hermione worked her mouth, trying to respond, but nothing came out. How do you respond to that? She was so shocked, words were leaving her mouth before she was even aware of it. "I named my bottom cheeks 'Velma' and 'Daphne' once." Hermione's eyes widened as she looked at the blank stares of her two friends. "I just said that out loud, didn't I?"

Blonde and black-haired heads bobbled in sync.

"Bugger."

"Er, anyway," Harry said slowly, looking around. "It looks like things are winding down. Want to head up for an early night?"

Hermione looked over and noticed Parvati and Lavender were still chatting with some of the older girls, so her and Luna could get to sleep without having to worry about waiting for the two girls to fall asleep first. It would be a wonderful respite compared to the nights they _had_ been getting. Having Luna as a sort of permanent slumber party was kind of fun, since they could silence the drapes and talk about all sorts of things, but waking up in the morning and leaving without the girl being aware was a tricky process that usually required moving very slowly and fighting the girl's natural cuddly instinct. "Yes. Extra sleep would be nice."

Luna hiccuped and agreed, somewhat waddling as she walked opposite Hermione on the other side of Harry. "Oh! My tummy is all bulgy," she said as they left the Great Hall. Indeed, the girl looked almost three months pregnant. "So much pudding..."

The threesome walked, albeit very slowly, to the Gryffindor common room, only to find a group of people standing in the way. _'This is _not_ happening again,'_ Harry thought, wondering why Sirius was doing this. He had met Harry in dog form twice now and he had the entire time while they were in Hogsmeade to try and get Pettigrew!

"Step aside, please! Please move aside!" Dumbledore called out, the students parting like water around him. Luna found it somewhat curious that they didn't step too close to Harry, Hermione or herself, either. "Please find out where she had gone, Mister Weasley."

Albus ran a gnarled finger over the shredded remains of the Fat Lady's portrait and evaluated the deep gashes in the wooden paneling behind the canvas frame. _'Odd. Not deep and rounded. Whatever was used was not sharp, but certainly had an edge.'_

"She's over here, Professor!" Percy called out. The tide of students swelled closer to where Percy was pointing at another portrait where the head of the Fat Lady with her hair in disarray was the only thing visible.

"My dear lady, who did this to you?" Dumbledore asked gently.

"It was _him_! He got angry when I wouldn't open up for him! He had a list of passwords and got angry when I still wouldn't let him in!" The Fat Lady shrieked.

"_Who_," Dumbledore asked again.

"Sirius Black! Here! Dark as night he was and practically frothing at the mouth!"

The students began to talk and look around, half-expecting the deranged killer to come out of the shadows to get them. "Harry!" Hermione hissed, grabbing his upper arm as if wanting to make sure he couldn't be taken away or was still there. Luna did the same to his other with a much firmer grip and just a concerned look.

"Quiet!" Dumbledore bellowed, using a mild and wandless charm to enhance his voice to be heard over the rabble. "Everyone please go in and change into your sleeping clothes, then wait for a prefect to come and guide you to the Great Hall."

The elderly wizard waited for the children to enter the common room, mildly curious about Miss Lovegood's uncontested entrance, before casting a full sonorous to his throat. **"Attention all students! Please dress in your sleeping garments and wait in your common rooms for a prefect to retrieve you. All students who are not in the medical wing will be required to sleep in the Great Hall tonight. An explanation will be given once all are accounted for. You have ten minutes."**

xXxXxXx

"Calm down, everyone!" Dumbledore ordered once his explanation was given. "Because Sirius Black was sighted in the castle, all students will be sleeping here in the Great Hall with faculty at each of the doors standing guard while we search the castle. You will be safe in this room."

Pop!

"Master Harry, sir?" Dobby asked, much to the shock of Dumbledore. Most house elves were neither seen nor heard, and they didn't pop up in the middle of a gathering of magicals!

_'Where did the boy get a house elf?'_ Albus wondered. _'They're ridiculously difficult to obtain!'_ Something about its jittery movements seemed familiar, though. _'Is ... that the house elf that followed Lucius around? Why does it serve Harry?'_

"Yes, Dobby? Is everything ready?" Harry asked, getting a nod so fast that the excitable creature's ears smacked the back and front of his head.

"Oh yes! We is having hot chocolate for everyone!"

Several faces, mostly younger, perked up at that. Free hot chocolate? Oh yes... There would be no sleep tonight! Gears in tiny heads were already turning, wondering what to do once the sugar rush kicked in and they were hyper.

"Good, then. Bring it out," Harry commanded, watching happily as Dobby popped away to do as he was told. It wasn't the power that Dobby did as he was told that pleased him, but the addition to each cup, which could have been used the first time around.

"Mister Potter?" McGonagall asked as she approached Harry and his friends.

"There are five drops each of a mild sleeping potion and calming draught in them," Harry explained before she had to ask. "Just being told Sirius Black was in the castle is stressful enough, but being forced to sleep in a new place on the fly will probably make sleep actually take a while."

McGonagall blinked before nodding. "Five points to Gryffindor. Now get to bed."

Harry saluted. "Yes Ma'am!"

"Harry!" Hermione scolded, disturbed that Harry would make so light of the situation. _'Honestly! A killer just tried to break into the common room to get at him and he's acting like it's nothing!'_

Luna simply giggled and saluted the Head of Gryffindor as well.

"Of all the bad influences in the school," Minerva grumbled as she walked away to tell Albus what she learned of the hot chocolate and Miss Lovegood's apparent corruption by Harry.

"Are you staying over on this side with us, Luna?" Harry asked as he got into a sleeping bag that Dumbledore had conjured for the students. Small cups of hot chocolate began appearing for all of the students who drank the sweet drink greedily. To the younger kids, it was chocolate, which was always a priority in their lives. To the older students, they knew the benefits of chocolate for a magic user, so they drank it as well. If nothing else, it was hot, and the stone floor was cold.

"Yes, thank you," Luna said, waving at the Thundercats who had taken up stations at the windows. Dumbledore had asked them what they had seen but, since they were under orders to help the dog-man and not tell anyone but Harry anything, they explained that they had seen nothing out of the ordinary other than his beard.

Luna got into the sleeping bag next to Harry while Hermione took the one on the other side of him. There was no way anyone was going to get her away from Harry's side when he was in danger. If Black wanted Harry, he'd have to make it through her, first. And she wasn't planning on making it easy for him!

Luna cuddled up to Harry's side with a yawn, knowing there was danger out there and knowing also that nowhere was safer for her than with him. She sighed contentedly as his arm wrapped around her by reflex, silently happy that people were falling asleep almost as fast as they laid down. It seemed the overzealous house elves had added a little more than five drops to the various cups.

Hermione yawned and, after a month and a half of sleeping with a bed partner that loved to cuddle, she was cuddled up to and being held by Harry before she was even aware of it. The squeak when she realized it was music to Harry's ears.

And made Luna giggle.

"G'night you two," Harry said with a yawn.

"How are you so calm about all of this, Harry? There's a killer who almost made it into our common room!" Hermione asked quietly, not wanting to awaken anyone who would see Harry holding her. But she didn't want to be let go, either. He was warm and the stone floor was cold. And that was all this cuddling was about.

"What will worrying do?" Harry countered. "I've got my wand in a holster on my forearm and Black shouldn't have a wand. Even if he does, while we're in here, a teacher will raise a stink first."

"Is that what these stone things are on your arms?" Luna asked, tracing the runes on one of the bracers on his wrist. "They're just as warm as you are. It's quite strange."

"No. They're for something else," Harry said. "I'll tell you about it tomorrow. It takes too long and my hot chocolate is kicking in," he said with a yawn.

"Mnm-uh," Luna mumbled incoherently. She hadn't had any of the chocolate once she learned it was spiked, but she _was_ tired. The Thundercats had taken her somewhere in the school that appeared to be a part of the very first build site and played various games with her. The three fell asleep with only Hermione murmuring about her knickers for a few seconds before the potion put her into a sleep deep enough to keep her abnormal habit from the teachers who were making rounds

On the other side of the room, Dumbledore was thinking of his inability to get Harry's emancipation overturned through any existing laws and his various plans to regain control over the young lord, including reconsidering the use of Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood in an attempt to show his lack of maturity and how easily Harry could be influenced by his hormones.

"How did he get into the school?" Minerva asked the headmaster. "The wards should have alerted us to anyone who wasn't faculty or student!"

"I am unsure," Albus admitted. "I am normally alerted right away and have a constant awareness of their location. Sadly, that did not happen here."

"Was he not tagged at the gate?" She asked.

"It is impossible to tell. I have never heard of it being done, but it may be possible he learned how to bypass that security feature, but that then questions why he was unable to get past the portrait."

"Should we tell Harry about Black?"

"No. He has somehow learned that he is the most likely target and seems to be taking it oddly well. I think it best to hold that information back as long as possible. It can do him no good."

McGonagall was silent as she stared at the cuddling forms of Harry and his two lady friends. _'If they weren't such responsible children, I would be taking points for this,'_ she thought. _'But at the same time, it _is _rather cute.'_

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – Next Chapter! "Vengeful Wrath of the Valkyrie Spirit" or "Cause and Effect". Unsure which.

This isn't how it will actually happen, but is meant to show you something to expect.

Multi-voice from spirit: "You who have harmed the innocent will suffer a thousand pains of a thousand souls."

Person 1: "Please! Please let me go! I'll do anything you want!"

Multi-voice from spirit: "Then _suffer_!"

Person 1: Screams in unholy agony as their mind shatters.

"Daphne" and "Velma" was a tribute to "Nonjon" who wrote "Lovegood, Boobs Gooder" wherein Harry names the cheeks to Luna's bottom. A Harry/Luna crack/comedy fic. It mentions naughty acts, but doesn't go into any real detail, so anyone could read it, really. Hermione is barely mentioned in passing. A LOT of innuendo and crude humor (the whole thing.)


	13. Vengeful Wrath of the Valkyrie Spirit

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter12** – Vengeful Wrath of the Valkyrie Spirit

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Warnings**: Adult Language, Graphic Violence, Mental Torture, Language, Partial Nudity, Adult Situations, Frightening Imagery

**Challenge**: Reptilia28

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

Any mention of a duck in this chapter is a tip of the hat to Seel'vor. I recently reread his "Quantum Leap" story and every time I read about Sprout and a duck, I crack up.

I may dislike Snape, but the man is supposed to know his stuff. That is seen here.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Notebooks and Letters" by chem prof (Harry/Hermione)

**xXx Previously xXx**

"_How did he [Sirius Black] get into the school?" Minerva asked the headmaster. "The wards should have alerted us to anyone who wasn't faculty or student!"_

"_I am unsure," Albus admitted. "I am normally alerted right away and have a constant awareness of their location. Sadly, that did not happen here."_

"_Was he not tagged at the gate?" She asked._

"_It is impossible to tell. I have never heard of it being done, but it may be possible he learned how to bypass that security feature, but that then questions why he was unable to get past the portrait." _

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Monday – November 1, After curfew**

"What do you mean she hasn't been going to her bed at night?" Mandy asked Cho the next evening. The search for Sirius Black was completed early that morning and everyone was finally allowed back into their common rooms without an adult minder taking them in groups, but Luna had apparently not returned at all that day. She had somehow changed her clothes without having to go there to do it, they suspected with magic. They had no way of knowing that Harry had three full sets of clothes stashed in his wardrobe for her, or that Luna enjoyed showing off her panties because she liked how his face turned red. The pretty Chinese girl had been growing increasingly aggravated throughout all of October and it seemed it was now coming to a head when she spent the majority of the day looking for the younger blonde Ravenclaw and been unable to find her.

"What I mean is that little bitch has been mocking us for the past month!" Cho growled out. She normally wasn't truly mean to people, but Luna was a sort of exclusion to the rule. She was weird and abnormal and just as crazy as her father who ran that stupid newspaper filled with things that weren't factual; something that annoyed her to no end since Cho cared more about reality. Luna simply refused to see the truth behind things and kept going on about creatures that didn't exist despite all evidence proving her wrong and she refused to see reason. But now she was toying with them!

"How's she mocked us?" Marietta asked. "She doesn't talk to us or do anything that suggests that."

"She knows we've been trapping her bed! She hasn't been sleeping in it according to her dorm mates. Hasn't been for a bloody month! She's not even there right now. They thought we've been tormenting her the whole time and locked her out of the tower again or just that she'd rather sleep elsewhere because she's so weird. She's also been avoiding everything we've set up for her around the school. She's messing with us now!"

"That doesn't sound like Loony," Mandy said slowly.

"If it isn't, then that means one of two things," Cho seethed. "Either she is just extremely lucky, or we have been failing to plan properly and keep missing her because we're incapable of it. Are you saying she could possibly be that lucky to miss several dozen pranks or that we're incompetent?"

"N-no!" Mandy and Marietta said as one. "But she's been spending all of her time with Potter and Granger and those cats. They've been watching out for her and Potter always seems to know when they're walking into something. He may be the reason we haven't been able to get her."

"Those cats haven't been able to listen to us plan in the shower room, so there's no way they could be a part of it, and Potter's a moron and Granger would have to know more than is possible to stop us. But you're right, they are together most of the time, so that would normally be a problem. We just have to get her when he's not around," Cho complained.

"They're _always_ together," Marietta said. "How do we get around that? I mean, the only time they aren't is for classes and if we try anything then, we'll be late and if the faculty finds out something happened to her and that we're late, they'll put it all together."

"I'm beyond pranks. She avoided my trap on her bed and it caused me to fail my essay for the dementor's aura. I've _never_ failed before! She needs to be taught a lesson she won't forget. Discomfort and isolation won't be enough this time. I want something that'll _last_ so she won't _ever_ forget!" Cho's hands shook in rage as she looked at her monthly essay that Professor Flitwick had refused to accept, somehow seeing Luna's successes at avoiding the traps as a direct snub and believing fully that she was too honorable to simply falsify a second occurrence for her work.

Most Ravenclaws took the tiny man's challenges to use his Apprenticeship Requirement program, forcing them to hold themselves, and their work, to a higher standard than other students to make their grades worth double and so he had the opportunity to spot out a Charms apprentice early and coach any who just simply had the talent, believing every child should be pushed to do their best. Hermione Granger was one of only three others in the entire school who weren't a Ravenclaw who did the same. But it was because Cho had been unable to verify her findings that her work was nothing more than a theory. Any other students falling prey to her spellwork would get her into trouble and knowing it was coming apparently caused inconsistent results when her two friends had eventually agreed to be her test subjects.

The Lestat Principle, which worked on the subconscious and fear-related sections of the brain, simply didn't work when a terrified mind was already working on thinking up all of the possible things they feared. After all, it was a concept that was put forth after the infamous vampire who had developed a mental power that did just that, ensnaring his victims and making them see him as the ultimate safety, giving themselves to him fully for that fear to end. So, when the girls approached and activated those spells, their over-active minds were too strong for Cho's amateur work on an elusive element.

"I'm going to use one of my father's spells," Cho growled out, crushing the unaccepted essay in balled up fists. "No one will be able to help her."

The Chang family had been incredibly respected in Shanghai when they lived there in both the magical and mundane worlds as being unparalleled acupuncturists without the use of needles, using their magic instead of metal, which was known to magicals to affect life energy in a negative way. Their mastery of the human energy systems and its manipulation had been near legendary until one of her ancestors used it to manipulate his clients like marionettes to gain political and economical power. The family had barely escaped, being forced to leave him behind to suffer for his crimes. But not without taking their family's legacy, filled with centuries of experience. That had been taken with them three generations ago. It was mostly kept under lock and key, but individual books had been left out carelessly when her father was doing some light study on the subject.

And Cho didn't become a Ravenclaw by pure happenstance.

Mandy and Marietta looked at each other as Cho made plans for an actual attack on Luna. This was past a line that they had always seen in what they did in the past. One they may have been willing to toe, but had never crossed. They had never done anything to Luna that could truly hurt her outside of general, and sometimes heavy, discomfort. What Cho was planning, however, could put the girl out of commission for more than a little while.

They had always been appeased with general discomfort and making her suffer in various ways that were, in the end, ultimately harmless. At least in a physical sense. Luna would get mildly sick, but nothing Pomfrey couldn't fix in a few hours or with a potion, or she would suffer from her fear of small places, which was something that actually amused them greatly since it was such a pointless fear in their eyes. In truth, they had never had reason to go farther than that because it always worked and she was always aware that she was below them and that her odd habits were unwelcome. But with Luna evading them so much recently, the girls, and mostly the leader of the small pack, felt it was a slight upon themselves and their honor. Someone who was abnormal and not like everyone else, that they saw as a lesser being than themselves, was avoiding their attacks and, even worse, not shoving it in their faces as if they weren't worth the time or effort!

Sadly, Mandy and Marietta were followers. They were unable to really see this was wrong _and_ choose to not go along with it. The girls were like parasites. They gained their sustenance and relied on the power of someone greater than themselves to survive, something Voldemort's lackies could relate to. Most kids were like that, where they naturally felt the social hierarchy and knew their places in it. It was rare for them to try and change it. Undesirable traits and favored traits, weighted for each person, generally put them in various areas of that social strata where they then had personality traits that allowed them to move up or down a little more. Wealth, appearance, strength, clothing, hygiene and conformity were all things that people could see and put them into their places in society.

Personality and charisma also played a very large part of that scheme. Voldemort, for example, presented a strong and powerful front that made people want to follow him, but he also had the power to back things he wanted or said up. Hitler, by contrast, had no true personal power, but was one charismatic son of a bitch and had been effective enough to force the majority of the world into a war to resist him. Even Harry Potter was an up and coming entity with those traits. He was sure of himself and confident and held great power, making many in the school want to follow him.

Something Hermione could attest to, complete with stuttering admittance and blush.

In comparison, Draco Malfoy had no power save for that of his father, but he had money, above-average looks and could comport himself with dignity and class when he had to. He was higher up in the food chain simply because he had an abundance of things people favored while having no personal strengths or power, magically and politically speaking, to speak of. Even his general intelligence was sub-par.

It was that same social hierarchy that put Luna Lovegood at the bottom of the entire system, making her an able target for others' acts of aggression without anyone saying or doing anything about it. She didn't fit the mold for what was "normal" and, while pretty, tended to act and dress so abnormally that her appearance wasn't generally factored. Especially when added with various edible jewelry like radish earrings she sometimes wore and her lack of retaliation when attacked. She also didn't present a powerful front or image, making her appear weak to those who took things at face value, which was easily the majority of the world, children especially. She just took whatever abuse came her way without speaking up or fighting back, making her a safe and easy target for those who wanted to affirm their own positions in that social hierarchy.

Humans were animals. They may be far more advanced than others from an evolutionary standpoint, but they still shared numerous traits in common with animals. They turned on others when they sensed a weakness, they didn't feel bad about assaulting those that they believed to be of a lesser status than themselves and tended to follow the strongest amongst them. That was highly prevalent amongst children in a setting where their every action wasn't monitored by adults. They mocked and ridiculed others, sometimes hitting them; they bowed to the orders of those that they felt were stronger than themselves and when they found a weakness in someone, they would use that to attack, usually mentally where the pain was at its worst.

But by being evolved, humans usually had a conscience to let them know they were about to step over a line that those same social hierarchies held its members to. Or when they did, for those who were either outside of them or in a different one where it was allowed, such as criminal organizations which generally allowed many things that were against social norms in others. As followers, Mandy and Marietta, the ones who followed the stronger amongst them, they kept quiet, allowing themselves to be taken over that line and leaving it well behind them.

"We understand," Mandy and Marietta said, swallowing as Cho gave them a rough draft of her current plan.

And like animals, when one's place in the pecking order was threatened or challenged outright, it was only natural that action be taken to defend that position. As effectively as possible and in the strongest method to ensure that place of authority was ensured.

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – November 2, Breakfast **

"Do you always smush fruit into your milk?" Hermione asked the next morning during breakfast, finally wondering why the girl seemed to do that each day she didn't have fruit juice instead. While 'smushing' wasn't exactly a real word, the blonde was quite adamant that that was exactly what it was she was doing.

"Indeedy do," Luna said with a brighter-than-usual smile. It had been the first day she was being cuddled rather than doing the cuddling with Hermione and, while different, she had enjoyed the experience. And the warmth. Harry was warm and she always felt safe with him, but Hermione had been a different sort of warm and she was sure boys and girls cuddled differently. That was really the only thing she could think of to explain it. "I always try to get fruit in my drinks in the morning and like going from fruit to fruit. Except for apple juice," she said, crinkling her nose in disgust. "I enjoy warm apple cider on Christmas day, something of a tradition you understand, but apple juice always makes me think of someone tinkling."

Two seats down, Neville choked on his apple juice, not enjoying the experience of shooting it out of his nose. Suddenly, the smell he had always rather enjoyed wasn't quite as pleasant.

Hermione frowned, not totally sure how to respond. She was never fond of apples regardless of how she got them. "Er ... why?"

Luna looked meaningfully down the table to Ron, who was eating his fill and without an apple or apple juice near him. "_Some_one drank his sister's juice when he was much younger and realized it was all gone and he would get caught. He then came up with a plan and tried to get away with it. Seeing that experience's result has left me rather ... anti-apple."

"It never occurred to me before," Hermione said slowly, looking somewhat green. "I have never once seen Ron eating anything apple, even a pie."

"Arthur's doing," Luna said with a nod as she grabbed an apple from the fruit basket by them. "He was so furious with Ron taking Ginny's juice and then tricking her into drinking ... _that_, that he forced Ron into eating and drinking everything apple that they had. He wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything else for about a week other than two glasses of water to keep him hydrated each morning and afternoon."

"Don't they have a small apple orchard?" Hermione asked in dawning horror, watching Luna toss the apple up into the air and catch it, repeatedly.

"A small one, yes. But it had an interesting side-effect." To prove her point, she rolled the apple down the table and Hermione watched as it neared Ron, who slowed his eating as he watched it from the corner of his eye and then stilled as the red orb came close. He made a disgusted face and, refusing to touch it with his hands, used a spoon to pick up the offending snack and flung it back down the table, making sure to make it plop into a bowl of scrambled eggs so it wouldn't roll back.

"What the hell, Weasley!" Dean exclaimed, wiping egg from his body where it had splattered. He tossed the apple back at Ron, who caught it and tossed it back down towards Hermione and Luna out of reflex, sending it away from him and away from the person who would throw it back.

Luna looked back to Hermione, noticing the brunette staring at her with a raised eyebrow. "Basically, he hates being around anything apple. I'm willing to eat them since I rather enjoy apple fritter, but he risks hurling any time he smells them."

"Interesting," Hermione pondered aloud. Ron's eating was almost at a normal rate now as he chewed his food more thoroughly and, curiously enough, with manners she hadn't seen before. _'Hum. He _can_ be trained. I can honestly say I didn't see that one coming. I wonder how he'd react to apple-scented body lotions or candles,' _she thought with a dark grin. Who ever said Hermione Granger couldn't pull a prank or five?

"Karoo!" Dozens of heads turned up to see a beautiful blue bird with a surprisingly large wing span fly in through the open windows of the Great Hall with a barrel role and righting itself almost immediately in an elegant display of aerial acrobatics before circling twice in search of its target. Even those who were diligent in their Care of Magical Creatures work had no idea what the creature was. The tips of all of its wings were a strange silver and the beak and claws were the same, but appeared to be slightly yellow. Hagrid practically quivered in his iron-reinforced chair, wondering how to catch what he was sure was simply a misunderstood creature that needed a good mommy.

Nearly the entire Great Hall watched with wide and curious gazes as the bird flew above Luna and then dove with a flourish before it flung its wings out to stop immediately and seemed to simply hover with its wings outstretched and its clawed feet stretched out as if reaching for the quirky blonde who was a mere two feet away from it. Many were shocked it didn't snatch her right up. The thing was as wide with its wings as the third-years were tall and its claws as large as Hagrid's hands. Hands which were snatching up napkins from other faculty members' places and trying to craft a quick net with surprising dexterity.

And only then did they notice a shrunken package attached to its right talon.

"What is _that_!" Hermione asked in shock as Luna untied her package.

"Daddy has been traveling to various countries since mid-September and he never forgets. It apparently traveled quite a distance," Luna explained calmly, offering the fruit bowl to the odd bird and allowing it to gobble its choices down, still somehow simply floating in the air. "Normally he'd be home by now and use a standard owl, but he said he was so happy I had friends here that he would remain out on safari for another month."

"I meant the bird," Hermione said calmly. Far too calmly, most thought as they listened in while trying to appear circumspect. Had there been even one other conversation going on, it _may_ have succeeded.

"Oh. Well, we've called them 'Sparky Cassherns' and 'George' in the past when we discovered them, but I don't know if anyone has named them something else," Luna said, slowly blinking her large, round eyes at Hermione. "They're partial to flying about clouds and trying to ride along that silver lining that always seems to be around the pretty ones. They don't much like the gray, angry ones that hold rain and their feathers hold a strong static charge that they can discharge at will. Personally, I think they're the ones who enjoy making lightning, trying to make the dark clouds go away."

Hermione considered explaining meteorology to Luna, or the nugget of knowledge at the edge of her memory about something called a 'thunder bird', but decided against it as the giant avian launched outward with only a single beat of its huge wings, seemingly reaching full speed immediately. "You discovered those?"

"Yes," Luna admitted with a bob of her head as she unshrunk the package her father sent her. "It played tug-of-war with me, trying to take my breakfast plate when I was eight, and when Daddy came out of the tent, he offered to set it a place at the table and it was fine. Not much for conversation, though. Mother was quite upset that a bird was sitting at the table, but curious as to how he could use the fork."

"The fork? Table?" Hermione asked weakly, wondering at why that was the first place Mister Lovegood would go to when he saw his daughter fighting over a plate with a rather large bird. _'How _could_ he use a fork?'_ Hermione mused to herself.

"Yep. He was much smaller at the time, though, so he fit in the chair." Luna grinned brightly as the package was opened and revealed her present underneath. She pulled it out to reveal a simple packing material that held two dozen crystal figurines, each about four inches tall. The were each crafted to look like individual fairies with various styles of wings, either dragonfly, butterfly, bee or angelic, feather-like wings; various colors of hair, either cropped short and spiky or long and luxurious, dresses from stylized armored or jungle-like bikinis to long, flowing dresses and with various expressions that appeared to be near perfection on their faces. As though something were trying to be captured, but never quite made it there.

Each was delicate and beautifully crafted. And while the bodies and hair seemed to be made of a single crystal that shifted in color as needed to make them look almost natural, the clothes and accessories they held like bows or knives at their waists or on their calves, were all other forms of crystal that looked to have been grown around the body since they were attached without actually being the same crystal as the body. In effect, it was as though these fairies and their clothing had simply turned into crystal at some point.

"Whoa," Hermione mumbled, wide-eyed. "What ... are they?"

Luna picked up the letter from her father and read it aloud for Hermione's benefit, but also slightly elated to be the center of attention in a good way for once.

_Dearest Luna,_

_I'm sorry this is most likely to come later than your actual birthday. I'm not in the country and it just takes a little longer, even with our friend's speedy flying. I've recently learned the muggles will see them flying high above in the sky at night sometimes when they release their stored energy and call them shooting stars. Impressive, isn't it? A magical creature they can actually see even though it's surrounded by magic!_

_As for your birthday present, I got it in Ireland. The fairies here apparently dance with some of the witches in the many fairy circles on All Hallows Eve and the selected ones are gifted these figurines by capturing the starlight and growing the crystal, each fairy making a replica of itself. It was quite the beautiful spectacle. I've also enclosed the memory for your enjoyment. It's the standard Rites requirements, so be ready for that. I am unsure of how I got all of these, but they were placed inside of my room at the inn where I was staying when I returned._

_They're in the various forms the fairies here, but I don't recall seeing any of the ones I noticed a part of this group. You can take and store emotions if you ask them to and will let you feel them any time you want just as if you were reliving the memory. They glow softly when an emotion is stored. I noticed a human version of myself as well and charged it with my love for you so you will always know how much you mean to me. It's in a separate package on the bottom. You'll also find one of yourself._

_I miss you honey, but I'll see you at Christmas. I should also be home mid-November, so feel free to send as many letters after that as you wish. Just remember it'll take me a little while to get and respond to them until then._

_I love you and enjoy your presents,_

_Daddy_

"Your birthday was recent?" Hermione asked in confusion. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Halloween, yes. And I didn't want anyone to bother or stress about it. Plus, it isn't exactly a great day for Harry and I didn't want to intrude on any plans he had to honor or mourn his parents. He's very private, but he seemed reticent throughout much of the day, and with Hogsmeade and Sirius Black's intrusion into the castle, I didn't think it was a big deal."

"You should have told us," Hermione said. "We'd have celebrated with you."

"It's no bother," Luna said, feeling warm and fuzzy inside that Hermione cared. "You didn't know. But Daddy knew and didn't forget and sent me a wonderful gift, so everything worked out."

"What worked out?" Harry asked, grabbing a plate from the center of the table and filling it with a variety of food and ignoring the silent Great Hall outwardly. Inside, however, he knew whatever was going on was from the package of curious items Luna appeared to have received. With the surprises out of the way and nothing special appearing to happen, most of the students began going back to their meals.

"Luna's birthday was Sunday and she didn't tell us," Hermione explained, watching Luna blush lightly and look down in mild shame, feeling like she did something wrong. "You realize this means we'll need to come up with something for her, don't you?"

"Already looking for payback for your birthday tradition, are we?" Harry asked amusedly, his eyes shining brightly at Hermione's blush and squawk of surprise.

"You really needn't go through the trouble," Luna rushed to assure them. "Daddy sent me a gift and I didn't expect you to know, so you have no reason to worry about it."

Harry looked at Luna and smiled, noticing that she truly and honestly was worried about them going through the trouble of doing something for her. He couldn't be sure if it was that she didn't want to be the center of attention, like him and Hermione, or if she didn't want them to feel bad for missing it. Knowing her, it was probably both. "Then how about this, Luna. What would you have liked on your birthday that we can fulfill? What would make you happy? You're our friend and we want to share the anniversary of your journey into the world with you. That's what birthdays are for and why we want to."

"I just care about cake," Ron explained from down the table a bit. "That and presents."

Luna giggled and looked back at Harry and Hermione, wondering what she could tell them. "But you've already given me what I'd want. You're my friends."

"We'll always be your friends, Luna," Hermione explained with a smile. "But we still want to do _something_ to celebrate. How about pizza? You enjoyed that. We could get that again if you'd like, or something else that you would prefer."

"Can we get one with those yellow fruits on it again?"

"Done," Harry said with a grin as the morning post came in through the windows. Harry took the letters addressed to him and placed them in an inner pocket to be read a little later since one was from Gringotts and he had no idea who would try to read over his shoulder and took his Daily Prophet and Quibbler to read. The stories in the latter were amusing, and it was worth the read to see Luna beam at him happily.

Though Hermione's sudden desire to read the publication was a little odd. He suspected it was due to the Snorkacks he had the Room of Requirement create for Luna that had pushed her into the realm of the Lovegoods.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, finding a letter from her parents coming in with Hedwig who had happily done a letter run for her master's Hermione. That, and the girl gave bacon. Sweet, glorious bacon!

xXxXxXx

_Lord Potter:_

_You are summoned to the Wizengamot session scheduled for the bi-annual meeting on Friday, November 12th. Regardless of our duties and meetings as required for the sake of exacting law, we have two bi-annual meetings each year where all members are required to sit, rather than the portion that is required for our legal tasks. As you may or may not know, only a certain portion of the Wizengamot is required to attend for various legal functions based on the severity of the crime being judged, so you may be called at some time to attend one of these such meetings. Attendance to all bi-annual Wizengamot meetings is mandatory, however, and failure to appear will be seen as a criminal act and you will be charged with dereliction of duty and once caught, will be required to atone through a one-year stay in Azkaban._

_However, you may also appoint a proxy to sit in your stead. Supreme Mugwump Dumbledore has offered to do so if you require, stating he is most capable of talking with you when needed and knowing your educational needs more thoroughly than anyone else. Of course, you may appoint anyone you choose so long as they have wizarding relations in each generation for a minimum of five such generations from both sides unless you marry, at which point the Lady Potter shall be able to sit proxy for you at your behest, regardless of her status. I believe many others are willing to sit via proxy for you as well._

_I hope this information assists you in your duties for our Ministry For Magic and as Lord Potter. I don't mean to be presumptuous, but felt ensuring you would be aware was worth any potential upset you may feel ._

_Alexander Bartholomew Morganne Pleesan_

_Wizengamot Court Scribe XXLVI-II_

Harry scowled at the rather official-sounding letter, though it was apparently some random person attempting to help him, and looked at the others he had received. Whoever this 'Alexander' person was had certainly been helpful to Harry. The bespectacled boy had no idea that he would have to attend this meeting with a bunch of crotchety old men who, if memory served, and it did, a good many had been out for his blood in his recent, or future, experience. "Bloody vultures," he mumbled, wishing he could go down to pretend to be a normal kid and deal with these at some point closer to never. "Oh well. I sorta knew something like this was going to happen. I have only myself to ... no ... I can blame Lora, too. I blame her instead."

_Lord Potter:_

_A Diagon shopkeeper approached Gringotts yesterday afternoon about the business proposition you had warned us about. John Coolidge, the trunk maker, gave us the design models for his Transportation Arches and all knowledge regarding their manufacture as per the instructions you had given us. Once we knew how to create them and fully understood the theory, he requested his mind be wiped of the process and only remember he created them and sold them to you. We have not yet done so since that was not a part of the deal you discussed with us. He declared fearing someone would approach him to learn how to create the devices if he remembered how. Normally, we would simply accept payment and do so, but as he is the original mind behind their creation, we would rather wait and discuss it with you. We have ensured we can create the Transportation Arches to the same degree as Mr Coolidge. While our understanding of the design is full, he is technically under your employ, so the decision is ultimately yours._

_Mr Coolidge was unable to craft any form of security for the Arches that met your requirements. He can lock any two devices to one another, including add new Arches to a previously-existing Arch, but he still requires physically being next to both. Mr Coolidge could not design a method by which users could be keyed into the devices to utilize the Arch system except during their creation, using methods he admits to using on his trunks. However, that method would also require altering each Arch to add each new user, which is unacceptable._

_Gringotts is willing to design and craft a security system based on what Mr Coolidge stated were your intentions, which was not quite as detailed as what you had given to us. A system through the Archways with a similar function as the wizarding Floo travel system, but one in which you do not need to call the name of, along with allowing only select individuals to travel without adding each one to every Archway. We will do this for the opportunity to use them in our vault system within the bank. We cannot discuss their use by us for security reasons, but would like to offer that trade. If you refuse, you may come to negotiate a fee for the service. We felt applying similar security functions as the portal at King's Cross would be an appropriate location to start since it is similar in design, but a lost art amongst wizardkind. _

_Also enclosed are the enchanted parchments and a bottle of unique ink crafted out of onyx and crystal and pre-enchanted for use with a will. Simply add seven drops of blood with which to bind its functions to you. We strongly recommend writing your will by standard means first and foremost, and then allowing a trusted legal representative look it over for loopholes or easy points of contestation. While you may always update your will by writing a replacement, should anything unfortunate happen before you can complete a proper will, there can be nothing done for it._

_The orange parchment lists the proper directions for heading the document and crafting it to ensure you _can_ update it without the two wills contesting one another. Any questions may be directed at myself. _

_Potter Accounts Manager_

_Griphook_

Harry looked at the requirements for crafting his will and paled. He had hoped it could be something simple like saying 'I want this to go to this person and that to go to that person', but instead, formatting and the actual vernacular, which Hermione would later tell him meant 'words', he used had to be specific. Very specific. Anything he wrote that could even possibly be taken with different meanings was to be avoided at all costs and trying to suggest using a code word through a letter given after his death, even if it wasn't a part of the will itself, was also ill-advised since it left vague statements that others could latch onto and pick apart to try and get what they wanted.

"So much for simple," he grumbled, putting all of the paperwork into his trunk and locking it shut. Then he went to his Gringotts letter and composed a reply.

_Accounts Manager Griphook,_

_Thank you for alerting me that John, the trunk maker, gave you the Arches. We had talked about them looking like regular doors at the time, but what they look like doesn't matter so much as long as muggles can have them in their homes and not get in trouble for displaying something blatantly magical to their visitors._

_What I need from these portals, or Arches or whatever you want to call them, is a method by which I can key in certain people to the whole portal system of those particular portals, and make one and tie it into the main one I will have at Potter Manor in an emergency so I, and whoever is with me, can escape if needed without the enemy doing the same. My hope is to have one of these at my friends' houses so they can escape to mine if something horrible happens based on what we discussed a few months ago. If needed, the first one can be the Master Arch or something, which would be at my home, and they could come to my home from their portal while going from mine to wherever._

_I've been learning to tie crystals into various items during their creation. Would it be possible to have a master key or crystal so I can add people whenever I want and keep it with me, but it then ties them to the portal system? I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but merely hope to help give any possible ideas._

_I will be happy to allow the Goblin Nation to utilize these once security has been applied. I do not wish to take these public yet, so you may use them. I plan only to use these with my friends and those I wish to keep safe for what is to come._

_Lord Harry James Potter_

Harry quickly offered the letter to Hedwig in order to allow the snowy white owl to take it to Griphook before grabbing his bag and heading out to Ancient Runes with Hermione. He already had an idea of what he was going to do for his end-of-term assignment for the class in thanks to the bushy-haired girl and she hadn't even been trying. _'I really _do_ need to get that girl some cookies.'_

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – November 3, Morning**

The next day on Wednesday, Dumbledore was alone in his office with his chair pulled from behind his desk and over to the window. He sat, silent and still as he watched the flying shapes in the early-morning light darting about as they practiced for the upcoming Quidditch game that Saturday. It was a little difficult to see due to the weather getting progressively worse since the previous Saturday, however, so he was unsure of who was who. He had the large phonograph in the background, playing an old rendition of Greensleeves that was even older than he was that had once belonged to his sister Arianna, may she rest in peace. The slow, melodic harmonies seemed to fit his mood at the moment.

He saw one shape, vaguely red from this distance, suddenly shoot downwards to the ground and pull out just barely in time to avoid crashing and then dart back into the air, pointing out which of those flying about was the source of his current thoughts: Harry Potter.

Throughout the past two months, Harry had shown a backbone and stubborn streak that quite simply had the aging headmaster baffled. Baffled and more than just a little frustrated. The boy knew more than he should and had managed to subvert Albus' control by claiming his inheritance, something Albus had tried to keep from happening. The old man had even gone so far as to ensure no teacher there would even buy books that spoke of Harry's family in hopes he wouldn't get ideas. Miss Granger had those books from before her first year had started, sure, but it hadn't taken much to ensure she never considered loaning them to Harry and giving him ideas. Why else would an information-starved boy who learned books about his family existed _not_ go for them? Miss Granger had told him more about his family from what she had read than anyone else up to that point.

He was sitting here and staring outside the window into the dreary landscape at faceless blobs because he was well and truly worried. Harry refused to listen and heed his advice and even left the Dursleys' home open to attack. The boy just didn't do as he was told and without Albus Dumbledore's guidance, wouldn't be able to meet his destiny.

And what was worse, he was showing signs that had Albus' neck hairs standing at attention. No, it was Harry's blatant similarities to Tom Marvolo Riddle. Harry had most of the school behind him with these Defense Association club meetings and had, only one month ago, created what was frighteningly similar to Voldemort's Inner Circle. The boy even had Slytherins in it!

Harry was teaching those 'Inner Circle' members more than he was teaching the other students and was even paying them to do it. That was truly frightening because they were children. Their choices and their stances on nearly anything could be changed. Few truly cared about blood purity at that age and most of those who spouted such things off were doing as they were trained. But money spoke to everyone, children just as thoroughly as adults. Harry had even gotten them out onto the Quidditch Pitch or the main courtyard early each morning to work out and do various exercises to get their bodies up and into shape for enhanced dodging ability! No child liked to work out, and while they didn't always put full effort into it, they still followed. It was like Harry was preparing them for a war.

But for what side?

As far as Dumbledore was able to tell, Harry simply up and changed after his battle with Voldemort's soul fragment in the Chamber of Secrets at the end of the previous year. Miss Granger had even said as much to Minerva, which had been dutifully explained to him when the woman explained why Harry suddenly seemed to lack trust in nearly everyone. She had told him that she thought it was Harry maturing much faster and suddenly due to his near brush with death, but Albus wasn't so sure. It was equally possible that the soul fragment had chosen to take Harry's body instead of that of Miss Weasley. The girl hadn't seen what had actually happened, after all.

But as much as the evidence of observation supported that theory, it also failed to. Mister Potter was greatly more affectionate now. He was almost always in the company of Miss Granger and more recently Miss Lovegood. Tom Riddle had never been one for emotional attachments. He simply didn't care for anyone but himself. Harry went out of his way to help others, even now. But, could it be possible that Voldemort's soul fragment was trying to hide it had taken Harry over and was overacting what he believed the part was to be? Or could Harry actually be showing much more affection for some reason?

Harry Potter was an enigma.

_'I think my talks with Severus will now have to advance to more than simple discussions,'_ the old man thought to himself, silently wondering when the music had stopped and become nothing more than gentle static as the turntable rotated. He sighed and reactivated the music with a simple lift of his finger. _'There are risks involved, but they pale in comparison to what Harry is becoming.'_

Albus checked his fob watch, finding it to be only a quarter past six. _'Miss Granger is the eldest of her peers and closest to Harry. She would make the most obvious choice for an heir. I can not allow anything to happen to Harry while the Malfoys still have the greatest chance to obtain everything from him as his closest family. I had hoped Miss Weasley would be available in a few years, but I fear I haven't that kind of time. Still, while I would have preferred her, Miss Granger also owes Harry a life debt. It should keep the scales balanced between what she owes him and what I must force to happen between them.'_

The old man looked out the window and sighed, wondering at how young the children truly were he was planning on using for the 'Greater Good'. _'Still, there is a chance I am misreading the signs of Harry going dark. Everyone deserves a second chance. I have no choice but to read his thoughts and determine if a more direct approach will be needed first. Then I can be assured of my actions.'_

"I must admit," Dumbledore began talking to himself out loud, desiring someone to speak to and being unable to approach anyone else with his thoughts, not wanting to burden them with his troubles and needing to hear a voice. "I had never considered a calming or sleeping draught within hot chocolate for the students. That is a very kind and generous thing to do."

Under the headmaster's desk, one of the Thundercats that had been assigned to spy for most days because of his slightly chubbier midsection slowly conked his forehead against the leg of the desk. _'This old man is going to ramble on again! Lionel help me!'_ None of the Thundercats were quite sure where the name had come from, but it was almost as prominent in their minds as their master, Harry's. They could only assume it was the name of some advanced being who gifted them with his name. Claws was already working on trying to replicate a rather curious sword they were all aware of, as well.

"There is still some light in young Harry," Dumbledore assured himself, feeling as though he needed to and catching the attention of Snarf who stopped hitting his head against the desk. "Perhaps not all is lost quite yet. He can still be brought back to the Light."

xXxXxXx

_Thur, Nov 4_

_Michael Greengrass_

_Dear Daughter,_

_I apologize for taking so long to get to you, but the information you requested was not easy to obtain, particularly during this time in the Ministry when there is so much frustration over finding out who the heirs of the four founders of Hogwarts are. It required a hefty donation to a clerk, but I gathered the information you requested. You should find it enclosed._

_Your actions and theories are sound and appreciated. Regardless of what happens, you should be more aware of events transpiring in Hogwarts and with Mr Potter while you are a member of this group he has created. You are correct in that anything that could hurt either the family or our standing should be brought to my attention as soon as possible. Otherwise, do as you suggested and do nothing to cause him to distrust you and learn from him. I do not know where this may lead, but I have raised you to be intelligent and cunning; a true Slytherin if ever there was one. I am proud of you and will stand by your actions. Just keep your wits about you and do not let this go to your head._

_Also, please keep an eye on your sister. I know Astoria is a part of our family, and generally protected, but things are new to her and she has always been more shy than yourself. I know you probably wish little to do with her, but perhaps you could try to allow her to join some of your activities? Just do not ignore her. She's looked up to you for far too long to let her be crushed like that._

_May you prosper, my dear daughter,_

_Father_

Daphne smiled as she finished reading the letter her father sent to her, decoding it in her head as she went. Few pureblood men truly cared for their daughters unless they didn't have a son to carry on their name, otherwise, their daughters were nothing more than livestock to be bartered for political or financial gain. Michael Greengrass, thankfully, was not one of those purebloods. He did not marry for love, but it still found him and his wife after marriage, and he loved his daughters.

Case in point, her younger sister, Astoria. She had just become a first-year student and, while not exactly treated badly, she certainly wasn't made welcome in Slytherin simply because she was easy to push around. But Daphne had always loved her younger sister and looked out for her whenever able. It was sweet of her father to show he cared, but ultimately not needed. But he did make a good point. Perhaps she could have her take a more active role in Potter's club?

Daphne slipped out the scrolls her father had obtained for her and looked them over, smirking triumphantly as she rolled them back up. She was, as her father said, highly intelligent. She knew when to speak up and bite back at the foolish males in her House who thought they could intimidate and dominate her, which effectively kept her safer than otherwise likely. Some girls were touched inappropriately or tricked into giving more than was respectable when snogging in a broom closet due to empty promises.

She wasn't such a mindless bint.

Whatever was happening with Potter was a good thing. She doubted an alliance of any sort would be advisable at this point in time. Potter wasn't trained in any form of pureblood etiquette or how to be a proper Head of House, but if he made it through the first year or two, or was willing to accept some coaching, he could be a powerful ally.

Her father's first letter after learning of Potter's acceptance of her and Blaise had explained things that she had long suspected, but never truly heard; the Dark Lord Voldemort's followers believed him to still be alive. There were whispers of safeguards and Malfoy had been far too suspect the previous year to discount the idea. The Greengrasses had nearly been forced into picking a side in the previous war, but had ultimately been able to remain neutral up to Voldemort's downfall. But it wasn't a sure thing if he was truly able to come back.

And her father feared it was more than a strong possibility. Malfoy Senior had already attempted to garner the Head Greengrass' allegiance for His return.

That scared the whole family.

Regardless, Potter had shown her something of himself that night he brought up a smaller group to study with to assist him and she felt being at his side was the safest place to be right now, and held the best hope for the future. The boy had fame, raw magical power, fortune and political clout that trumped nearly everyone. And if she was right, there wasn't some coincidence for all of those seats becoming active at once.

Hopefully, her father's hard work and flowing gold would help them come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

Daphne heard a knock at her door as she was putting her new scrolls away in a security chest hidden in her wall. She quickly closed everything inside and grabbed a book while sitting on her bed, not wanting anyone to know where her security chest was since they weren't exactly allowed within school since she hid it in the wall.

"Come in," she called out after barely a second from the knock, holding her wand at the side of her head as she pretended to be fluffing it out.

A girl in Slytherin could never be _too_ careful, after all.

"I was hoping you would be here," Blaise Zabini said simply as he entered the room and closed the door, arching an eyebrow as she pulled her hand down and revealed her hidden wand. "Could you?" He asked, gesturing to the door.

"Runes," she said simply. "Automatically silences everything once the door's closed." There were also a good many nasty surprises if she activated the security runes as well, but even though she and Blaise were good friends, they could never always be fully trusted when you knew about magical forms of persuasion.

Blaise nodded, taking a seat at the girl's personal desk. Much like Ravenclaws third year and up, each Slytherin from each year had their own room. It came about from the fact that their common room and living areas were once parts of the dungeon and each room a cell that had been modified for comfortable sleeping and living. Everyone just tried to ignore why so many cells were once needed and what may have happened in them in the past.

"I received a letter from my Mother. She was able to get the items I had requested of her and suggests strongly allying myself with Harry without being formal about it."

"Hmph," Daphne hummed with a smirk. "Interesting timing. I got a letter from my father saying he found the information I'd asked of him. Looks like things are running smoothly enough."

"Too smoothly in this line of work," Blaise said simply, folding his hands in his lap. "I am also unsure if the majority of the other Slytherins are willing to listen to our reasoning for much longer. While they accepted that we had the best opportunity to spy on Potter and his friends, they have begun asking what we have been learning."

"They aren't the brightest lumos from the wand, are they?" Daphne growled out, her silky black hair getting flipped over her shoulder. It was a matter of habit that had started as a rude dismissal of boys seeking her attentions whilst talking to her chest, which was currently comparable to Susan Bones'. They both tended to get glares from some sixth-year girls because of it. But Daphne also did it whenever she was frustrated or angry.

"No," Blaise agreed deadpan. "They expect us to start spouting off secrets after only a month when we haven't had time to cultivate any form of rapport with him and we are still at vicious odds with Weasley."

Daphne harrumphed, showing her thoughts on that. "The bastard isn't much better than Malfoy," she stated with a curled lip. She rather disliked both boys tremendously.

"Don't stoop," Blaise reminded her of her language. "You don't wish to dumb down to their level."

Daphne rolled her eyes with a small grin. "I like to fight my enemies fairly."

"Liar," Blaise rebuked with a slowly-growing grin. "Better unfair and win than fair and lose."

"True," Daphne chirped before turning serious. "When do we go to him with what we've got? And how do we want to handle the idiots wanting info?"

Blaise closed his eyes and allowed his eyes to dart left and right rapidly as he reviewed mental notes using his occlumency training. Daphne allowed him a few moments to think, seeing what he came up with while having her own ideas. "In order, I believe we should wait until Weasley either gives us an opportunity alone with Potter or an opportunity shows itself where the information is helpful. The same, I believe, holds true with what I collected. Weasley's a rat, but he's a rat with coercion ability with Potter."

The brown-haired boy sighed, thinking of the low collective mind of the majority of their House. "As for the others, I believe we either start giving them small things that are known or see what Harry thinks we should do about it. I find it hard to accept that they feel anything we learn would go to them instead of our families. No student here could use the information a fraction as well."

"It's 'Potter', Blaise," Daphne interrupted. "We can't let a slip like that happen outside."

Blaise bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Yes. Regardless of what he tells us to call him, the others simply wouldn't understand, would they?"

"Not if it means seeing us as the enemy," Daphne agreed. "But I don't think we should tell anyone anything. We can ask Potter and see what he would rather us do. He did all but say he expected us to use that as a cover, which I thought was a pretty Slytherin thing to do."

"Have we got a Potter Crush, Miss Greengrass?" Blaise asked in a teasing tone, watching the girl's lightly tanned skin darken in a blush.

"He's powerful and would make a suitable husband, that's all," she sniped, admitting to nothing. "And don't think I haven't seen you looking at him."

Blaise blushed, but also admitted to nothing. "My job is to know as much as possible about him, that's all."

"Uh huh," Daphne grunted. "Next, you'll be telling me he'd make a suitable wife."

"Must we keep having this argument?" Blaise whined, finally cracking his apathetic demeanor, causing Daphne to chuckle.

"Aw, you know it's fun."

"For you," he grumbled. "I really am not gay." Daphne merely quirked an eyebrow at him. "Really! Fine, I'll snog you right now, will that prove it to you?"

Daphne allowed a single breathy snort to silently pass her lips as she rose up, watching Blaise's eyes widen a fraction of an inch. "I won't snog any man until he proves himself to me, Blaise, but sure, let's see. Touch my chest and tell me how they affect you." To push the issue a little, she leaned down, letting him have the opportunity to do so. She had seen where Blaise looked at Harry, and those were not heterosexual looks, and she highly doubted they were followed by heterosexual thoughts. Also, the boy currently looked scared to death, making this somewhat amusing.

Then she squawked as she actually felt his right hand caress her left mound, causing her to leap backwards with eyes wider than Blaise's. "You! You actually did it!"

"What did you expect?" Blaise asked, blinking rapidly. "I like girls and you told me to."

"But! I've _seen_ the way you look at Harry!" Daphne exclaimed, her voice a bit higher than she normally allowed for.

"I'm impressed by his power, not that he's a male," Blaise said. "Impressed, not attracted. I have no thoughts or intentions of shagging him."

"Then that makes one of us," Daphne said with a snort. Potter would be a good ally to have, regardless of how that alliance came about. Blaise choked in the back of his throat, causing Daphne to smirk evilly. "Now get out of here, you perv. We'll see what Potter has to say the next time we see him and have the opportunity."

"Perv? I'm not the one who told the me to grope her," Blaise said, getting one quick jab in before rushing from her room before she could hex him.

_'If he tells a soul, I'll Imperius a duck to savage him in his sleep...'_ she thought viciously, hiding her expansive bosom with an arm as the door slammed from the boy's quick departure. Sometimes, developing early wasn't quite all it was cracked up to be. Susan told her much the same thing.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 5, First Period - DADA**

Friday morning was dark, dreary and wet with the accumulation of heavy clouds that varied from depressing gray to ominous black, occasionally lighting from behind with random discharges of lightning that had Luna searching for some big blue bird that Hermione tried to tell Harry really existed. It was the sort of day that made happy people simply want to cocoon themselves in thick blankets and suffer through the hours with a mug of hot chocolate and in comfortable silence with peace and simple tranquility as the weather vented its frustrations upon the world.

Into that atmosphere, the combined classes of Gryffindor and Slytherin jumped as the door to the Defense classroom crashed open and Severus Snape stalked in, his robe billowing behind him and his face a dark scowl. "Wands away and books out!" He barked, dropping his own manuals heavily on the desk with a bang. "Turn to page two thirty-three and get out parchment and quill."

"Sir, where's Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked, raising her hand as she did so.

"He has taken ill and that will be five points from Gryffindor," Snape seethed quietly. Sadly, he wasn't getting paid to take over another's class, but still required doing the work and it didn't make him happy, even if it _was_ where he would rather be. "Now, if you're through asking questions that have nothing to do with today's class and being insufferable, perhaps we could get started with class, hm? Have you anything else?"

"One last thing since you asked," Hermione said, staring defiantly at the hated potions master. This wasn't his domain and she felt oddly ... empowered because of that. She'd have to figure out how Harry influenced this side of her later. "The syllabus doesn't have us starting werewolves until the end of term."

Snape snarled silently, fuming at the girl's audacity as he mentally raged. _'The Potter spawn is responsible for this, I know it! No matter ... Albus is allowing me a boon that I believe I shall gladly take.'_ Externally, the man towered over Hermione. "I have been selected to teach this class during Lupin's absence and you will learn what I will teach you! Now, since you seem incapable of closing your mouth, perhaps you can put it to better use and tell me something about werewolves," he said, snapping her book shut so she couldn't read it.

Harry glared as he shook in his seat. _'Quick like lightning,'_ Harry thought simply, thinking of the Marauder name he had given himself and what he would do to the hated professor soon. _'He will _not_ get away with this.'_ Unknown to Harry, he unconsciously removed one percent from the block of his power limiters and began to release a miasma-like wave of magic that simply floated in the room, charging it and making several students suddenly wary without an obvious cause, only those who felt of Harry as a true friend not suddenly on edge. It only empowered Hermione more, causing her to glare at Snape.

"A werewolf, unlike an animagus, is forced to change one night each month during the full moon instead of at will. No one is sure of exactly _why_ it causes them to change, but they lose all sense of self and turn feral, not being able to distinguish friend from enemy and attacking anyone who comes close. They also spread their affliction through saliva and blood, but only when transformed. Also, their claws leave magical wounds that are difficult to treat magically, making their surviving victims that much worse off when being treated."

"Five points from Gryffindor for rambling," Snape said as he walked to a projector and turned to look at the outraged girl. "I did not require a full explanation, Miss Granger. Perhaps next time, you will give only short, concise answers." Snape slowly turned his eyes to Harry, wondering at the boy's lack of defense for one of his best friends as he activated the projector machine and began sifting through his slides. _'Ah. It looks like the little bastard is angry with me. Let the rage flow through you ... It will make looking through your mind so much easier, Potter. Perhaps a detention tonight would teach you your place, or maybe even missing the big game tomorrow. All I need is a good reason, you little brat. Speak up!'_

It was a simple fact that anger clouded the mind and made it weaker, just as did pain-relieving potions, alcohol and many recreational drugs. That was one reason he was such an ass during classes. He was better able to read the minds of his students and he enjoyed tormenting them.

Hermione's eyes darted from the professor's back to Lupin's desk repeatedly as she thought through what they were being taught. _'I don't recall seeing Professor Lupin the first weekend of October, either and he seemed very worn out on the train ... I wonder...'_

"I expect a three-foot essay on what you're about to learn on Tuesday with your next class," Snape warned, going through his slides as he began to lecture and warning various students, primarily those close to Harry and Harry himself, to keep quiet when their writing was apparently too loud or for imagined conversations until he finally got what he wanted. "Weasley! Stop talking and pay attention!"

"What! I wasn't sayin' nothin' you slimy ...!" The whole room was as silent as death as a dark and sinister smirk showed itself on Snape's pale face, made all the more intimidating from the light from the projector casting shadows over his eye sockets and making his yellow teeth seem to glow. Ron's eyes widened as the blood rushed from his face and a pained whimper escaped as he realized he wasn't thinking his response.

"Detention, Weasley," Snape hissed pleasantly, almost sounding happy. "Tonight and tomorrow. I've got some cauldrons and old chamber pots that I ordered that haven't been cleaned in decades and could use a good scrubbing."

Ron made a strange gagging sound as the light reflected off of his suddenly-paler face. _'_Decades_ of not being cleaned? Chamber pots? Or dear Merlin no! Please don't let Snape use them first!'_ The idea of something so horrible already had his eyes watering.

_'Not Potter, but his anger is reaching optimal levels. A couple more minutes of lecture to let it steep and then I shall do as Albus requested,'_ Snape thought, doing his best to explain werewolves as horrible and dangerous creatures that were to be feared and looked down upon rather than a person with an affliction that only affected them truly for one night of a month.

About ten minutes later, Snape finished his presentation and spun quickly, ensuring the students would look at him with wide eyes from the surprise of the sudden movement and then looked into Potter's eyes, glowing green from the light of the projector, and pushed his consciousness forward.

"_What the bloody hell?" Snape asked out loud as he suddenly found himself in what looked like the Forbidden Forest. He stood and gave a grudging respect for what he saw, although he'd never say as much. "So, Potter. You've been developing occlumency. I'd be worried if you actually knew what you were- SHIT!"_

_Snape barely dodged to the side as a large pincer that was as large as he was around crashed to the ground where he had just been standing, alerted only by the shadow. He looked up in time to see an extraordinarily large acromantula look down to see if it had squashed him flat. _'Merlin's balls!'_ Snape roared mentally, wondering what the hell was going on. He attempted to leap upwards, trying to control his position by enforcing his own Will over that of the creator of the mindscape, but found himself only jumping about a foot into the air. His Will wasn't strong enough._

"_Bombardia!" Snape yelled, flinging his wand outwards, letting his mental attack assault the mental defenses Harry had built and watching in satisfaction as the spider's head exploded, causing the giant creature to crash to the ground. "Not good ... enough...?" He looked around as he heard clicking and chattering of what he _knew_ were a good many more such creatures._

_He spun around and saw what appeared to be the astronomy tower of Hogwarts through the foliage and sprinted forward, moving far faster than he could in real life since he was working with his mind. _'The little bastard has an actual mindscape!'_ he yelled in his head. _'How is that even possible!'

_ROAR!_

_Snape looked up to see several immense dragons flying through the air, beginning to circle around him as a few more joined their numbers. _'That can't be good...'

_Indeed, moments later, they began to launch fiery balls of napalm into the forest around him, causing the caustic substance to splatter ineffectually against shields he raised as he began to run through the attacks, only to allow his eyes to widen as he saw a small contingent of centaurs keeping pace with him and notching arrows. "Potter! I'm going to kill you for this! Explosion!"_

_Snape stopped suddenly and let his mental attack hit the area around him with an eruption of fire from his mental avatar as its core, reducing the creatures close by to ash, but leaving him wide open to the dragons and wyvern within the air who chose that moment to launch a coordinated strike against him. _

"_Haste!" Snape yelled, dashing forward with even greater speed, leaving a crater in the ground from where he had stilled for his previous attack and being over two hundred yards away by the time the quick strikes actually hit the ground where he had been._

_What Harry was unfamiliar with was how a true Legilimencer attacked the mind. He defended himself from Voldemort's attacks and had always had an unconscious battle with the soul fragment that had been in his forehead, but he had never actually fought one on equal grounds. When Voldemort attacked, he used an opening that already existed to get through before Harry realized it and then fought Harry's magic core directly and tried to force his soul fragment to take Harry over._

_When Snape attacked his mind in fifth year to teach him how to defend his mind, he never actually told Harry he was supposed to fight the assault, only telling him to prepare himself and defend against it, thus letting Snape run rampant within his head, seeing whatever he wanted to see. Or rather, whatever Harry didn't want him to see that made it all the more interesting._

_What was happening now, however, was Harry both defending and attacking the interloper while Snape was forced to defend himself. But it wasn't as though he was a body without defenses or assaults of his own. This was a mental world, no matter what it looked like. Everything here was a force of Will, one versus the other. Mindscapes were usually frowned upon because they took such focus and attention to detail that few could actually maintain them and not let the world crumble under its own weight. But ever single aspect and detail of every single thing had to be planned and put into place to make the world function properly, many such things being done subconsciously, which also made them only a little more than an illusion. Like a wall. Knowing it wouldn't let a person just walk through it helped, but without telling it directly not to let anyone pass, it would be like walking through a paper screen._

_So, Snape had as his weapons of choice anything he could possibly think of. Spells, items like swords or arrows, anything he understood the mechanics of and could envision properly, which left out things such as nuclear weapons, guns or even other creatures other than humans, since we instinctively knew ourselves._

_The difference between what Snape knew, and what Harry knew, which was confusing the potions master greatly since he couldn't figure it out, was that Harry didn't limit himself to doing what he knew. He allowed his imagination to fuel a good bit of what was in this world. But that was also why those defenses weren't quite as effective as they could be._

_So, Snape had the ability to attack and, since Harry had defenses that obviously knew he was here, there was no hiding the actuality of what he did, so he chose to lead a direct assault and go where he felt the prize memories would be: Hogwarts._

_Which would also keep the large number of acromantula, dragons and whatever else that caused trees to crash loudly to the ground behind him from catching him. Assuming he moved fast enough. Since his native language was English, anything that resembled a spell had more impact to his own mind and held more power to be spoken in his own tongue, making spells in Latin pointless in this environment._

"_Greater Haste!" Snape yelled, fueling more of his own mental power into his probe to move more quickly, gaining a greater lead from the creatures chasing him down, only to break through the tree line and stop in fear as he saw gargoyles launch themselves from the walls of Hogwarts' outer perimeter and goblins take aim with spears, bows and arrows and ballistae, what looked like a carriage-sized crossbows, every fifty feet with a spear-like arrow that was as big around as his head._

_Not to mention another acromantula that was as large as the Slytherin common room._

_Dozens of arrows were let loose as the gargoyles made it about half way down, causing Snape to be unsure of which was causing the high-pitched whistling sound, but knowing it didn't really matter._

_As gargoyles and arrows got within only a few feet from hitting, Snape let out a war cry and shoved his hands forward, forcing his yell to somehow get quieter as it changed into actual waves that knocked all attacking entities away from him as effectively as if he were knocking down a house of cards and causing yet another crater to form around him as the shockwaves left in all directions._

'Merlin that took a lot out of me,'_ Snape thought, panting. _'Synchronizing his assaults like that makes the effect compound. I have to get in or I won't be able to do much more of this. There's just far too much to defend against at once. If it weren't for that, this would be like taking candy from a Gryffindor!'

_Snape stood tall and looked around quickly as the goblins notched more arrows and the gargoyles' broken bodies began to rumble and pull themselves together. _'Where did that bloody spider go?'

_Suddenly very wary, Snape looked around and couldn't see any sign of the large creature. There were no pieces of it laying about which meant his attack did nothing to it and something that large would certainly have been obvious when it moved._

_Looking around and trying to listen for the giant arachnid, he suddenly realized the only sound he could hear was the wind before the goblins let their arrows fly, causing the high-pitched whine once again. "Haste!"_

_Snape realized in that moment the flaw of a coordinated strike as the goblins were doing. They all hit the same location without fail, each goblin being a perfect shot. But that meant he only needed to move in time in order to avoid them. He smirked. _'Not quite as good as you thought, Potter!'

_Snape was just about to capitalize on his newfound knowledge when the huge acromantula made itself known._

_Starting as a shadow on the ground._

_Snape looked up and yelped as he pulled his mental probe back, pulling out of Harry's mindscape just before the spider that had leapt into the air crashed into the ground where he had been standing and in the areas around that for about eighty yards in each direction._

Snape's head jerked back and he spun away from Harry so the students wouldn't see the shock on his face as he tried to hide the fact anything that happened by once again telling them the assignment that would be due during their next class.

Harry, too, was in shock. He knew the whole incident took only a fraction of a second, but he knew exactly what had happened in his mind during a span of time that seemed to be almost ten minutes. He had never before suspected defending his mind against a Legilimencer would be like that. Snape had been plowing through his defenses with veritable ease until he had been surprised at the end.

He would have to rethink his strategy and possibly try to get added defenses. He would also have to see about trying to do something similar with Hermione if she was going to learn about his secrets.

Harry didn't know his abilities as a Legilimencer were almost as good as Snape's, not knowing he had naturally crafted his skill, but he knew he had been able to get through Hermione's defenses, quite literally, and that Snape would, too. If she were to be safe from the greasy-haired bastard, she'd have to be able to be safe from Harry, too.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 5, After Dinner**

"Alright everyone, calm down!" Harry yelled out that same night. Snape had been scarce since his attempt to break into the Gryffindor's mind, which Harry was rather thankful for, and Harry had taken some aggression out in the Room of Requirement after Draco had decided to be a pain in the butt and send him an animated drawing of what he hoped would happen to Harry the next day.

"I know we usually do these things on Saturdays, but with the Quidditch match tomorrow, I'm sure you all would rather celebrate after the match rather than do this, so today's the day. We're starting something new." Harry smirked in his best evil impression, trying to project Mad-Eye Moody. "Dueling!"

There was a collective gasp from the students.

"We've been building up to this, working on shield spells and some various non-lethal ones, like stunners and body binds. I also tried to give you hints for dodging practice. Anyone who doesn't want to duel, I would like you to keep practicing making shields without incantations or wand movements with a partner sending tickling hexes or stunners. I've already put heavy cushioning charms on the floor."

"Do you even know how to duel, Potter?" Draco asked from the back, wondering what he could possibly be taught from someone who only knew about magic for two years and was raised by muggles.

Harry's smirk truly sent shivers down the spines of some of the younger students as it changed to something darker and more proud. "Professors Flitwick, Lupin and McGonagall," Harry said, looking to a blank patch of wall in the corner, "would the three of you like to come forward and have a friendly duel with me to show what I'll be teaching?"

As if color were being added to them from the top down, those three teachers, along with Madam Sprout, Pomfrey and Professor Vector faded into existence as their disillusionment charms were ended. "How did you know we were here?" Flitwick asked, stepping forward with the other two Harry had requested.

"That'd be telling, Professor," Harry said with a smirk, knowing Hermione would just be waiting for him to explain later.

"Mister Potter, I don't believe this is a good idea," Minerva began, not wanting to simply say no to him since Flitwick had given him quite a bit of authority and it actually _was_ a good idea for what was needed. But to needlessly outnumber yourself three-to-one?

Harry, who had been training against multiple opponents, and had been fighting them before coming back in time, simply chose to smile winningly. "Then you'll kick my butt and put me in my place, simple as that. But they want to know what I'll be teaching them, and going up against a dueling champion and two others who fought in the last war and should still have some skill is a good way to show them."

The adults were obviously uncomfortable with that train of conversation, regardless of how the students were looking at them with a bit of awe and respect, perhaps a bit of fear when looking at McGonagall, and merely nodded, taking positions across from the platform Harry had constructed while the students pushed back against the far wall.

"Treat this as a real duel," Harry warned the adults. "Underestimating me is only going to end badly. Anything goes except for things Pomfrey will get upset about-"

"-I'm already upset!"

"Or are obviously things we shouldn't use," Harry finished as if he weren't interrupted while turning to the students. "Professor McGonagall is a transfigurations mistress. Keep that in mind when you see how she fights. Professor Flitwick is a dueling champion. Watch to see if he uses spell chains, or groups of spells fired off right after the others and see how they work together. Professor Lupin is a mystery and the wild card here. As far as we know, he has no specific specialty and there's no telling what kind of skills he's hiding away in that kind persona."

Harry ignored the quirked eyebrows of the adults or the looks they were giving each other as he continued. "Watch to see if they work together or try to take me out on their own. Look for openings you would try to capitalize on and think about what they do. Also, watch to see if I focus on one or two, or even all of them or what I do to make the numbers manageable. One-on-one is simple, but bad guys don't usually come in just ones."

Harry suddenly turned serious and his tone commanded attention. "Most of all, pay attention to what happens when you don't take them out of a fight permanently! For the first bit, I'm just going to be taking one out and not taking them out of the fight! Watch what happens!"

Harry turned to the adults and looked at them seriously. "Do you understand what they're learning with that?" He got three surprised nods in return. "Good. Don't hold back – I'm not."

"Mister Potter," McGonagall began, wanting to tell him they couldn't possible actually _try_ to hurt him as he was a student, but she was cut off as Harry flung his wand forward and a simple stunner erupted from it with a loud crack, making the three adults scatter. It was obviously meant as a warning since it moved towards them too slowly to be a threat.

"Incarcerous!" Remus yelled, sending magical ropes towards Harry before the green-eyed boy sidestepped them easily, having to duck beneath Flitwick's stunner.

Harry hopped sideways and sent out an arc of light that the trio of adults blocked with shields before deciding he was right. They would have to take him seriously.

McGonagall flicked her wand, causing the robe Harry was wearing to wrap around him, growing arms complete with hands and grabbing at him, holding him in place. "I believe that is quite enough, Mister Potter."

As the three adults stood and let down their guards, Harry smirked. "This is what you should never do in a battle, no matter how sure you are of victory!" He said loudly, confusing everyone present. "They see me bound, but they never took my wand or put me out of commission! I'm not down and I'm not out!"

With a yell, Harry cast a finite at his robes, forcing them to revert back to their original form even as he ducked sideways to avoid Flitwick's suddenly rapid spellfire as the tiny man sent half a dozen spells at the boy rapidly, causing Harry to rest on his right leg with his left at a straight angle and swing his wand over him in a circle, causing all the spells to bounce off of a shield that reflected them back to the ceiling.

"Stupefy, incarcerous, percussio, stupefy!" Remus yelled out as McGonagall attempted to conjure several blocks of wood, the easiest to transfigure with the least amount of concentration needed, and send them towards Harry, turning into tiny parts of a cage as they surrounded him.

Harry transfigured the ground beneath McGonagall into maple syrup in a hole deep enough to make her sink to her waist as she lost her footing, breaking the woman's concentration and making the wood around him stop changing only half complete and then animating the near-cage to crawl towards Lupin and try to catch him as he turned his attention mostly onto Flitwick who was grinning widely.

"Impressive, Mister Potter! You could make a fine du- Whoa!" The tiny professor dodged just in time to avoid a stunner, which was followed by one to McGonagall that put her out of the commission.

The students then saw Remus bring her back, showing what Harry meant when he said out of the fight for good. He had almost had one down, but McGonagall was brought back just as quickly, taking away that edge.

Harry grinned and saluted the adults who regrouped next to one another before they found him suddenly fading from existence, even as the rest of the students roared approval as Harry disillusioned himself.

"Impressive, Mister Potter," Flitwick said, hoping to get Harry to speak and reveal his location. "You didn't even have to tap your head as most casters must."

"Thank you," Harry's voice echoed throughout the hall, using the same spells he had used with Bolt's first appearance.

Flitwick frowned, displeased that Harry had thought ahead. _'I had hoped to do this the easy way. Well, that and impress my Ravens...'_ Filius held his wand aloft in both hands above his head and a blinding light erupted forth, causing tiny motes of light to appear throughout the entire room no more than inches apart and glowing dimly to only his eyes.

Except for one spot that was void of light in a vaguely humanoid shape.

Flitwick charged forward with a battle cry, shocking the students as a new side of the near-always cheerful charm's professor was revealed. One that leapt, jabbed and fought fiercely with empty air before a blast of light from his wand ended Harry's invisibility.

More than just a little surprised, Harry shot a concussive blast of air between the two of them, causing Flitwick to be thrown away from him. The surprisingly agile old man righted himself in the air and landed on his feet, sliding back the last five feet to stand proudly in front of his two teammates.

"Perhaps this is enough now, Mister Potter," Filius stated, more a command than a request. He wasn't showing it, but he was a little winded from that sudden assault.

Harry nodded, putting his wand away. "Not quite as much as I was hoping you would all see, but enough to get the point across. Dueling is important if for no other reason than to know not to underestimate your opponent. They did, otherwise they'd have had me when Professor McGonagall snagged me in the beginning. Had we gone on much longer, they'd have probably stopped and kicked my butt."

The adults walked from the stage as straight as their bones would allow as Harry continued. While he was using Sirius as something of a scapegoat in this, he knew he needed more dueling partners and was hoping to find some decent ones with this meeting. "With Sirius Black getting into the school, I'm sure you can all see the benefit of being able to at least not just cower in fear if he shows up. While they don't know if he's got a wand or not, with this many in the school, it would be simple enough to get one from anyone."

Harry allowed that to percolate for a few moments before he continued once again, getting to the heart of this meeting. "You all saw me stun Professor McGonagall when she was surprised-"

"And you had better hope this syrup comes out," she threatened from the sidelines where she was slowly vanishing what she could see.

"But with multiple opponents, they can be brought back at any time if you don't keep them out. Also, when they thought I was out, they let their guards down and began to talk to me. You may have the urge to gloat to your enemies. Don't. It's as simple as that. Trading insults back and forth during a fight is stupid. It means you're being sidetracked and you aren't focused. If they aren't out, you shouldn't stop. If you've stunned them, summon or break their wand and then they can't fight as easily, if at all. If they're murderers, then you can expect that they'll not shed a tear about killing you. So don't give them the chance." Harry looked around at each of the pale faces of the students around him, several thoroughly disturbed at what their minds were envisioning. Harry's voice had begun to get more impassioned as he spoke, remembering Sirius fighting Bellatrix and gloating as he practically pranced about before she blasted him into the Veil of Death. All because he wanted to toy with her rather than put her down. It was simply the difference between life and death.

"Mister Potter, these are children," Madam Sprout huffed. "They are not fighting in a war and they do _not_ need to hear that they should be killing their enemies."

"I never said they should," Harry countered. "Only that they should make sure a person is really out of the fight and not just down until revived. Think of it this way," he said, looking into the eyes of various students. "Hogwarts is supposed to be one of the safest places in Britain, but Sirius Black was able to get in and out without being seen except when he wanted to be, by the portrait. We could assume he was able to do this on his own, or we could wonder ... 'could he have had help?' If this place is so safe, then he shouldn't have been able to get in and out without being noticed, so it's only logical to assume that someone helped him get in and out. Therefore, we have to assume that someone could be helping him in general and may help in fighting later if it came down to it. It certainly would if someone found him in the hall, don't you think?"

The hall was deathly silent as the reality Harry had just painted struck everyone. Even the faculty was beginning to wonder, despite Albus' assurances otherwise.

The students began to pair off to practice dueling and taking tiny steps to try and get better as students began to wonder who was helping Sirius Black enter the school, now thoroughly convinced that he had to have had help.

Towards the end of the session, Susan Bones approached Neville, getting into his personal space and dragging him off to the side to 'talk' while taking a break. Both were a little sweaty and breathing heavily from the constant moving since Harry would randomly hit people with mild piercing charms to feel like bug bites if they stood still. Something about 'situational awareness' and conjuring shields instinctively.

Personally, Susan thought he liked to watch girls bounce in surprise. She got two such shots to her bottom. Hannah wound up with four. The youngest Bones would later learn Harry only did that with those who were working with him and getting paid. Harry somewhat felt it was his right to ensure they learned to anticipate random attacks. Well, duty too. There was probably some of that in there, somewhere.

"Harry seems awfully driven to teach us, don't you think?" Susan asked without preamble as they grabbed cups of water from the table the house elves had provided. They apparently added some sort of fruit juice or something to make it sweeter during these events, because students drank it to the point where they swished as they left the room.

"I suppose," Neville said quietly, unsure of why the Hufflepuff was talking to him. Susan and her strange friend always seemed to be looking at him in the mornings when Harry made them work out whenever Harry and him were the last ones running. He wasn't the most observant, but he certainly noticed their giggles. "But, he's right, isn't he? Black could have found anyone in the hall, some firstie or something, and would have had a wand and a hostage."

"True," Susan admitted. "But, dueling? I could understand the patronus, but this is a little advanced. I mean, it almost looked like he _let_ Professor McGonagall hit him with that thing with his robes."

"I doubt that," Neville said with a frown as he thought. "But I guess it's possible."

"He had us join that group of his before this stuff with Black," Susan said with a large gulp of water. "So what about that?"

"Is there some reason you're wanting to ask all of these questions?" Neville asked as he looked at the pretty, redheaded Hufflepuff. "I mean, I'm pretty sure he'd answer if you asked."

"I'm curious, is all," Susan admitted. "This all seems strange. I guess I'm just wondering what it's all about."

"He told us he wanted help with the Defense Club."

"Hm," Susan mumbled to herself. "I guess I'll ask him later." Susan looked over to the shy Gryffindor and sensed weakness in him. The kind of weakness one may see in a puppy. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

Neville watched Susan leave in confusion. "What just happened?"

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 5, During previous scene**

"Pardon, but did you say a fully developed mindscape?" Dumbledore asked Severus. "That's quite impossible. Last year, he had moderate resistance, but it was easy to bypass. Even a skilled Occlumens is unable to build a full mindscape from nothing in so short a time. Especially not one that is effective."

"I am well aware, Headmaster," Snape said smoothly, not pleased to have his intelligence doubted. "But I did not say it was effective. Curiously, he was able to hold me to laws of gravity, but the only reason it was able to stop me was because I was surprised to find myself not immediately sifting through thoughts or memories."

"What did you encounter?" Albus asked.

"I arrived somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, though not in any place I've actually seen in reality. Upon my arrival, I had to deal with acromantula the size of small houses to large ones, dragons, wyvern, centaur, goblins, gargoyles and a squirrel that died almost as soon as I noticed it when I launched my first heavy attack."

"A squirrel?" Dumbledore asked. _'Not quite the mark of a megalomaniac...'_

"The tactics used by his avatars were pedestrian at best," Snape sneered. "I was just about to bypass his walls and into the Hogwarts representation when one of his acromantula surprised me. I had to withdraw my probe or risk having it turned on me."

"Were the avatars projections of himself or drones?" Dumbledore asked, curious.

"There was too much intelligence to be drones," Snape said after a moment and tasting bile in his mouth at the admission. Drones were just what they sounded like. They did what was assigned to them and were unable to think for themselves, nor could they adapt. But they were also pawns and expendable. True avatars, such as those that could adapt and think were parts of the occlumens' mind in which they could attack the intruder's probe and reverse it, thus entering what would normally be a highly-defended mind. "Not enough to suggest intelligence, but enough to see they adapted. The boy doesn't have the intelligence to spare."

Albus allowed the dig at Harry to pass as though he hadn't heard it and thought hard about what he was being told. It didn't matter how experienced one was, they just simply could not create a whole mindscape in only a few months' time. The larger and more complex the mindscape, the worse it would be until perfected. But therein lay the problem. They were _never_ completed! They required daily upkeep and the amount of that upkeep depended directly on how large the mindscape was, almost making it a worthless skill unless one had an incredible mind to begin with.

Not something one could say about Harry Potter.

Hermione Granger, perhaps, had a mind that could do such a thing. Dumbledore would be hard pressed to recall anyone who had that kind of mental acuity. Even Harry's mother paled in comparison, not that anyone ever said as much.

"How complete would you say it was?" Albus eventually asked.

Severus actually paused to consider for a real answer. "It was large and details were excellent. I was bound by gravity, but was still able to speed up my avatar suggesting he thought to ensure they stayed on the ground, but hadn't considered augmentation."

_'Rookie mistakes,'_ Dumbledore thought. _'Something learned through experience.'_

"I would say he's worked more on making it appear aesthetically pleasing than functional, but at the same time, I find myself unsure."

"How do you mean?" Albus asked curiously.

"Consider if you will crafting a model toy," Severus began. "One who knows next to nothing would fail to grasp several key concepts like the internal workings, but could make it appear to look relatively complete on the outside. It is much like that. It's like he has all the parts and put them where they belong, but hasn't actually pieced them together. A pocket watch would, perhaps, be a good comparison."

"A house of sticks and twigs rather than bricks," Dumbledore said with a nod, thinking back to an old fable from his youth.

"An awkward example, but essentially correct," Severus said, looking moderately uncomfortable.

"This is most disturbing, Severus. He is growing far beyond normal rates, even if starting with the correct knowledge and, in effect, reconstituting himself, it is simply too fast. His magical power is immense. His occlumency, simple, but far beyond his years, much less possible ability. I am at a loss to understand how," Dumbledore explained, wondering at his deductive ability. Even if Harry were somehow being controlled or even assisted by the soul fragment from the Chamber of Secrets or the one he felt was in the boy's scar, this was simply too fast, wasn't it?

"The brat _did_ come into his inheritance and family estate," Several seethed. "Is it not possible the Potters had something that could help with such things?"

"A remote one, but yes. It is entirely possible," the older man agreed.

"If you're really _that_ curious, I _do_ have veritaserum in my stores and-"

"Severus! Please!" Albus scolded the Potion's professor. "I will not have this discussion again."

"Very well," Snape said in oily tones, fully believing the old man would come to him with that suggestion eventually. "Will that be all, Headmaster?"

"For now, yes. Thank you, Severus." Dumbledore sighed as the door closed behind the younger man, feeling adrift and confused. "Harry, my boy. I wish you were easier to read and understand."

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 6, 14:40 – Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch Match**

"I can't believe they'd actually make you go out and play in this!" Hermione exclaimed, voicing her displeasure at the idea of Harry going out and flying about on a broomstick in the middle of a heavy storm with an abundance of lightning. The boy wore metal glasses! His broom had metal accents! He had a metal clasp holding his cloak on! All the players were soaking wet! How was this not asking for trouble?

This Saturday had been worse than all the previous days. The rain was coming down heavily and providing almost no visibility. It was extremely cold out and there were places on the grounds where ice had formed in patches for no obvious reason. It most certainly was _not_ the kind of weather to go out and play a stupid game in! _'Harry could catch hypothermia or pneumonia or something!'_

Hermione continued to grumble under her breath as she charmed Harry's glasses to be immune to the rain and not fog from the heat from his face. He was quite sure he heard words spoken towards the faculty that would invariably get the girl a detention. He was actually somewhat ashamed that he hadn't thought to learn the charms his brunette friend was doing for him right now. He had thought to use wandless magic to do it, but hadn't been able to get it right. As the team called for a time out, right about the time Angelina's broom had been struck by lightning, Hermione had popped up while he was trying for the third time and took care of it, along with warming and drying charms in abundance.

"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said as he leaned down and kissed the surprised girl on the forehead before taking off into the air with the rest of the team, leaving his blushing friend to head back to the stands where Luna was waiting for her. Ron, unfortunately, was in Snape's dungeon, learning that Snape had, in fact, used the chamber pots before allowing him to clean them. As a matter of fact, he had two for each of his Slytherins that had been used.

At that moment in time, Ron was crying into the goop he was cleaning.

"Did it help?" Luna asked, casting a bubble around the twosome and spreading it a little to cover their friends to act like a shield to keep some of the rain off of them.

"I ... er, ... think he was happy with the help, yes," Hermione stuttered. Luna simply smiled and cuddled into her friend, trying to share body warmth. Even with the warming charms, it wasn't exactly comfortable outside.

Despite the horrible weather, Harry was smiling as he rose into the air. He knew he should be focusing on the game, but this was the first time he had an excuse to kiss Hermione and was legitimately able to leave right afterwards, and he hadn't even thought about it before hand! It had just kind of happened and she hadn't slapped or hexed him! And with the rain so bad, no one had even noticed but the two of them!

Hermione and Luna had both taken to his new affectionate side with an almost eager mentality. Well, to be honest, Luna was basically this snuggly thing from the very beginning and had taken to it without knowing differently. Hermione, however, knew he was never that affectionate, and that he usually shied away from such contact, but she took to cuddling whenever they sat to one another, usually by leaning into his side. It was almost necessary to be comfortable with Luna almost constantly sharing their laps. Now that he was willing to do more than cuddle by sitting against one another, Hermione had been perfectly willing to go with more hugs than they had before.

Harry was dislodged from his thoughts as a bolt of lightning hit the goals near Oliver Wood. _'Right! Head in the game, Potter!'_ Harry knew what was coming soon with the dementors and had been sure of his ability to handle it. He could cast a corporeal patronus even when one of the dark buggers was right in front of him, proven by the events preceding his fifth year in the previous time line. So, it was simply a waiting game.

While he was flying and looking for the Snitch, Harry was mentally wondering why Slytherin could possibly get away with stating they couldn't play this match, thus making it against Hufflepuff. Just because they said they had to train their newest seeker, Draco bloody Malfoy. Harry had been new not only to the game, but to flying during his first year, and he had made it onto the game and played his first game. It was obviously just something to keep them from playing in the bad weather, but at the same time, Hufflepuff hadn't known until just a few days before that they were going to have to play Gryffindor and hadn't had nearly as much training time because of that.

Harry began his usual scouting patterns as he sought out the Snitch, lost in his thoughts and the only flashes of light coming from lightning instead of the golden ball. _'How could Snape possibly get away with that? Didn't McGonagall or Sprout try to stop it at all?'_

A burst of lightning reflected of a glint of gold a few dozen feet in front of Harry, making him dart forward and up, trying to catch the fast ball. _'You won't get away from me _this_ time!'_ Harry thought, pushing his Nimbus 2000 to its limits as Cedric Diggory, the opposing seeker trailed behind once he saw Harry mark the Snitch.

The Snitch darted into dark clouds, making Harry lose it as he drifted, looking for even a speck of gold to hint at where it had gone and unaware it did just as before, shooting lower and leaving him up in the air alone. Mostly.

"Where is that damn thing!" He raged as Hermione's charms to keep him dry failed and his body was soaked in the water from the low-hanging clouds.

Suddenly, the gray cloud in front of Harry parted as a dementor flew forward and closed its face in on Harry's, followed by several others. Harry hadn't realized what he had been doing and drifted further up than he had the previous time through this event. And the dementors hadn't been sent away from his patronus several times throughout the year as they were this time around in the past, either. Therefore, when they sensed Harry nearby, they swarmed since he wasn't defending himself or the game.

All Harry could think of as he pulled out his wand was thoughts of anger and resentment when he could think at all. Each time one of the dementors came forward and sucked at his life force, his thoughts fled him and he was left trying to remember not only a happy memory, but how to defeat them in the first place.

And then one of the dementors came in closer than the others and tried to finish the job his brethren weren't, wanting the meal himself.

Harry instinctively moved away and fell from his broom, feeling himself fall and holding a strange calm within himself. _'Flying's never felt this free before... No pressure at all... So free...'_

"You stupid little bastard!"

Harry thought he heard something and had just enough time to wonder at what was interrupting the freeing sensation he was feeling when he felt himself move without doing it himself. Not for the first time, Harry could feel another presence within himself, taking control over his body.

Dumbledore looked up as the crowd gasped, seeing Harry tumbling from the sky with his broom out of sight. His eyes widened as he saw no less than thirty dementors trailing the sky above him, trying to catch him before he hit the ground. He was up on his feet as quickly as the rest of the crowd and had his wand in his fingers, trying to decide if Harry deserved another chance or if the signs of him turning dark were to be heeded when he failed to do so before. Then he realized the Prophecy would save the boy. Harry couldn't truly die except by being murdered by Voldemort.

He put his wand away, ready to find validation in many of the choices of his past. It was either that, or Harry Potter would die here, meaning he had been wrong all those years ago. A gamble, but something that had to be done for the Greater Good. He had to know that Harry was the child of prophesy.

At about five hundred feet from the ground, Harry's body righted itself and stopped in the air, hovering there with his arms outstretched and his eyes glowing green. The limiter seal on his bracers was removed to release ninety-nine percent of his magical core as someone else took control.

As the dementors above him got closer, a thick ball of pale blue light enveloped Harry's body and then shot upwards, blasting through the dementors and into the sky as the dark creatures howled in pain as the power overwhelmed them. Through the clouds, the crowd could see arms coming off of the pillar of light and circling like a whirlpool, beginning to make the clouds spin with it.

Then the pillar pulsed, sending out light in circles that washed over everyone and every thing, just as his patronus had done when he first showed the school, making them all feel safe and sending the dementors rushing from the school with horrific wails and falling to the ground, in too much pain to keep themselves afloat and barely making it past Hogsmeade and into the forest before they were overcome.

Slowly, Harry's soggy robes steamed and changed from black cotton to an unknown material of white that was so pure, it almost glowed of its own accord. Silver runes at all of the hems actually _did_ glow as an armor found itself called forward once again, feeling purpose and duty sing to it.

The arms circling in the sky began to move more quickly before the pillar in the air suddenly exploded outwards, forcing the clouds to rush off into the distance and causing the sunlight to shine down upon the school and surrounding lands for the first time in almost two full weeks.

When the students looked back at Harry, he was once again in his black robes and was on his side, looking to be asleep even though he was still hovering five hundred feet in the air until Fred and George Weasley grabbed him and took him down, finding that he would remain at whatever place they put him like he was on an adjustable shelf.

xXxXxXx

"Simply a case of magical exhaustion," Pomfrey told the gathered students. "He'll be out for the night with that dreamless sleep potion, but he's fine."

"That's fine?" Fred asked, pointing at the sleeping wizard who was hovering three feet over the bed where Luna was poking her arm to make sure he wasn't resting on something. For some reason, he wouldn't lower more than three feet over whatever surface he was placed on to.

"I said he's fine," Pomfrey grumbled, "not that I could explain _that_."

"Accidental magic, perhaps?" Hermione asked, her eyes red and puffy from where she had feared the worst. "I mean, he was several hundred feet in the air and he was unconscious after getting rid of the dementors."

"He's got more magic in him now than I've ever registered in him before, but the tests all show he's exhausted to the point of extremes," Poppy said simply. "I'm telling you that the tests show he's exhausted. Not what is happening with him now."

Pomfrey looked at the rather large number of students in her hospital and frowned. They were all muddy and this was supposed to be a sanitary place. Not to mention all the noise that could still disrupt the boy's sleep, regardless of whatever potions he was on. "Alright you lot. He'll be up in time for breakfast. I gave him a dreamless sleeping draught to ensure he'll recover as much of his magic as possible through the night. I want you out of here and off to bed with you. Maybe a cup of hot cocoa first. You all look to have pneumonia soon if you don't get out of those wet clothes and I don't need more patients!"

"Ah, can we...?" Hermione began, gesturing towards herself and Luna.

"For a bit," Poppy agreed. These girls were close to Mister Potter and were rather quiet. It would be better for their own health to be here and deal with the problem than away and fret, wracking their nerves. "But I want you to be aware of curfew, understand?"

Hermione nodded until Madam Pomfrey turned for her office and then looked back to Harry where Luna was already trying to push him down and tuck him in. "He won't go any lower, Luna."

Luna growled and glared at the bed as if it were the one to blame. "He would if his magic wasn't still coming out of him," the blonde grumbled.

Hermione sighed and sat against the headboard to hold onto Harry until Luna had the bright idea to put two beds together with just enough space to put Harry in between them so he floated above the floor and the girls could rest at a similar height to him. "What if he stops floating?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Just until we have to leave," Luna explained. "Then we should probably transfigure some walls on the bed so he doesn't float about. I had a bed like that, once, so I suspect this is something children do every now and then."

_'Don't say a word, not a word! Not a single one!'_ Hermione thought to herself. _'But do get Colin in here with his camera...'_

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 6, Unknown location and indiscernible time**

"You realize you're in for it, don't you?" Meghan stated unnecessarily. She was walking with Lora towards the boss' area as a form of support for her best friend and lover, feeling bad that events happened as they had. Lora was doing her best in a situation that was just about as bad as it was possible to get in their line of work, and doing a damn good job of it, but her mortal was just a pain in the ass. _'Not that I can really blame him. He's a damn man. The worlds would be better off if they were all turned into women.'_

"You think I don't know that?" Lora hissed. "That stupid idiot was overconfident and wasn't paying attention and I had to save his ass! There wasn't any other choice! That old bastard wasn't going to save him this time!"

"I know, Honey. But it isn't me you have to convince." The two stopped at a pair of massive doors where Meghan hugged Lora tightly. "Whatever happens, I believe in you. Good luck."

Lora smiled weakly at the slightly older girl and then took a steadying breath. _'I can do this! What I did was the right thing to do and necessary! I was technically under orders!'_

The blue-haired woman placed her palm on the door and was transported before The One. _'I'm in such deep shit,'_ she thought to herself.

"**I heard that,"** a deep, rumbling voice responded, causing Lora to flinch.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 6, A few minutes before curfew**

"Now's the perfect time to do it!" Cho hissed as she led the other two girls through the halls. "Potter's out of commission, Granger is staying there with him like always and Loony went to the library without her."

"But what if anyone sees us?" Marietta asked.

"The library is too heavy to be purely on one floor other than ground level," Cho explained as they rushed to catch up with Luna, who had left the Ravenclaw common room after getting some sort of homework she had hidden somewhere. "Even with magic, there are far too many books to support. We'll get her on the fifth floor since that's nothing but classrooms and store rooms." At least, nothing other than a closed off entrance into the library that they suspected Luna of using sometimes. Madam Pince had closed off all multi-floor entrances other than the third floor by her desk, but there were times when they believed the odd girl had figured out one of the doors.

Darting from shadow to shadow, one of the Thundercats following the three girls narrowed his fuzzy brow and used their quick speeding ability to rush ahead and find Hermione in the library. He wasn't sure where his master's Luna was, but knew Hermione would be in the spot she had marked some time ago. However, since the ability was not one created by running, but a form of traveling from place to place by skipping the area in between, he couldn't just rush ahead to find Luna since he didn't know where he would be heading towards. Humans would call the ability teleportation or apparition, but it wasn't instant and actually required travel. So, they preferred to call it 'slinking'.

"I can hear her footsteps," Mandy whispered, not wanting to be overheard. She wasn't feeling very sure of their current course of action, but it was too late to back out now. For better or worse, she had chosen to follow Cho the day she accepted the challenge to flash an upper-year boy and there would be no backing out, now.

"Hey Lovegood!" Cho called out after turning a corner and seeing the blonde girl nearing the end of the hall.

Luna, never really one to be needlessly rude, turned and blinked curiously at the three girls approaching her with quick steps and repressed a frown. These girls were never very nice to her. And they didn't appear to be in any mood to do so now. Something about them seemed different today than they usually seemed when approaching her. "Yes?"

"You must think you're pretty smart, avoiding us for the past month, huh?" Cho asked nastily, feeling her anger spike as she was finally able to confront the source of her aggressions. "You think that just because you're friends with Potter, you're better than others now? That you're better than us?"

Luna stayed silent, unsure of what exactly was going on. It seemed Miss Chang was infested with wrackspurts. And quite badly, at that.

"Not even denying it, huh?" Cho said, her face contorting into something rather ugly as she looked down on the confused blonde. "You've not been sleeping in your bed to avoid our harmless pranks and decided you'd make me get a failing grade on my Charms essay!"

Luna's brow knit together in polite confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand. I've never done anything to your schoolwork."

"Percussio!" Cho snarled, snapping her wand forward and at the younger girl, hitting her in the shoulder and making her drop her bag. "What's the matter, Lovegood? Can't fight back even after making friends with Potter? Why don't you grab that wand from your ugly ear and do something?"

Luna gently rubbed her shoulder where the older girl's hex stung her, but said nothing. She was simply falling back into old habits and decided not to do anything that could make them angrier and worked on not allowing herself to cry in front of them.

xXxXxXx

"Miss Hermione," the Thundercat asked, appearing on the table a few feet away from her.

"Hm?" Hermione looked over to the side, seeing a fluffy fur person. "Can I help you ... er?"

The Thundercat ignored the unasked question for his name and chose instead to deliver his message. "The three girls who have been tormenting Miss Luna are stalking her in the fifth floor corridor. They do not appear to be planning a prank."

Hermione's eyes widened as she rushed from the table, not bothering with her school work or personal items other than drawing her wand and running up the flights of stairs.

Making it to the fifth floor, Hermione was thanking Harry for the exercise he had talked her into doing since she was able to get up there faster than normal and was quite a bit less winded than she felt she would normally be. Just as she was about to turn a corner, however, she stopped and pressed up against the wall, listening to what was happening.

"Percussio!" Cho snarled, snapping her wand forward and at the younger girl, hitting her in the shoulder and making her drop her bag. "What's the matter, Lovegood? Can't fight back even after making friends with Potter? Why don't you grab that wand from your ugly ear and do something?"

_'Come on, Luna! Do something to defend yourself!'_ Hermione's first instinct was to rush out and blast the other girls to kingdom come, but she had been talking with Luna about the other girls during their slumber parties most nights. Well, that's what they called them, but the nature of those slumber parties was so Luna didn't have to deal with these girls doing things just like this. Luna had promised that she would try to stand up for herself a little more and Hermione wanted to give her friend that chance now, while she could look out for Luna and step in any time it seemed her younger friend needed her to.

It was hard, Hermione knew. She actually still had a bit of trouble doing that, herself. Her first year, she was just like Luna, and usually still was. She spoke up to defend Harry more often than herself. But she had hoped she could talk Luna into doing so. It just didn't seem to work. The girl hadn't built up enough self confidence to do so this early.

But Hermione urged her friend to try, nonetheless.

"I haven't done anything to you," Hermione heard Luna say. "You're just picking on me."

"You're different," Marietta said, making a disgusted face. "You're always going on about imaginary creatures and you're dad's just as crazy as you are! I bet your mom isn't actually dead, just ran away to be a part of a normal family!"

Hermione could hear a jelly-legs curse being launched and drew her own wand, her anger beginning to consume her.

"Protego!" Luna called out loudly, shielding herself from a boils hex and stopping Hermione before the brunette rushed in. Hermione smiled as she realized Luna was finally doing it! She was standing up to her tormentors! Hermione couldn't believe how proud she was in that moment.

"I don't care what Potter thinks he's taught you," Cho seethed. "My family's got spells that can't be blocked, and this one is going to make sure you never forget who is better than you!" The Asian witch ended with a yell. "_Dǎo zhì tònɡ kǔ_ (to cause pain)!"

Hermione had no idea what was being launched, but her body was already moving before she had even realized it. She saw Cho's face go from fury to shock just as what looked like silver needles blasted from her wand and hit the brunette girl hard enough to send her backwards with an explosive grunt and sent her careening over Luna's prone form. The blonde girl followed Hermione's path with horrified silver eyes. What looked like six-inch long needles of silver light seemed to pierce the majority of Hermione's body before they shortened as if entering her body.

Then she began screaming.

Hermione's body convulsed to put her on her back and her back arched painfully as her body tensed. Her eyes were shut tightly and her scream rose rapidly in pitch until the other girls' ears actually began to hurt.

"Cho! Come on, we've got to get out of here!" Mandy yelled, barely being heard over Hermione's scream that still had yet to stop.

"Give her the counter curse!" Luna yelled, trying to get their attention.

The three girls turned and ran away as quickly as their legs could carry them while Luna rushed Hermione and tried to hug the girl to quieten her, failing miserably. After several seconds in which Hermione still didn't stop her scream, Luna finally had the idea to silence her and levitate her quickly to the hospital wing.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Luna screeched, throwing the large oak doors open with such a great force they nearly cracked when they hit the wall.

"What is it, child?" Poppy asked, coming into the hospital area quickly, alerted to possible actual danger from the girl's tone of voice. Then she saw Hermione's body, frozen in pain and her mouth open in a silent scream. "On the bed! Now!"

Luna quickly moved Hermione to a bed closest to the doors and then moved back, allowing the healer to do her work. "I've silenced her! Her screaming was causing me to be unable to concentrate enough to do the spell. Cho Chang cast a spell on her in Chinese meant for me, I don't know what it was or what it does. It looked like silver needles hitting her. She ran off after I told her to apply the counter-curse," she rushed to explain as the medi-witch worked, getting a quick nod as she did.

"Go and- bloody hell! Don't you dare, Miss Granger!" Poppy muttered to herself as she worked, trying to work against what was apparently a fast-working clock. "Heart is close to stopping, need to lower the flow of adrenaline and ... got it! Need to figure out how to stop her from tensing her muscles like this or her heart will eventually give out, too! Damn foolish children!" Poppy growled as she summoned a dozen potions with a flick of her wand.

Luna's hands were fisted at her mouth as she watched through watery eyes, unable to tear her eyes away from Hermione's face and hearing every word as Pomfrey worked on Hermione, forgetting anyone else's presence as she fought to keep Hermione alive. For the first few minutes, all she heard was Poppy saying how bad things were and how Hermione's body was tearing itself apart, trying to writhe in agony, but being in so much pain that her body had locked up on her.

Nearly ten minutes into the work, Poppy had a breakthrough and managed to stabilize the young woman, but was fretting over how to keep the girl out of pain as Luna wished, for probably the thousandth time, that Hermione hadn't stepped in front of her and allowed the spell to hit her as it was meant to.

"There!" Pomfrey said triumphantly. "Stable! Now to put you to sleep to keep you unaware of the pain, poor dear," she mumbled as she slipped some dreamless sleeping potion into Hermione's open mouth in drops so as not to drown the girl. "There's no telling how long you'll be in here. You practically look like you suffered from the cruciatus! But at least you'll live, now."

Luna's hands finally lowered themselves from her mouth where they had been holding in her attempts at screaming and she suddenly felt calm sweep through her body. A sense of purpose overtook her and she rushed from the room, silencing her feet and dashing through the halls, not seeing Pomfrey turn and look for her, surprised to see her gone. Her body was pumping with adrenaline and her magic was singing to her senses.

"Where are they?" Luna asked into the air as a Thundercat came up to run alongside her.

"Second floor," Twinkle growled, feeling something deep within himself to answer or risk destruction.

"Why didn't you help her? Stop them or something?" Luna asked quietly, running at breakneck speeds.

"We are not able to," he replied, angry despite himself. "We consider you one of us, but we cannot actually assault a student unless in self defense. We have accepted you into our ranks, but while that connects us, we cannot hurt a student. We tried, but couldn't bring ourselves to actually do anything. It was how we were created. Only Master can tell us differently, and he is unconscious. How can we help you now?"

"You don't have to do anything," Luna said, somehow speeding up. "Just keep everyone else off the second floor."

xXxXxXx

"Oh my god!" Marietta whined. "Potter is going to kill us! When he sees what happened to Granger, we'll be lucky if they find our bodies!"

"He won't do anything," Cho hissed. "He's laid up in the hospital and Lovegood won't tell or she knows the same thing will happen to her." Not actually believing that, the Asian witch was constantly looking over her shoulder, expecting each time to see Harry Potter right behind them.

"No one's ever asked her," Mandy rebuked. "Granger is too well-liked in this school because of her association with Potter. They're going to ask questions and she will answer them. We'll be lucky if they expel us before Potter wakes up."

"She's muggleborn," Cho said, turning on her friends. "They don't have the kind of support to get us expelled. At worst, we'll get a few detentions, the Slytherins will probably applaud us and-"

"-And Potter will kill us," Marietta finished for the other girl. "And even if he doesn't, which I really don't see happening at this point, old McGonagall will probably do something to us because we hurt her favorite pet."

Cho had a true moment of doubt when helplessness and uncertainty hit her for a moment before shaking her head. "It's our word against Lovegood's."

"And Granger's," Mandy amended. "When she wakes up, she'll tell for sure. There's no way in hell she won't."

"She ... won't be waking up," Cho said quietly, shocking the other two girls silent and making them stop, wide-eyed. Seeing them looking at her, Cho felt the need to elaborate. "What that spell does is cause all the nerve endings in the body to slowly die, causing extreme pain. Kind of like the cruciatus, except it doesn't stop when the spell stops. There really isn't a counter-curse. It just kind of ends on its own. The target tends to eventually just ... shut down."

"You ... You were going to use that on Lovegood?" Mandy asked quietly, feeling sick.

xXxXxXx

"It's our word against Lovegood's."

Luna stood around a corner from where the other girls were at and bent her head down. She was mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do. She had no doubts whatsoever in doing it, but she felt a strange sense of calm and an almost giddy anticipation.

"And Granger's," Luna heard Mandy saying. "When she wakes up, she'll tell for sure. There's no way in hell she won't."

Luna wanted to cause these girls pain far worse than what they were doing to Hermione. Hermione was a good, kind, caring soul that Luna could honestly say she loved. Just as much as she loved Harry, even. They were her best friends.

And these _bitches_ thought they had the right to dare harm one of them and escape punishment!

"She ... won't be waking up," Luna heard Cho say, making Luna listen, hoping for a nugget of knowledge to help her friend before taking action. "What that spell does is cause all the nerve endings in the body to slowly die, causing extreme pain. Kind of like the cruciatus, except it doesn't stop when the spell stops. It just kind of ends on its own. The target tends to eventually just ... shut down."

There was now no reason to go soft on them, Luna realized. They would learn what it meant to hurt Luna's friends. She would never lose them again.

Slowly, Luna began to chant under her breath, tapping her wand to an invisible beat.

xXxXxXx

"_Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are..."_

The three Ravenclaws stopped dead in their tracks as the voice of a small girl echoed hauntingly through the hallway they were in, seeming to come from each direction.

"_Up above the world so high... Like a diamond in the sky..."_

The sound of wind joined the voice, making it sound as though the wind was somehow causing the words. The terrified girls grouped together, wondering what was happening. "Who's there!" Cho yelled out as all three raised their wands.

The disembodied voice turned from quiet singing to humming, mixed with sobbing as a ghost came from the wall. It was a little girl, perhaps four years old in what looked like a shredded sleeping gown that did next to nothing to preserve her modesty. The shredded remains barely covered the appropriate areas even as it fluttered gently in an invisible breeze. Her skin glowed with a slight blue-white tint whereas most ghosts were purely white and her knee-length hair seemed to have some of the original golden honey color of her original hair color, even in death. It, too, fluttered very slowly in the non-existent breeze. Her face was obscured by two balled up fists that were rubbing her eyes as she cried, her bare feet leaving dark footprints in the floor and her hands dripping with a dark liquid.

"Who ... who are you?" Mandy asked. "Is this a Hogwarts ghost?" She asked her two friends, getting both to shake their heads.

"They hurt her," the little girl mumbled, her voice sounding as though coming from a deep well and sounding as though it had to catch up to how quickly she was actually speaking.

"Wh-who?" Marietta asked.

Slowly, the little girl turned to the other three living girls and dropped her hands to her side slowly. Her white sleeping gown morphed from shredded white clothing into a black dress with a dark red apron on the front that appeared like something little girls several decades in the past would wear. At the same time, pale blue lips turned a blood red and golden hair turned deep black, contrasting with the now white skin ghosts were famous for.

"You," the little girl growled out in something half human and half beast. Then, singing in the same melody and same rhythm as the first song, she began a new one. _"Run, run, very fast ... Enjoy these moments, they're your last..."_

The little girl grinned as the torches lighting the hallway began to dim as the flames died out and began to cast only dark red light, causing the shadows to grow and expand.

The three girls had already turned and were running as quickly as they could down the hall, legs pumping quickly and each girl beginning to cry as innocent, childlike laughter seemed to follow them. They turned the first corner they came across, only to find the little girl resting on her hands and feet on the ceiling, her head turned like an owl's before the little girl began to crawl along the top of the hallway after them.

"Run!" Marietta yelled needlessly.

The girls ran for what seemed like several minutes before coming up upon their first intersection. Each hallway but the one they had run from was black and obscured in shadow.

"Fuck!" Cho yelled. "Where is she!" The three looked down the hall they had come from, seeing nothing down the hallway. Then they heard quick scampering from one of the black halls, then a second one.

"Reducto!" Marietta yelled, sending her spell down a blackened hallway and seeing it swallowed by the shadow. "What the hell!"

"Oh my god! Did you see that?" Mandy shrieked. "It just disappeared! What the hell is going on!"

Innocent giggling echoed around them as the humming rose in volume, then suddenly died.

Out of nowhere, the little girl dropped from the ceiling and grabbed Marietta by the ankles and pulled, dropping the girl to the floor with a wet-sounding smack and a cracking sound, causing her face to hit the floor hard enough to break her nose and splatter the floor with blood and three teeth before she was dragged into one of the shadowy halls with a scream, leaving claw marks on the stone floor where her nails filed away and leaving two of them behind where she tried to get a grip.

Cho and Mandy could hear the other girl screaming before hearing a crunching sound and then nothing as warm blood splattered their faces.

"Run!" Cho yelled, turning and rushing down the hallway that was still lit since she had just seen the monster drag the other girl into the other hallway. The older girl tried to ignore the bloody hand and feet prints on the ceiling as she ran as fast as she could. Mandy was faster, however, and was leaving Cho behind as they neared the next intersection of hallways. "Wait for me!"

Mandy stopped in the lit intersection, ignoring the other girl and wondering which way to go since this was just like the other end.

Cho was five feet from the intersection and catching up to Mandy when the ghost girl flew from one of the dark hallways and ran grabbed the younger girl with a guttural snarl, launching both into the darkened hallway, but not before Mandy tried to kick herself free, causing a leg to catch on their path through the entrance and causing it to snap, the bone ripping through the flesh and being left behind as a shoe fell from the foot it had been on as it spun in the air.

Cho skid to a stop and backpedaled a dozen feet into the hallway and back into the light as she relieved her bladder on herself, pressing her back against the wall and looking rapidly back and forth from one end of the hallway and the other, able to make out both intersections down what was a freakishly long hallway.

The lone girl could hear gurgling and clawing as wet ripping sounds were overshadowed by the sound of loud, open-mouthed chewing. A moment later, a finger flew down the hall and hit the terrified girl in the face, causing her to scream in fright and kick the sole digit away frantically.

Then the torches on both ends went out, leaving both ends of the hallway shrouded in darkness.

Then the next torch on each end.

Then the next.

Cho curled into a fetal position on her feet as all but the torch right above her went out, leaving her in a sphere of light about five feet on either side of her.

"_Twinkle, twinkle, little star..."_

"Stop it!" Cho shrieked. "Leave me alone!" She was answered with innocent giggling.

Cho began to sob as the torch above her slowly began to dim.

"Please," Cho begged. "Please just leave me alone."

Before the torch died, Cho had just enough time to see the bloody, smiling face of the girl peek through the stone wall across from her before the girl snarled, baring her teeth with flesh still stuck between them and launched herself at Cho's face, beginning to devour her as she had the others, feeling her flesh being ripped apart in pieces even as she tried to fight the tiny ghost girl.

And then the sharp teeth began to rip and tear at her chest, going for her heart and she knew no more.

xXxXxXx

Luna stopped chanting and slowly, calmly put her wand behind her ear as she walked around the corner where the girls had stopped all activity the moment her illusion began. They had fallen to the ground where they stood and their faces were frozen in expressions of horror. Their eyes wide and their mouths locked in silent screams of terror.

"I wish I could have done more," she told them, sighing as she physically put them to sit up against the wall. "But I'm afraid this was the most advanced thing I know of."

Luna stood and glared at the three girls. "But I will show you mercy this time. I won't strip you of your clothes as you would do to me since this was for Hermione." The blonde girl turned and began skipping away before stopping at the corner from where she had come. "Oh! I almost forgot."

The tiny Ravenclaw stepped forward and smacked each girl once on the face. "I had promised Hermione I'd begin standing up for myself. What I did to you first was for her. That was for everything you'd done to me."

"_Hm, hm, hm, hm...,"_ Luna began to hum the twinkling star song her mother had once sung to her as she made her way back to the hospital wing. Now that her business was completed, she was needed by her friends.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – November 7, Late Morning**

Harry yawned as he opened his eyes, feeling strangely contented as he realized he was cuddling a warm, female body once again. Then he blinked in confusion as he realized this female body was a little heavier than he was used to and that the hair on the head resting on his shoulder was brown instead of blonde. _'This is either really good ... or really bad...'_

"Good morning, Harry," Luna said with drowsy eyes as she put his glasses on him.

"Luna?" Harry asked, looking around and finding himself in the hospital wing. "Aw crap. The dementors again."

"Yes. You fell from your broom during the game yesterday. Then you performed some powerful magic, saved yourself from the dementors, and then you floated until some time this early morning around three."

Harry nodded with a yawn before realizing Hermione was laying in bed with him and between himself and Luna. "No offense, but why are the two of you here? Have you been awake all night?" He wasn't sure if there was any other way that she would know when he stopped floating otherwise.

"Good, you're awake Mister Potter!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed, pulling back the privacy curtain and then frowning at what she saw.

"Miss Lovegood, how many times do I have to tell you to stop putting those two in the same bed? They need to rest and recover by themselves!"

"They prefer to be together," Luna said simply, looking nonplussed.

"Regardless, Miss Granger should be in her own bed." The healer attempted to float Hermione to her own bed before realizing the bed was following her. "Did you use a sticking charm on my patients to keep them in bed together?" Poppy asked, wondering why that shocked her so much.

"You kept moving them," Luna said, sounding as though it should have been obvious.

"Why should Hermione have her own bed?" Harry asked, not liking what he was hearing.

Poppy softened as Harry asked and decided the boy would probably end up going to Miss Granger's bed anyway, so decided to leave them be for now. "Perhaps Miss Lovegood should tell you. I will simply state that she is going to be fine, though she will be in here for at least a week, possibly two."

"What happened?" Harry asked Luna as Poppy turned and left them to their own devices. Normally, she'd listen in in case she could learn something new, but she had other patients who required another check-up. That, and if she didn't hear what she thought was going to be said, then she had no obligation to report it. These three girls were found earlier that morning by the Head Girl, Miss Clearwater, while doing her rounds. After what they had done to Miss Granger, Poppy was willing to make herself scarce. It went against her usual habits, but they would heal and suffered no physical trauma.

The same could not be said for Miss Granger.

Luna explained what had happened in the hallway between herself and the other Ravenclaws, then what had happened to Hermione. She then went on to explain the girls responsible were already in the hospital wing and what she had done. "Apparently," she told him, "their minds shattered during the event. Physically, they are perfectly fine, but they will have to have their minds professionally healed."

Harry looked with wide eyes at Luna laying in front of him. Her head was bowed and her cheeks were covered in tears with her shoulders shaking. He had never had any clue that the girl was capable of such a thing and would honestly say he would never have thought her capable of it, but here she was, just-turned thirteen, and having taken out an enemy more brutally than anything he had ever done.

"Do...," she hiccuped and hesitated just a moment. "Do you hate me for it?"

Harry could never hate this girl, no matter what she did. She was his friend and did worse to those girls than anything he could have done to them. He reached over and gently held her chin in his hand, causing Luna to flinch before she looked into his eyes. "I could never hate you, Luna. What you did is what I only wish I had been able to do. I'm thankful to have you as a friend." Feeling some urge to try and comfort the girl, knowing words alone wouldn't mean as much to her as anything else, he leaned over and hugged her tightly to him, causing her to release a flood of tears.

"Thank you!" She whispered harshly. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Will Hermione really be okay?" Harry asked, pulling back and looking at his sleeping best friend. Her brow was knit together and twitching even while under the influence of dreamless sleeping and pain relieving potions.

"Madam Pomfrey was able to stabilize her," Luna admitted, "but has to keep her in an induced sleep to hide her from the pain. From what Cho said, it will end when it ends. But Madam Pomfrey contacted Cho's parents and explained what had happened and demanded a counter-spell. They are looking for one, but Mister Chang seems to believe there isn't one. At least not for the damage already done. Madam Pomfrey was able to stop the spell from doing more damage, but with the current damage, she'll be in pain if she wakes up. Her nerves have to heal before Madam Pomfrey will let her become conscious again."

"Which is exactly why I didn't want her getting moved about," Poppy explained as she entered Harry's private area again, having heard the last of their conversation. "The damage is over her entire body. Until she has time to heal, any physical contact could cause her pain."

"Is there no way to speed up the healing?" Harry asked as both he and Luna pulled away from Hermione a little so they were close, but not touching her. Luna looked rather upset that she was only being told that bit of news now, however.

"None, I'm afraid. Much like healing from burns, the nerves must simply grow back."

"What about burn-healing salve?" Harry asked, thinking back to his fourth year and the dragon challenge. "Does that help nerves?"

"No," Poppy said with a sad shake of her head. "It helps the healing process with burns, yes, but that's because it helps the whole body recover where it is applied. This, however, is internal. The nerves themselves are the only thing that need to recover."

"Maybe Fawkes?" Harry offered hesitantly. "He's helped me in the past. Maybe for this, too?"

"Unfortunately, Fawkes is not an option," Pomfrey said, beginning to get upset that he would think she hadn't thought of that. "Miss Granger's nerves aren't actually damaged, but are reacting as they are and they need time to heal in the sense that there is spell residue upon them. I was able to stop the spell itself but, for lack of a better way to describe it, the spell was like the syrup you used on Professor McGonagall. The spell is the syrup, and Miss Granger's nerve endings are the Professor. In a sense, there is nothing to truly heal, we just have to wait for the magic to go away."

Harry frowned and looked down at Hermione, feeling helpless and hating it.

"Now, Mister Potter, you're free to go, and I suggest doing so rather than sticking about. The magic you're putting out isn't going to help Miss Granger and if you hurry, you can catch the last bit of breakfast."

Harry blinked in confusion before glancing at his bracelets and seeing only one percent still locked away. _'Seal ninety-nine percent,'_ he grumbled, reconstituting his limiting seal. It was no wonder he was so tired. He'd somehow managed to use up almost all of his magic the day before and he was able to feel the lack of energy, even though it was more than he normally had access to.

"I guess I'll go let Ron know what happened," he said, getting out of bed and transfiguring his Quidditch uniform into school robes.

"Mister Potter," Pomfrey began as he walked towards the door with Luna following him. "I don't mind you visiting Miss Granger, but do keep any visits relatively short. No more than an hour at a time. For some reason, you seem to radiate magic and that could affect Miss Granger's healing process. A little here and there won't be a problem, but any longer than that and I feel it may stall her progress while you visit."

Harry couldn't really speak, so he simply nodded and left, heading towards the seventh floor corridor, but not towards the common room. He instead went to the Room of Requirement with Luna in tow where she got to watch as he dueled what looked like an evil doppleganger in a rather frightening display of power.

Had he not already been so weakened from the majority of his power having left the day before, she would have really seen what he was capable of. But for this one time, she was the first to witness his ability to fight using both wand and wandless magic beyond simple displays.

_'I can't really blame him. I would be doing much the same if this was my way,'_ Luna thought to herself, petting a Snorkack from behind a shield the room provided her with. Right now, she just wanted something to cuddle.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – November 7, Evening**

Harry stood by the window in the Gryffindor common room while Luna lounged in a chair a few feet away, not wanting to intrude on his thoughts and not willing to leave him alone. He dueled his evil twin to a standstill until he was just too tired to keep moving and was still quite sore from it. Apparently, the room knew better than to keep the other Harry at full power when the real Harry wasn't, so it was always just a touch faster or stronger than he was and always pushed him to his limits, even when he was barely able to hold up his wand arm rather than matching his peak form.

A large part of his actions was anger at what had happened to Hermione, but another large part was because it hadn't happened like this the first time around, which meant _he_ was the cause and at fault. He wasn't sure how, but he knew it was true. And what was worse, he had no idea how it had happened! People were changing! He once thought of Cho Chang as this dark, exotic beauty with a pretty smile and soft demeanor, but now, he saw she was an absolute bitch! Not only for what had happened to Hermione, but for how she had been treating Luna.

That had been happening before he came back in time. So, at the very least, she was always like this. He just didn't know it.

Another part of his anger and frustration was that he was helpless to give Hermione any form of aid. His rings provided him with whatever information they could on how to help her, but there was one sad fact to the legality of what had happened: Hermione was muggleborn.

While Hermione had rights in their world, this was basically nothing more than a school yard squabble, as far as the legal system was concerned. Hermione was not a part of an influential family, or rich enough to have that fact overlooked, and she was not the intended or betrothed of anyone in power, putting her under their aegis.

As much as he hated to say it, her rights basically extended to civil rights, and even then, it wasn't much. She was one step above squib, two above muggle and three above sub-creature in the eyes of the law.

And Harry was pissed.

He knew muggleborn had had it rough in little ways, like horrible exchange rates dictated by the Ministry and restrictions on what they could own or purchase, such as land or wizarding businesses. But he had honestly believed they would have basic rights when attacked. As it turned out, they didn't unless by a class lower than themselves. Luna was actually safe from reprisal _just because_ she was pureblood. And because she and Cho were both considered purebloods, what happened between them was considered above the laws of the school outside of student ethics, which hadn't been enforced.

Harry had never really had the cause to do so, but he was now staring blindly out the window and letting knowledge from his rings go through his mind as he looked up laws related to muggleborns and Hermione, specifically. In his past, he could remember Delores Umbridge using the laws as her own word, sending muggleborn to camps to be exterminated and basically doing as she pleased. As it turned out, the things she did was actually enforcing older laws that were mostly ignored right now simply because there were more than ten times the number of half blood or muggleborns when compared to pureblood and, without direct influence from the Ministry, they couldn't enforce those laws without retaliation.

But in all of Harry's searching, there was one glaring hole in all of these laws. None of them pertained directly to Hogwarts.

It was only then, after almost a half year back in time, that Harry remembered what he was told about the Ministry being unable to control Hogwarts. He decided in that moment that he was going to wrestle control back from the Ministry for Magic and force some changes within the school.

"Harry mate?" Ron hesitated, knowing Harry had been getting closer to Hermione and was obviously angry. He knew it wasn't the best time, but it was decided for him that he was Harry's best friend, at least that was conscious, and he would be the safest one to tell Harry what had happened.

"Yea, Ron?" Harry asked hollowly, making plans to contact Griphook.

"Um, I know it isn't the best time, but we thought you needed to know that when you fell off your broom, the wind blew it into the Whomping Willow and..." He trailed off as he held up a bundle of twigs and sticks in a ratty blanket.

Green eyes looked dispassionately at the broken broom, wondering why they felt he should care about a bunch of twigs when he had a perfectly good Firebolt ... _'Oh yea. I don't yet.'_ Harry nodded, uncaring with more important things on his mind. "Don't worry about it. It's just a broom. Toss it into the fire if you want. Should warm the place up a bit more."

Ron lowered the bundle in his arms, unsure of what to do, but following the advice and tossing the whole thing into the fire, turning it from an orange and yellow flame to one of purple and green as the magic was burned by the flames. Not sure what else to do, Ron walked by Harry and paused. "I'm not happy she got hurt, either, you know. But Pomfrey said she'll be as good as new soon. G'night."

Harry watched Ron's reflection in the window pane as the redhead followed the rest of the boys to bed for the night. He couldn't really blame Ron for his lack of reaction towards Hermione's current state. Ron was still at a point in his development where, if he couldn't get angry at it, then all he could really do was ignore it and pretend it didn't affect him, regardless of how it really did. Ron knew she was hurt, but didn't really know how to help her any better than Harry could. If it wasn't something that could be solved with a wave of the wand or a bowl of chicken noodle soup, he was at a loss. The only good thing about such a mindset was, if you weren't dead or dying and would be okay, then everything was okay for now.

Harry could remember feeling that way. He missed it, sometimes.

A few moments after Ron was gone, Harry turned and went to the couch where he could write on the table, almost immediately being glomped by Luna at his side when he sat down. He couldn't really blame the girl for that, any more than he could Ron's apathetic attitude. She was feeling horrible at what had happened to Hermione for what she felt was her own fault even though it was really Cho and the other two.

"Didn't you finish all your homework?" Luna asked, seeing him pulling out parchment and a quill and beginning to write.

"I'm writing a letter to Griphook at Gringotts," Harry explained, trying to write slowly to keep his penmanship a little neater. "He's my accounts manager. When I claimed my emancipation, I ... er, learned I have a lot of say in what happens in the school. I'm planning on seeing if I can do that and if they can send me any information or if I have to come get it."

"Oh. I didn't realize your holdings would keep an accounts manager without anyone to oversee them," Luna said, thinking accounts that couldn't be authorized to do anything would be locked down from her admittedly limited experience with banks. Her father wasn't too trusting of them. He just allowed her a few vaults so they had an excuse to ride the mining cart since she rather enjoyed that and teach her about money management.

"They didn't," Harry replied distractedly. "I made him the accounts manager because he was the first goblin I met and always answered my questions. He was the teller I went to when I first came into the wizarding world."

Luna blinked. "You made a teller the manager of your accounts? Did you make sure he knew what to do?"

"They don't really do a whole lot," Harry explained, having thought of this before in the previous time line. Hermione had been curious when researching ways to get into Gringotts to get the Hufflepuff cup from the LeStrange vault and had forced him into learning a bit about it since he would need to know anyway and it was a good cover for getting into the bank at the time. He didn't know much, but he knew enough to know that appointing such a lower-level employee to his accounts basically gained him an ally that would be eager to please and would do quite a bit to maintain his new status.

"Basically, they do whatever I tell them in relation to buying or selling things and work as a liaison between myself and the bank, getting me information whenever I need it. It just costs a bit each time I use their services. They're all about making gold and profit so, letting him watch the account activity and basically getting me things when I need them, he gets paid, making him happy."

"Don't they invest the gold into things?" She asked, curious about what she had learned and what Harry apparently knew. "I thought they basically invested the money into things and kept the money mobile while always keeping enough on-hand to give you whatever you request, as long as you've enough for it."

"They do invest, yes," Harry said. "From what I understand, the bank gets its money from fees and charges and they take a percentage of whatever they invest in on your behalf. But they don't invest _my_ money, just what is considered theirs. He could invest mine, but I haven't authorized that."

"Oh," Luna said, watching him scribble. "I suppose they also make a large profit with their warding and enchanting ventures, too. I wonder if they really sleep on mounds of gold."

"I don't know," Harry said after a moment. That had given him an idea that he decided to add into the letter as well with the various details he was looking for. While not the same thing, he hoped, Sirius had once given him advice that seemed prudent at this point in time: 'Remember, kiddo! Safety first! You don't want to be wishing you'd taken the right precautions after the fact!'

At least, Harry hoped it wasn't goblins Sirius was talking about. He was fairly sure he understood the subject matter itself...

Roughly a half hour after he had begun, and after the last of the students had gone to bed for classes the next morning, Harry was finished with his missive and whistled for Hedwig, the pitch dropping as he had done the previous year. Moments later, Hedwig flew through the window that opened automatically for her.

"Hey girl. Wanna deliver a letter for me? I want to try to find a way to help Hermione," Harry told the snowy owl, stroking her plumage and taking a moment to lavish her with attention. "Thanks. Take it to Griphook at Gringotts." Harry watched Hedwig fly away for a few moments before turning to go to bed and seeing Luna standing there, looking at him nervously.

"Um," she began, fidgeting. "I know my bed will be okay now, but ... I was wondering ... With Hermione and all..." She trailed off, unsure of how to ask a boy if you could sleep with him without it sounding dirty.

"I think I could use the company tonight, if you'd like to stay here again," Harry said, actually feeling better with the thought of having Luna sleeping with him to cuddle with. He felt it would help with knowing that Hermione was hurting and he was unable to do anything about it. Even going to her side under his invisibility cloak was forbidden just because of his presence.

Luna nodded mutely, sniffling slightly. Almost without thinking about it, she tapped her forehead and melted away from view as a disillusionment charm covered her, just in case any of his dorm mates were awake. "Thank you," she said quietly after disappearing.

The next morning, even to himself, Harry wouldn't complain about cold toes burrowed into uncomfortable places. He would just be happy they were there.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – November 11, 21:50**

_Mister Potter:_

_To your first request regarding information on Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I have found the agreement in question. It was not easy, nor was it cheap. The Ministry for Magic seems to have had it misfiled under a completely unrelated heading and all public records of such an agreement were too old to be read with any degree of accuracy, even though records from even further back are in excellent shape. These changes seem to have been made recently, as well. Anything pertaining to the actual rights the Ministry had was simply missing due to the aforementioned reason with the header. I had a Ministry lackey track the information down for us since there are no other records available other than that which is in your vaults, but as you are apparently unaware, only a human with a blood line to one of your school founders is capable of opening those document cases. While that would be quite literally dozens of humans, we cannot pull the information from your vaults and, as goblins, cannot access it. While this isn't exactly necessary information, I felt it prudent to let you know how hard I had to work to gather it so quickly so you would be aware of why you were charged so much. My fee, on top of what was required to pay the lackey of the Ministry, has been deducted from your account, totaling one hundred galleons._

_Something you should be aware of, Mister Potter. The Ministry has these records being monitored quite closely with the knowledge that all of the Founders' heirs have returned, hence the high charge. Seventy-five galleons was from the Ministry lackey due to what appears to be hazardous information requests. _

_To your business request. What you are asking for is, while not unprecedented, certainly abnormal in nature. It is doable, but you must understand the nature of your request. Each interchangeable item will cost its normal rate. We do not provide bulk discounts as you humans do._

_In total, each enchanted item will cost one hundred galleons each and, from the numbers you were referring to, upwards of over four thousand galleons. While you've got more than enough to cover this expenditure, ensure you want so many created. We do not do refunds, either._

_Also, we have not received a copy of your Last Will and Testament. If you still wish to craft one, we will accept it. Just remember it is always best to get those things finished before they are needed._

_Accounts Manager,_

_Griphook_

"Cheerful lot," Harry grumbled the next Thursday. It had been five days since Hermione's attack and she still did not really show any actual improvement. She looked basically like she did Sunday; she looked like she was sleeping.

Luna had not been taking Hermione's incapacitation well. She blamed herself for what had happened and only really spoke to Harry or Hermione's sleeping form. Any time a teacher asked her a question, it usually resulted in a blank look with very little blinking. After the first day, they didn't ask her anymore.

There had been gentle inquiry into the mental states of the other girls, but Harry had simply stated that he was told what had happened to Hermione by Luna and stopped his storytelling there. Whether the faculty forgot or chose not to ask if there was more, he really didn't care. As it was, Dumbledore was the only one who had asked. Everyone else realized he had an iron-clad alibi. Not that it would matter. Dumbledore had a strange habit of letting damn near everything slide, of which this was a perfect example.

"Are you ready for bed, Harry?" Luna asked, putting her homework away. She had barely been listening during classes and never wrote a single word down. For those that Hermione didn't share with Harry, Luna skipped her own classes and wrote notes verbatim for her absent friend, feeling it was the least she could do. She got the class information from Harry and was relatively thankful Harry advised her to not worry about Divination since Hermione was planning on dropping it.

She wasn't. Not yet at least, but Harry felt it helping the girl out and helping to avoid discussing Hermione's schedule was for the best.

"Yea. I'll send my reply tomorrow," Harry said, leading Luna's disillusioned form to the dorm room. Some part of him felt he should know better than to let a girl sleep in his bed each night for the past week, but he had been sharing a bed with Hermione for about a year and had become not only comfortable with it, but preferred it to being alone. There was just something about sleeping with someone that was comforting and ... addictive. As he crawled into bed, his final thoughts were thinking over how that could very well explain Luna's preference to spending the night with either him or Hermione.

Some time later, Luna turned in Harry's arms to face him, watching him sleep and listening to his steady breathing. "Are you awake?" She whispered, holding her breath to see if his breathing changed and happy to note it hadn't.

"Thank you for being my friend, Harry," Luna said quietly, ensuring she could barely hear herself, much less anyone else hear her. "Even after getting Hermione hurt, you stuck by me and didn't hate me after what I did to Cho and the others."

Luna was quiet as she continued to listen for a moment, ensuring his breathing was still steady and deep. "I thought I might have had a crush on you, you know," she admitted, her cheeks pinking slightly. "You were this powerful man who was going out of his way to protect and care for me, even just befriend me, really. You rescued me from being locked up for who knows how long and just held me when I was sick."

Oh so gently, she trailed a finger over the contours of Harry's face and neck, taking care to get as close as possible without actually touching him. "I thought it was hero worship. That I was falling into that knight in shining armor cliché. But I didn't. Not really."

The blonde girl sighed, succumbing to the urge to stroke Harry's hair. "I'm only three months younger than you, almost to the day," she breathed out dejectedly. "I know my feelings, even if I didn't really understand them at first. I realized rather quickly that I loved you."

Quietly, she shook as she withheld a giggle. "For some reason, it's as if I knew you for far longer than two months. I get these glimpses of things that I don't really understand. Like deja vu, only more detailed. I get those feelings sometimes when I go somewhere new. I feel like I can see things that have happened long ago. But this is so much different."

Realizing she'd been raising her voice to near normal levels, she quieted and listened intently for any sounds of anyone awake, most especially from Harry. After a moment, she continued, quieter. "I admit I don't know if this is the kind of love my parents had, but I know I could never be without you in my life, even if everyone else was there still."

"But, I also know that you seem to be dedicated to Hermione already. You don't have to worry about that, you know. She's just waiting for some kind of sign that what she keeps thinking she's seeing isn't just some new affectionate you or your hormones going after the closest pair of bits," Luna told him, hoping this would somehow penetrate and he would remember, subconsciously at least, that he just had to try a little harder for Hermione.

"I promise I won't ever stand in the way of your happiness. I know you want Hermione and I'll do my best to help you both along without betraying either of your trusts. But for that, I only want one thing from you, Harry."

Luna swallowed as her breathing sped just a touch. The one thing she would ever want from Harry, the most she would ever allow herself to take from Hermione. "A kiss...," she breathed out, little more than a whisper of sound.

She leaned forward and licked her lips before she pressed them lightly upon Harry's, applying the smallest amount of suction and burning the feeling of his lips on hers, his taste, his heat and even the smell of him into her mind so she could keep it with her forever. Seconds later, she pulled back, letting out a shuddering breath with her lips swollen and her heart racing.

The small blonde girl smiled warmly and curled into Harry's chest, feeling contented and suddenly very drowsy now that she had that one memory to forever last her. She quietly pulled out a tiny crystal fairy figurine and stored everything within it, thanking the gods for her father's gift. _'Just in case I need help remembering in my later years. Thank you Harry, even if you won't ever know how you've helped me.'_

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, 06:00**

Harry awakened early Friday morning, regretting the fact that he promised himself not to complain mentally about cold toes in sensitive places, and performed his morning ablutions and changed into his workout clothes. He had worked extra hard the last few days during his exercises, looking forward to being able to exhaust his body. A few trips to Madam Pomfrey and he learned his magical core was recharging faster than he was wearing it down since he limited himself to two percent power for that whole week plus one more.

It was also a good excuse to get rid of whatever magic he could use before visiting with Hermione for a little while.

Today, however, was going to be the Wizengamot meeting that he apparently couldn't miss without almost guaranteeing time in Azkaban, and he planned only to get some light exercise in so he was loose and limber without being tired or magically weak, just in case. It was curious, he noted, that the only reason he was aware of the Wizengamot meeting was because of that Court Scribe that had taken the time out to alert him to it. He had yet to receive any other missives or alerts warning him that he had to be there and he was seriously wondering why.

Today was also a big day for another reason. The public would soon be learning who held the Founders' seats, and he was not looking forward to that. They had been spending more than just a little gold in trying to figure out who held them, and there had been many suspicions, all wrong, put through. It seemed the day had arrived for them all to learn.

Harry entered the room of requirement and began stretching, standing straight up at attention and then bending from the waist to touch his toes, he held that position for several long seconds before rising and then screaming in unholy horror as he saw Lora standing before him, her face one of fury. She was dressed in inky black robes and had a scythe raised above her head for a brief moment before throwing it down in a chopping motion.

Harry fell backwards and saw the blade slowing so it went down at a similar speed before the long, jagged point plunged into the stone floor close enough to his danglies to cut the seam.

"Squeak!" Harry tried to scream, but all that came out was a squeaking as fear closed his throat.

"You stupid, insufferable, egotistical, mentally challenged, _man_!" Lora roared, jerking the scythe back up from the ground hard enough to cause chunks to rip from the floor and tossing it over her shoulder.

"What!" Harry finally screamed, scuttling backwards until his back hit the door.

"Do you have any idea how much you've fucked up! Do you have any idea what happened! I swear, killing you right now would almost be worth a demotion and working with slimy demons and tentacle monsters!"

"What the hell are you talking about!" Harry screamed back, ultimately confused.

"GAH!" Lora reared her head back and threw her arms out to the side and let her own power run free, destroying the Room of Requirement and rebuilding it as she vented her anger. Dozens of statues of Harry formed into existence only to be blasted away with the extremely large, wicked-looking scythe that Harry really didn't think such a petite woman should be able to move, much less swing around so freely.

For a brief moment, Harry would swear he saw damned souls being tortured in the fires that rose up like pillars from the ground. He was left quivering in fear by the door, wondering what had pissed this woman off so badly.

After several long minutes of mental trauma, Lora finally fixed everything and then looked back at Harry, glaring daggers and promising painful retribution. "Listen you little fuck. Because of you, I've just had my ass handed to me for multiple reasons, and you're responsible for all of them!"

Harry wasn't able to move, he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Remember when I told you I took over the Reaper contracts for some of your friends?" She groaned as she got a blank look. "When I became their Angel of Death!" She roared, getting a frantic nod of Harry's head. Right now, he'd do anything to appease this woman's temper. He was half-tempted to lay on his back and show his tender underside to her as a sign of submission, but felt that would only piss her off more.

"I became Hermione's Angel of Death, too, along with Luna's, Neville's and others' and then this shit with Hermione happens at the same fucking time I'm getting my ass reamed for jumping in to save your ass because you didn't keep your head about you during the Quidditch game!" Lora yelled, getting very much within Harry's personal bubble as her face came inches from his own.

"As if that's not enough, you go and become friends with Luna and now she's falling in love with you because you can't spend all your damn time with Hermione!"

"What?" Harry asked, finally hearing something her understood.

Lora growled and stalked away from Harry, turning and sitting where a chair formed just in time for her butt to fall on. "Let's start from the beginning, _again_!"

Harry finally felt the courage to get up and walk over to sit across from Lora, giving her his full attention.

"The Quidditch game," Lora said, sounding as though her anger was finally leaving her as she began to speak normally, if a bit coldly. "Dumbledore was supposed to save your sorry ass. That was the original time line. However, because of how much you're showing an independent streak, he decided to seek validation in his lonely and pathetic life by seeing if the Prophecy would hold up and you'd live unless Voldemort himself killed you and because you knew what was going to happen, you felt overconfident in yourself and wound up going higher where the dementors were able to swarm you faster and in greater numbers than originally had happened and then you began to plummet, again, to your untimely demise."

Harry gulped. When put that way, it was rather ... er ... damning.

"Because you were being a fucking male and thinking about how fucked up it was to play Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin, you allowed your anger to grow and had the dementors feasting on your soul too quickly for you to do anything about it. Strike number one with this crap with Hermione as strike two."

Harry shuffled his feet, wishing he could just curl up into a ball and hide from this woman.

"The next problem, believe it or not, is even worse."

"How?" Harry asked, his face paling more than it was when a large scythe had gone for his lower half's most important area.

"Remember when I told you that you've got multiple soul mates and how another was in Hogwarts? But I didn't tell you who it was because it didn't matter since you already had been forming a bond with Hermione?"

"Yea," Harry said, confused. "You also said there was a third one somewhere else."

"Luna was the other one in Hogwarts," Lora deadpanned. "And you've been by her side almost constantly since coming back to Hogwarts, forming yet more bonds."

"But wait, can I have more than one soul mate at a time?" Harry asked. "I thought that, once you got one, you were together or something."

"No," Lora said, rolling her eyes in disgust and annoyance. "I tried telling you before. Soul mates are people who get along exceedingly well with one another. Very much in tune, if you will. Sometimes, they are more aware of each other than others, and sometimes it comes about over a little time. Some will know each other as soon as they see one another. Others, like you and Hermione, are so damn skittish that you've basically got to be shoved into a closet together and not allowed out until one of you is pregnant!"

Harry's mind began to activate in that moment before Lora threw her shoe at him, knocking him on the side of the head. "Don't even think about it! I swear, if I have to sit here while you think perverted thoughts, I'm turning you into a woman in a French Maid costume and sending you to Knockturn Alley!"

Harry whimpered, signaling Lora's continuation of her story.

"Listen. No match is so perfect that you won't have to work at it. If you stop caring about your partner's happiness, then you will grow apart. It's as simple as that," Lora said. "All of those stories where two soul mates are bound together in some Holy marriage(1) is preposterous! Us forcing two souls into love or into some form of bond together is no different than Molly Weasley using love potions. _All_ relationships require commitment and honest affection or they will be empty and unfulfilling. That's why soul mates get out of the relationship as much as they put into it."

"You make it sound like you aren't even the ones who make the soul mates," Harry said, beginning to understand.

"We aren't," Lora said with a shrug. "Some souls are just naturally in tune with one another. Some, like Snape, are not in tuned with anyone. That's also why you will sometimes get a triumvirate in which three souls total are soul mates."

"You mean we-"

"No," Lora rebuked before Harry even finished the thought. "You are compatible to each girl, but they aren't towards each other. They could be extremely good friends, or lovers if they chose to be, but neither is really that way inclined," Lora said. _'Such a pity, too. Those quiet, bookish ones are always so wild... Oh well,'_ she thought with a mental sigh.

"The point of all of this is that soul mates are not bonded by a kiss. That's a romantic sentiment from centuries past where romance novels felt it an easy method by which anyone is capable of potentially finding a soul mate. But, have you not kissed Hermione, before? Or she you? Have you ever suddenly found yourself desiring her like those stories?"

Harry blushed, causing Lora to groan. "I mean after a _kiss_, you stupid idiot."

"Oh. Uh, well..."

"Ignore the sexual side of things, damnit!"

Harry hunkered his head down, doing as he was told.

"Okay," Lora said with a sigh. "Basically, things with Hermione are progressing wonderfully. When you decided to treat it like a real relationship and not something that was a sure thing, you fell into the right path. You just have to treat Hermione with respect and basically be who you are, and she will decide if she wants to be with you or not."

"And ... er ... Luna?" Harry asked. "How is this supposed to work, exactly?"

Lora sighed and all of the anger in her left at that moment. She was enough of a girly girl and closet romantic to respect soul bonds and root for them, every single time, but this time, it just wasn't to be. Harry had to be with Hermione. "That's the bad news in all of this," she said with another sigh.

Harry narrowed his eyes as most of the fear he harbored went away. Lora's tone of voice was not one conducive to Luna's good fortune.

"Harry, Luna set herself upon a path when she chose to seek retribution on Cho Chang and her two friends for Hermione rather than herself. She chose to follow you and stay with you, no matter what. However, she knows she's falling in love with you, but that you are pursuing Hermione, so she has decided she won't get in the way of that. But that's just the problem. If she stays away from you, she'll naturally crave your attentions and not seek another male, no matter who else could be possible."

"What does that mean?" Harry asked.

"This Luna will follow you through the war to come and she will honestly be happy for you and Hermione, even working hard to ensure you both get together and stay together. But she will become disillusioned with her life, getting lonely and protective of both of you, seeing you as a single package. As such, during fights, she will become progressively more lethal in battle while putting herself into more risk with each one in a subconscious attempt to commit suicide to protect the two of you and be able to have an excuse to leave you in a way she feels is worth dying for."

"What!" Harry yelled hopping to his feet.

"It's your fault!" Lora yelled back, standing up and leaning forward enough to press him into understanding through intimidation. It worked, at least a little, as he backed down and stared at her in confusion. "Look. As long as you're both around each other, your bonds will continue to grow. You're both predispositioned to fall for one another."

"What?" Harry asked, shocked. "But, I haven't felt any-"

"Haven't you?" Lora asked, staring into his eyes. "And think before you answer me!"

Harry flinched, but did as he was told. For some reason, he found himself unable to pull his eyes away from Lora's and he could hear her accusing voice in his head.

_**'You enjoy cuddling with her.'**_

_'She's my friend and she feels safer and more secure when she's being cuddled!'_

_**'But you miss it when you aren't and you always enjoy it, just like you do with Hermione. You've been inviting her to your bed.'**_

_'It was safer for her than her own and she's been feeling guilty over Hermione and preferred not being alone!'_

_**'But you know it isn't proper or right. You like having her in the bed. You miss her when she isn't, just as you miss spending time in bed with Hermione from the hunt. You always take action to ensure you give her hugs whenever you meet or she comes near you.'**_

_'It ... helps her feel like I care,'_ Harry thought, beginning to be unsure of himself.

_**'You were falling for her in fifth year before being pushed towards Cho.'**_ Harry paled. As a matter of fact, even while he pursued Cho, he had felt drawn to the doe-eyed blonde, going to her to talk after DA meetings and spending time with her whenever he didn't have that damned nervous twitch about being around someone that others ostracized more than himself. _'Oh shit.'_

"Yes," Lora said with a vindictive smile. "You understand now?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't betray Hermione, no matter how I felt about another girl."

"This isn't about you!" Lora yelled again. "This time, it's about Luna! This time, it's to save _her_ life!"

"How?" Harry asked loudly. "Just what am I supposed to do?"

Lora took a deep breath and then let it out. "You have to stop being her friend."

"Like hell!" Harry yelled, barely refraining from punching his Death Angel square in her pixie nose.

"If you don't, she _will_ get reckless in battle and get herself killed!" Lora yelled, furious at this stupid _man_ for not being willing to give up his snuggle partner. "There's nothing you can do to stop that!"

"I don't care what you say, I don't believe it!" Harry yelled, getting into Lora's face. "Luna is my friend and I swore I'd always remain that friend! If you think I'm going to give that up just so she can be crushed, you're even battier than Dumbledore!"

"It would be kinder on her to break it off now than after she's actually fallen in love with you!" Lora seethed. "Can't you see I'm working towards her happiness!"

"All I see is you trying to break her spirit!" Harry seethed right back. "I won't stop being her friend just because you tell me she's going to get herself killed! I'll stop that if I have to! I won't let her into the fighting!"

"You couldn't stop her!" Lora screeched, throwing her hands up. "She won't let you fight without her any more than Hermione would!"

"Then I'll come up with something," Harry growled, turning and leaving the Room of Requirement and his Death Angel behind.

Lora yelled out and went back to her office, only to find herself in front of The One. Wide-eyed and more than a little terrified, she immediately bowed. It would seem he brought her here rather than allow her to go back to her planned destination.

"**Your work has pleased me, Lora,**" the deep voice said, its timbre causing a shiver to run through her body.

"I ... I don't understand..." Lora shook as she tried to figure out what could have possibly gone right. As far as she was aware, everything was failing miserably. "I di-did as you asked and relayed ... er ... the severity of the situation to my charge, but ... he didn't do as he was told."

"**And well he shouldn't have**," the voice rumbled in amusement.

"I really, really don't understand," Lora quaked, beginning to feel like she was going to hyperventilate. This was the same all-powerful entity that had just finished explaining to her how horrible things now were and voicing his considerable displeasure towards her.

"**The shift in the Balance was unfortunate,**" the voice said, the vibrations causing Lora to calm down just a little. **"But the rest is going according to plan."**

"P-plan?" Lora asked, now so far beyond confusion she felt she would give a repeat performance of the Chang girl in Luna's illusion.

"**You may watch in the Spheros, Lora. Look at what you have wrought upon Harry Potter."**

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – (1) – That was my biggest peeve about soul mates; how a single kiss caused them to bond together without any work or pre-existing relationship. If my view on soul mates (FOR THIS STORY) is not clear, let me know in a review and I will just write an author's note detailing it specifically.

First, my plot hole. My original plan had Luna as a possible soul mate from the very beginning. Everything Lora told Harry was there from the beginning as a bonding experience between all three to solidify a form of friendship with them. To be blunt, my plot hole was the fact that I wasn't sure how to emotionally heal Luna if she was spending so much time with Harry compared to anyone else and since she won't spend much time with anyone I would consider a potential partner for her (I'm not a fan of Ron/Luna.) The plot is the same, the only difference is that Luna is actually a part of the relationship and it will allow for some deeper and meaningful conversations about the relationships as a whole. That, and kissing on lips instead of cheeks and lack of Luna-love with a different guy. There is not going to be any sex in this story, so it is just affection and such. The worse I'm willing to go on this one is skimpy swim outfits and exploration (in relation to naughty activities.)

My plot hole wasn't so much a hole, as the realization that my plans for how Harry rectified what Lora told him and the whole friendship. I had a couple of plans:

One, Harry ignores it and goes forward, trying to be there for Luna and make all the effort he can/knows how to keep her from doing something regrettable.

Two, he tries to set Luna up with someone before she gets too close to him (probably Neville, but I wanted Neville with Susan in this for future reasons) so it ends the whole problem from the get-go, but that doesn't work for how I'm writing the development and explaining the psychological aspects of everything.

Third, what I've done, which is he asks Hermione's opinion and for help, which leads to the combined relationship.

Lastly, not bring this up in the story at all so I had nothing to fix with Luna in the first place, but then I lose a lot of character growth that happens because of her and lose a profound way of showing what Harry's new mindset and determination does for him. But I'll be honest, I didn't fight with myself about keeping it purely Harmony since I want to eventually become the Lunar Harmony authority.


	14. In Over Your Headmaster

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter13** – In Over Your Headmaster

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Brief mention of torture, Adult Language, Adult Situations, Suggestive imagery

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Less Wrong (H/Hr and a unique take on ... everything, really. Plus a fun plot)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_"I ... I don't understand..." Lora shook as she tried to figure out what could have possibly gone right. As far as she was aware, everything was failing miserably. "I di-did as you asked and relayed ... er ... the severity of the situation to my charge, but ... he didn't do as he was told."_

_**"And well he shouldn't have,**" the voice rumbled in amusement._

_"I really, really don't understand," Lora quaked, beginning to feel like she was going to hyperventilate. This was the same all-powerful entity that had just finished explaining to her how horrible things now were and voicing his considerable displeasure towards her._

_**"The shift in the Balance was unfortunate,**" the voice said, the vibrations causing Lora to calm down just a little. **"But the rest is going according to plan."**_

_"P-plan?" Lora asked, now so far beyond confusion she felt she would give a repeat performance of the Chang girl in Luna's illusion._

_**"You may watch in the Spheros, Lora. Look at what you have wrought upon Harry Potter."**_

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Friday – November 12, Breakfast**

Thanks to his little discussion and argument with Lora, Harry was still steaming by the time he finished his breakfast and only took enough time to talk just so he could calm Luna down when she noticed he was in a very bad mood and had begun to take it personally, thinking she had caused it. He felt a pang of guilt and took enough time to calm her down and tell her he just wasn't happy about having to go to the Ministry for something he had not been able to prepare for. It was even true, though not the primary reason for his frustrations. He even did his best to make sure he held a pleasant conversation with her until he wasn't hungry any longer.

Well, to be fair, he didn't really have much of an appetite since talking with his Death Angel. He spent most of the time observing Luna and wondering how in the hell he was going to keep her safe without hurting her.

Finally after finishing his breakfast, he went up to the Head Table, where McGonagall was eating. "Due to Lordship duties, I'll be leaving Hogwarts today within the next few minutes, Professor. If there's a change in Hermione, will you notify me?"

"Mister Potter, the Headmaster assured me that you wouldn't be needing to leave-"

"It is neither the Headmaster's place or his authority to tell you what I will or will not be doing," Harry bit out, harsher than he probably would have if not already in a horrible mood; not to mention how Dumbledore had no right to discuss Harry's duties with anyone but Harry himself. He ignored Madam Sprout's venomous glare and turned around, leaving the Hall with furious visage that had students quiet and trying not to move in case they drew his attention towards themselves.

"How could you allow a student to speak to you like that, Minerva?" The Head of Hufflepuff asked quietly, making sure no one else heard her. "He may normally be a good child, but that was quite disrespectful!"

"Because he was right, even if he _was_ ill-tempered about it," Minerva sighed. "I honestly don't know why I listen to that man anymore."

Sprout's hearing wasn't anything on Remus Lupin's, but it was enough to hear, and wonder, at Minerva's self-loathing comment. _'Perhaps it's time for a girl's night. Good talks and good booze. I'll have to dig up my good stuff.'_ Sprout would never tell anyone, but she had a taste for expensive and mind-numbing beverages. She didn't care to weaken her mind with it all the time, but she did enjoy a good dip in the sauce on occasion. And it seemed one of her best friends could use the reprieve.

Of course, she'd have to figure out how to get it away from her plants, who had found that they enjoyed it, too. How else was the woman meant to work with such deadly plants? Make 'em damn friendly! That's how! It worked for men in bars all the time! Of course, the women didn't tend to be nearly as happy about it the next day, but then again, neither did the plants.

xXxXxXx

Since it was still early in the day, only half past seven, Harry's first stop was Gringotts. He knew the Wizengamot session wasn't planned until one that afternoon. By and large, wizards didn't do much in early morning unless they were tradesmen who knew an open business was one that made money since families got up early enough to do things that required shopping. But for a bunch of men who had a tendency to do nothing but sit in a stale chamber and pass laws for something to do to feel important, getting up this early was almost sacrilegious. So, Harry took his time effectively and did what would be too bothersome later.

"These are the files we've been able to gather," Griphook told Harry after the boy had obtained everything he needed from the vaults that belonged to the Founders, "about the duties the Ministry for Magic and the Board of Governors. It lists the details of their duties in relation to one another in the absence of the Founders' blood."

"Can you give me a basic explanation?" Harry asked.

"By and large," Griphook began, "the Board was meant to control the policies and quality of education. It was meant to ensure meaningful topics would remain such as your Transfiguration and Charms classes, along with keeping them all up-to-date. The Ministry would work through this body to enforce its hand while maintaining only one direct arm in the school itself."

"A 'direct arm'? How so?" Harry asked.

"In a moment, Lord Potter. I will explain that. First, Hogwarts itself," Griphook explained. "Hogwarts is a vast amount of land, by anyone's standards. It encompasses the school and its grounds, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, the sea coast, and another hundred kilometers in all directions meant for farming, expansion and to act as a buffer against non-magical interaction. Do you follow me so far?"

"I do," Harry stated.

"Good. Now, because of this, and because there was no singular ruling body at the time for the magical world, the school was not a part of the Ministry for Magic in any way. The Ministry at the time was little more than a collection of scholars and battle mages who fought for the peace of the land."

"Really?" Harry asked. "I've not heard of that."

"It has changed drastically from its founding ideals and practices," Griphook grumbled angrily. "We can discuss that at another time if you would like. For now, however, I think it prudent to stay on task, yes?"

"You're right. Please, continue," Harry said.

"Since Hogwarts was not under any direct ruling authority, it, like many vast estates by those considered 'Lords', was basically a realm upon itself."

"I don't understand," Harry admitted, somewhat confused. "What do you mean 'a realm upon itself'?"

"Lord Potter, you _are_ a lord(1). You do realize what that means, do you not?" Griphook asked slowly and disbelieving. How could a Lord _not_ know of his station? Not know of his power and his duties?

Harry questioned his rings and received several possible uses of the title, but nothing specific that would let him know what Griphook was talking about, though they did seem to be telling him of duties. Apparently, however, he didn't get the information fast enough for Griphook.

"Lord Potter, you are _known_ as a lord because you have many who work and serve under you while maintaining right to rule over a portion of area that is self-sufficient. You hold office in our highest bodies of government and have vassals who till the fields for Hogwarts, serve as craftsmen within your village and own or share ownership in many businesses. The Cleansweep broom company, Natas' Trunk Shop, Potioneers and Bandoleers, the Daily Prophet and even a few preserves and mines where you allow magical creatures to breed are but a few of your more lucrative ownerships, even if the trunk shop is a new acquisition. You have partial ownerships in dozens of others, many of which are muggle. You've about a hundred human workers, most of which is comprised of various families and a few dozen house elves not counting Hogwarts' own. You are a lord."

"I what?" Harry asked. It wasn't a shriek of fear or alarm. It was bland and without feeling. He just simply did not know how to feel about that.

"Lord Potter, there are some such as the Malfoys who _bought_ their titles. It has been done for centuries. With enough money, one could buy their ranks such as Lordships or Knighthoods, but they were titles only. It served them no power beyond the masses. Even in the Church, men would buy their way into priesthoods or to gain favor of their religion. This is something that is still done even to this day. However, the only place it matters is in public, where the common people are expected to bend over backwards to accommodate them or, in the case of those such as the Malfoys, in the political arena."

"You specified them twice," Harry noted. "Why?"

Griphook grinned ferally. "First, because they are the second-most recent family to have done so approximately four hundred years ago, give or take a dozen, and the youngest has been making a nuisance of himself against you, I am told. It is our duty to ensure we can best help our clients, and for that reason, it is my second reason for knowing who your allies and your friends are, along with your enemies. Your Granger friend, for example. You gave her full access to one of your vaults, filled with a substantial amount of gold. That is no small action and shows a great trust in the girl. We took note of that and made arrangements to ensure we could help, or deny help, at your command."

"How do you mean?" Harry asked in a voice that was suddenly cold and dangerous. Hermione had recently been hurt and there was nothing he could do to help her. She, as well as Luna, had wanted to wait to swear allegiance to him and so they were not officially his to protect. Luna had wanted to ask her father, knowing it was her place to not accept, but relay any such offers to her father who could make decisions first, though Luna would agree on her own, regardless. If even for only herself. Hermione, however, wanted to look into it fully before committing to a decision and then discuss it with her parents since they were, technically, at risk any time they walked into the wizarding world. Whether the intentions were good or not, Griphook was suddenly walking on very thin ice with Harry Potter.

Realizing there was suddenly a very powerful, very angry wizard in front of him, Griphook was very careful in his actions. He didn't fear too strongly that the boy would try something. After all, there was an agreement between wizards and goblins that made their bank their own land, with their own laws. However, this boy also didn't seem to be fully aware of such things, or may not care. That, along with making Griphook very wealthy, at least compared to his previous station, and much more well-respected, put the tiny goblin on guard. He would much rather keep making money and somehow knew this wizard could make it out of the bank, no matter how many of their people went after him. There was something about him that seemed otherworldly at times. His power levels, certainly, seemed so.

"Lord Potter, please remain calm. We have done nothing in action against Miss Granger or her family. What we are doing is actually helping them at no cost to ourselves in hopes of better being able to help you in the future should you ask it of us. If not, then at the very least, we lose nothing and are in position to gain, so no one is hurt in our transactions."

"Explain," Harry clipped out using a voice more in line with his older self. One that Death Eaters were more familiar with. Griphook recognized it in his superiors.

"The elder Grangers own their own dental practice. They had even thought into the future and made a sound investment of buying a facility that was much larger than they needed and went into business with an optometrist and a psychologist in the adjoining facilities, thus enabling themselves to collect a portion of rent from those businesses in hopes of collaborating and helping join profits for all with some remarkable success. However, they had a lien against the property until it was paid off. In the past sixteen years, they had only paid off a quarter of the debt due to higher-than-normal interest. While they are extremely profitable due to their joint ventures and forethought, they were extremely hesitant, it seems, to renegotiate their rates and risk a bank the right to foreclose on the property since it would require renegotiating other aspects of the original deal that keeps them safe from economical fallout or shifts."

"I follow you so far," Harry said with narrowed eyes. "Basically, they owe someone money and are a quarter of the way into paying it off."

"Yes Lord Potter," Griphook confirmed. "However, with the birth of their daughter, and because they have taken to putting money away in case of the unforeseen or their early demise for her, they have taken to paying little more than their monthly rates. A sound strategy for remaining comfortable, but not conducive for repaying the debt in a timely manner. That is where we elected to come into things and position ourselves to assist if ever necessary."

"By paying it off if needed?" Harry asked, thinking he understood now and relaxing considerably.

"We have already done so, minus a good deal of the added interest for doing so early," Griphook explained. "The new debt is without interest and equal to that which we paid for the original lien. While maintaining their current rental amounts, they will have everything paid for in the following forty-eight years instead of the remaining sixty-one they had before our acquisition. If you ever require it of us, we are now poised to erase their debt, or ruin them as you will ever require of us, for a suitable fee of course."

"Of course," Harry groused. "How much did they owe on it still?"

"Approximately one and three-quarters of a million pounds."

"What! Why so much? Is this place huge or something?" Harry asked, shocked.

"No, Lord Potter. It is a business building in a very upper-class location that provides them numerous clients, which has a tendency to cost more than a living residence would. This is normal in all countries. At least on the muggle side of things. In the magical, it's a little different due to the ability to modify the indoor size of a location and travel ability."

Harry shook his head. "Right now, Gringotts actually owns it?" Harry asked, referencing the building the Grangers had.

"Correct."

"Take enough gold to get to two million pounds and then buy it from Gringotts for me, please. I'd feel better if I knew there was no risk of anyone else getting it from you since it can apparently be purchased from one person to another. Just add it to my businesses. I really need to look through that some time."

"I would highly recommend it," Griphook chided in the guise of agreement. "You own several buildings within Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, apparently collected during the last war about fifteen to twenty years ago. I followed up only long enough to ensure rents have been properly collected these past several years, which they have." A pity, too, since Gringotts would have enjoyed renting them out at higher rates. While most were small or in poor locations, some were quite prime for a proper store.

Harry sighed and pinched the bridge of his brow. Things just weren't ever going to be easy. "So, I've got people who work for me?"

"Yes, Lord Potter," Griphook confirmed. "A large number, in fact. A large portion of land in many areas is used for farming, mostly for Hogwarts and magical storage to withstand long-term sieges and poor growth years. They're standing orders since the beginning. While you don't have a tendency to deal with sieges much anymore, there _are_ times when crops will not grow or something happens which will ruin them. Still, due to the magical enchantments, they'll keep for centuries, as some of it has."

"And that's what makes me a lord?"

"Not only, but a good portion of the reasoning, yes. You are a true lord. Not someone who has purchased the title. And, getting back on topic, that is why Hogwarts is not a part of the Ministry's control scheme."

"Sorry for interrupting," Harry said, sitting back. "I'll listen to you explain now."

Griphook nodded. "You control your land, just as you do Hogwarts and those living on your properties. Even your vassals work for a salary and food for their family while tilling the rest for you. In return, you care for their basic needs and it is your duty to offer them a form of protection. Therefore, Hogwarts, and any lands you have wherein someone is living and you take care of them, are considered separate entities from our ruling government, but still within their control in some ways. Hogwarts, however, has the most direct."

Griphook pulled a scroll and slid it to Harry. "That, Lord Potter, is an edict that gives the Ministry the right to put their own forces within Hogwarts as something of a system of checks and balances. The position is called that of a 'High Inquisitor'," Griphook raised one gnarled eyebrow as the boy in front of him suddenly became almost frighteningly attentive and began reading the scroll. "Basically, any time there is a threat, fear of a threat or they simply want to look into the school, they activate this position and assign someone the task of making sure no laws are being broken that all within the land are bound to under the Peaceful Lands Treatise that the battle mages of the original Ministry created."

Harry interrogated his rings fiercely, filling himself in on what _exactly_ that meant. "Let me know if I'm correct, please," he began. "Basically, they are to check to make sure people are not being murdered, unforgivables used, things like that?"

"Yes and no," Griphook explained. Sort of. "Murders, rapes, torture, theft and other such things come in levels of importance based on the victim or victims according to the Tenements of Morality, meaning it depends much on 'who' instead of the 'what'. Unforgivables are deemed not allowed anywhere. That is true. However, the Treaty actually ensures that you are not creating an army of any sort," Harry mentally winced, "attempting to incite sedition," Harry also winced, even though technically he had been in the right, "or in any way showing signs of an attempt to overthrow the government directly unless it directly relates to your own business and is not directly related to the government as a whole. Other than that, and those amendments that are considered crimes against humanity, as defined by the Tenements of Morality, you have full authority within your lands."

Harry nodded, understanding the difference now. He hadn't understood what his rings were telling him, but that was effectively the same message. Apparently, the rings didn't take into account lack of comprehension when giving what he asked. Some things, it seemed, were meant to be understood as basic knowledge. Which made sense, really, when you considered that the rings weren't meant for children, but for those who were taught politics so they could duke it out legally without the edge the rings brought. "So basically, the Ministry can't touch me as long as I'm not actively working against them?"

"In a word, no," Griphook said. "However, they can always twist facts to look one way or another. And there are still the Tenements of Morality, or simply put, how one treats humans, that you must generally follow. However, that was created long ago when non-magical and muggleborn were not considered to have a status as human. While the focus has shifted, muggleborn have always had a rough time in the magical world. It originally had nothing to do with blood so much as upbringing and social status. That may, effectively, be all that it remains today, but the focus has shifted to purity of blood now. Because of that, many who are in power see muggleborn or halfblood as little more than human and usually look the other way. It is almost a guarantee with half-breeds, and truly is a guarantee with non-human beings. Muggleborn are only defended when called upon by someone of equal or lesser station than themselves. Non-magicals tend to be ignored and, if possible, their minds simply wiped of whatever problem arose as completely as required and then tossed back into the muggle world. Muggleborn aren't much better."

Griphook normally wouldn't discuss topics like this. No goblin would, particularly because they were at the bottom of the social hierarchy of the wizarding world; a fact that every single member of his species both resented and despised. But he knew where this human lay on the matter and was under orders from his king to ensure the boy got whatever assistance he needed. While this didn't fall into the latter category, the knowledge base _did_.

"Okay. I know what I need to there," Harry said, closing up the scroll he had been given. "What about the Board of Governors?"

"As stated earlier, they are meant to ensure the quality of education at Hogwarts and the Ministry is meant to work through them. They have the ability to control staff and faculty within a certain degree and are the ones who would implement any Ministerial decrees or educational plans. They are meant to ensure the school stays up-to-date with others and remain at its height of power and remain as best as possible," Griphook reexplained.

"Fat lot of good that does," Harry grunted. "A lot of things are out of date and much of it skewed."

"I am not aware," Griphook said, hedging a little nugget of knowledge towards Harry in hopes it would help somehow ingratiate the boy to him. "From what I understand, the purebloods have been lowering standards and removing some things they found all together too difficult or impractical to their own uses such as introductory classes to the wizarding world, etiquette classes and general standards due to inability to keep up with muggleborn who are knowledgeable in a greater area at younger ages as the years have passed."

Harry shrugged helplessly. "Well, what about those Arches? What have you decided on about that?" Harry asked, deciding he knew as much about Hogwarts as he could for now. They had been talking for nearly an hour and he was hoping to do some other things before the day was out. Still, he needed to look into that Tenements of Morality thing since that seemed almost directly related to blood status and current law. And while his rings basically told him what it was, it was a little hard to understand being told rather than reading since it seemed mildly complex.

"We've looked into what you suggested for them, but it was impractical for what you wanted. We have come up with something somewhat unique that we think may work for your purposes, however."

"I'm listening," Harry said, intrigued by the small goblin's tone.

"We decided, instead, upon a runic keystone tied directly to each arch with several seals that are to be activated in sequence. If you will, think of a muggle telephone. Basically, they dial the portal they wish to cross through."

"I like it," Harry said, thinking. "But, what about the security bit? I mean, if someone sees a person dial my home, for example, what keeps them from just dialing it themselves? A big part of this is in case of something horrible happening, and those families needing to run away, they can get through, but not the bad guys."

Griphook handed Harry a small pedestal from his desk drawer before resizing it to a larger size. "As you can see, the runic keys are in three circular levels around a single black crystal. These crystals are unique and generally found only in volcanoes where the heat is exceptional, but the magma doesn't actually reach, forming geodes. It's uncommon to find specimens this large, but they do show up."

"Is that a big deal? That it has to be that kind, I mean?" Harry asked, touching the crystal and feeling a warm vibration, as if it were humming with power. Only he didn't actually sense anything from it.

"For some, yes," Griphook explained. "They are the entire key to making your security system work."

"I don't understand," Harry admitted. "I've only just begun learning about crystals. How does it help?"

"These crystals are, for lack of a better description, physical magic," Griphook began, somewhat amused at the human's widened eyes. "They are physically only crystal, that is true, but during their formation, they are shaped by the very energy of the earth, which is a form of life energy, which is the same as the power one gets from blood magics."

"So, it basically has the same kind of power that blood does? Even without being magical?" Harry asked, remembering his Runes class where blood was the best substance for writing runes and seals in, but was considered dark because it actually required blood. Interestingly enough, his rings felt reticent to offer any explanation.

"Blood magic is considered dark by your people, Lord Potter, because it uses the energy of life itself instead of magic. If they chose to, even muggles could cast some of your most powerful spells using runes if they were aware of how to utilize it," Griphook explained lowly. He, and virtually all magical creatures, disliked the obvious hubris of mankind. "Your Ministry loathes to admit that fact and thus has declared all blood magic as dark, even though many still use it due to the power it entails where magic would be lacking."

"Lacking how?" Harry asked, extraordinarily interested. This was something he had a brief anecdote about in his grimoire, but had not actually read or received any information about.

"As an example, if you were to use a ritual to strengthen your body against fatigue, you could write it in standard runic inks, but if you wrote it in blood, it would yield several times more powerful a result because the power of life is greater than that of magic. A thing is either dead or it is not. Muggles are alive, but without magic. And magic flees a body without life. They are interconnected in a way that magic alone cannot be. Magic cannot exist where there is no life in some form. Even inferi are incapable of using magic, but they are made of it, animated like a flesh golem. Non-humans consider death as an anti-life and anti-magic. Dementors, for example, take the life of humans, and the magic leaves with them. All that remains is a body that continues the motions of life without living. Simply put, there is not magic without life."

"I feel like I've learned more about magic in the last ten minutes than in two years at Hogwarts," Harry said, thinking over what he heard. This somehow seemed ... important. In a very big way.

"This is all considered philosophical to your human teachings," Griphook explained. "We other races believe it as fact without doubt. Only mankind has elected to form a body of power that attempts to control all magical races and beings, to say nothing of the magics themselves it either attempts to control or destroy. All but humans consider magic the ultimate authority. Yet humans, by and large, attempt to control and regulate it, instead. Still, your race seems to know enough to respect bonds forged of magic over that of man-made law and contract."

Harry frowned and looked down at the crystal, not sure how to respond to that. So instead, he chose to ignore it for now since he had no way to combat the accusation of his own race since, technically, it was true. At least as far as he knew. "So, how does this help my security?" He asked instead.

"The crystal can be put through a ritual of blood by which you gain control over it and may grant or revoke traveling permissions and pass on the right to control it. It would function with a mild form of sentience as your family rings do, or the magical paintings you have at Hogwarts. While it won't have a personality, it will be able to comprehend by imprinting a working mind into it. It, therefore, is your 'key'. If destroyed, it would remove those securities, or if the magics were lost, but that would only happen due to sabotage or deliberate obliteration."

"So, I need blood from anyone I want to give access to?" Harry asked, wondering how to bring that up into a conversation with Hermione's parents.

"No, Lord Potter," Griphook explained. "It would be a ritual with your blood to bind it to an imprint of your logical mind. Then, you may grant access rights at any time, or revoke them, without needing to be present. We felt this method would be far more expedient in the case of needing to grant access to someone and not having time to gather genetic samples to key in, or magical signatures. There is, however, one flaw in this security system."

"What's that?" Harry asked. So far, it had sounded beyond perfect. It suddenly made sense that it was too good to be true.

"This crystal acknowledges access rights by a mild form of mind-reading magic, much like the hat you humans use to sort yourselves in Hogwarts. Basically, it asks the mind who the traveler is. If they are allowed, then it grants them passage. However, if they are not, it will not. The problem, such as it is, comes in sending through individuals who could potentially be magicked into truly believing themselves to be someone else. If they believe it fully enough, then so long as that person they believe themselves to be is allowed passage, the security system will grant it."

"So, if Lucius Malfoy was confounded to think he was Ron Weasley, and believed it, he could get through if Ron was allowed to come in?" Harry asked to clarify.

"A simple confundus would not work, but essentially correct," Griphook confirmed. "No security system is perfect, but this leads to the least-likely methods of bypassing the system since to change their minds fully enough, it would essentially mean changing who they are, which is not a temporary thing. Genetics can be faked or stolen. Wearable keys that allow entrance can be lost or stolen, or even duplicated. A password can be tortured out of someone, or magicked out of them. While magical signatures can be used, they can also be faked and you specifically stated you wanted muggles to be capable of traversing these gate systems. As such, a magical signature is pointless to them."

"I understand. No system is perfect. I mean, the Fidelus is near perfect, but the secret-keeper can always give out the information. It's all about trust. The only way, from what it sounds like, someone can do anything is if they break the crystal and as long as they don't know that, then they'll spend their time trying to figure out the security at the arch they'll be using. At least that's what I hope," Harry explained. He was hoping for perfect, but near-perfect would have to do(2).

"Does the crystal have to be this large? You said it's uncommon for them to be this big?" Harry asked, looking to get back on track. Indeed, the crystal was about as large as his head.

"No. However, the larger the crystal, the more naturally resistant to damage or destruction it is. Ones these size cannot be destroyed using any known physical means, but would require magic itself, although far less than we would desire normally. They have been tested in various forms, and even giants are incapable of the force required for physical destruction. Another element of our security. We are aware of muggle creations that could accomplish the task, but do not feel it is a fear worth merit as they are large and require their electrical sources to function." Or high explosives, but that would defeat the purpose since anything like that would likely get their client as well. No sense making the boy worry.

"If they're uncommon, how many could you have made up for me?"

Griphook blinked. "How many would you require, Lord Potter?"

Harry paused to think. _'Well, I want one for Potter Manor, one for my trunk ... actually, I don't really need the trunk anymore. Not with a house. Even on the run, we'd have Hermione's. I guess I'll give it to Luna for Christmas. So, Manor, Hermione's trunk, Granger home, Burrow, Luna's home, Neville, Susan! Have to get one for Susan so her aunt has an escape route and doesn't get killed again!'_ Harry pondered, trying to determine where he wanted and needed these things for now. "I'd like seven for now with more to come later, for sure," he finally decided.

"We will need to know where these will go," Griphook explained while dipping a gnarled piece of root into ink to write with, not using quills for their own work like the humans did.

"One will be for Hermione Granger's home and the other would be portable in a trunk I got her for Christmas. It's built like an apartment. Will that be a problem for these?"

"No, Lord Potter. Continue," Griphook said, writing.

"Third for a similar trunk for Luna Lovegood and the fourth for her home. Fifth would be my home. Sixth is Hogwarts. The last one will go to the Weasley family's home. I'll eventually want one here at Gringotts if that's allowed in case I can't go out in public for some reason, and one for Amelia Bones' home and a few friends I want to be safe."

"Additions can be made at a later time, Lord Potter," Griphook stated, finishing his notes and making a request to go to his superiors in regards to adding one for public use at a later time, possibly charging for each use for their wealthier clients rather than general use. "Once we decide on the most secure method of identifying each Archway, we will let you know. Our people are currently working on various methods to determine the best course for everyone. Naturally, our systems will be different than your own and kept within the bank."

"Thank you," Harry said, once Griphook was done. "Now, what about my request for the enchanted charms?"

"You are _sure_ you wish to go forward with your request?" Griphook asked carefully. "As stated in the letter, we do not do bulk discounts, nor do we do refunds. Once the transaction in complete, there is no return."

"I'm aware," Harry agreed.

"Very well," Griphook said pleasantly, grabbing his notes and reading aloud for Harry to confirm. "You want a charm bracelet, necklace, anklet and earring set for two whose charms are interchangeable, correct?"

"Yes," Harry said with a nod.

"Please confirm your theme selections," Griphook demanded, sliding the scroll over.

_Animals: Cat, Lion, Eagle, Swan, Sphinx, Griffin, Otter, Unicorn, Dragon, Duck, Rabbit, Lemur, Dog, Tiger, Stag, Panther, Hippogriff, Penguin, Cerberus, Wolf , Frog, Dragonfly, Butterfly, Mouse, House Elf, Kiwi _

_Holiday: Christmas tree, Star, Candy cane, present box, sugarplum, Santa, Elf, Sleigh, Snowflake, Jack-o-Lantern, Ghost, Witch, Broomstick, Candlestick, Zombie (Inferi), Heart, Cupid, Lips _

_Food: Radish, Pie, Bowl of Pudding (Please have Mister Potter explain this), Pizza slice, Pineapple, Cherry, Banana, Coconut_

_Miscellaneous: Wand, Shield, Angel, Book, Snitch, Scroll, Flame, Globe, Sock, Shoe, Tree, Fairy, Eye, Rose, Lily, Sunflower, Ice-cream Sundae, Smiley face, Butterbeer cork, Butterbeer bottle_

"It looks about right," Harry said. "I may want to add a few later, but that's good for now at least."

"Then we will craft these in silver, charmed to ensure they do not tarnish. Each charm will be interchangeable with a locking mechanism so they do not fall out and they will be capable of wearing three on either the anklet or bracelet, five on the necklace and one on each earring. Each will be a circular coin-like attachment that is placed into each setting. That is what you requested, correct?"

"Yes," Harry said happily. "And you'll make them protect them from as much as possible?" Harry asked.

"Our guardian enchantments are not usually placed on things like this. Usually, it is on a single item meant to be worn around the neck or on a ring."

Harry perked up, causing Griphook to shake his head. "We do not recommend rings, Lord Potter. They are good for things such as engagement and wedding rings, since those are rarely removed, but anything else tends to generally be wasted. That is why we only guarantee them while worn as intended, which is actually why we are glad to craft so many ... odd additions." That and each one was plenty of gold.

"Alright," Harry grumbled. "Last question, how difficult would it be for someone to tutor me over the summer in breaking wards?"

"I wouldn't dream of casting aspirations towards your intelligence, Lord Potter," Griphook stated carefully.

"No," Harry frowned. "I mean, how difficult would it be to find a tutor?"

"For the right price, one could be found without much difficulty. However, you will find that almost none who are any good will wish to work with you. It is not a matter of pride or the like, but that you do not yet know enough to make it worth their time. They could teach you little to nothing in only a few months' time and they know this. More, they would not wish to begin you on something that is likely to be dangerous with your current knowledge base. We at Gringotts would be willing to provide a tutor for you, but they would not begin teaching you about breaking wards until after they had taught you everything from the ground up. In other words, there are no shortcuts."

In all honesty, that is _not_ what Harry had expected to hear. For some reason, he thought it wouldn't be too hard to get one. He hated his fame, but maybe he was relying on it too much?

"I believe that concludes all business you shared that you wish to discuss. Have you anything further, Lord Potter?"

"Just one last thing," Harry said. "So, there is no real way they can stop me from taking control back over Hogwarts and putting through reforms to make it a better place?"

"Not without proving you are not an heir of all four bloodlines, which has already been magically proven by the rings which you wear. They will, of course, fight it, but there is nothing they can do. That is why the Ministry is so set on hiding all knowledge of their only partial hold over the castle and why it cost you so much gold to get that information."

"Final question, I promise," Harry said, getting a frown from the goblin who wondered why Harry kept thinking of new things. "Do you think I can have at least three of these arches ready to be delivered by the end of the month?"

"I will see what can be done, Lord Potter."

"Thank you, Griphook. I think that's everything."

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, 10:20 – Three Broomsticks**

Sirius sighed in his dog form, laying down atop a series of crates he had stacked while in his human form several nights ago. He was behind the Three Broomsticks building and by the window leading into Madam Rosemerta's bathing room because she took only scalding hot showers, meaning hot air came from the window, warming him up from the early morning chill.

And giving him a bird's eye view into the well-endowed woman's shower.

If you were in prison for twelve years, a prison where thoughts like this were plucked out of your head before you even thought them, you would be doing the exact same thing. One couldn't blame the dog for ... well, being a bit of a hound. At least he wasn't 'cleaning' himself this time.

No. Even while Madam Rosemerta lathered herself up, Sirius wasn't really paying much attention. His mind, such as it was, was currently focused instead on a different topic than the naked woman's swaying assets. They were instead on his godson and the traitor, sleeping only a dozen or so feet away from him.

Sirius knew he had been able to get into the school at any time. He knew ways into that school that even Dumbledore didn't know. Or if he did, he obviously didn't bother taking precautions against Sirius' passage. He had been biding his time in hopes that the boy with the rat would go into Hogsmeade for their first weekend. While Sirius was able to smell the rat on the boy, it was too faint to have the rat on him then. So he had not been able to act.

But then the fates smiled upon him in the form of a bumbling Gryffindor with passwords sticking out of his pocket! They were even labeled! The man in dog form had managed to pull the paper out and bury it under the dirt and gravel when his stomach churned, alerting the dog to his state of hunger and near starvation. With a single butterbeer right in front of him, he hadn't been able to resist. It had been more than twelve years since Sirius had anything other than water, or worse, and the bottle was already opened. Begging to be drunk.

Oh sweet ambrosia! It had been the best thing Sirius could remember for a long, long time. At least better than the rats he had been surviving on since his escape. There weren't any rats on Azkaban island. He was forced to eat the slop he was served once a day, occasionally every two days. Whatever it was, it had been just as gray and green as the walls of the prison, leaving Sirius to suspect they scraped it off the towers on the outside. Considering one couldn't get a house elf to work there, it wasn't entirely impossible.

Oddly enough, he had seen his godson that day. The boy, who was far too much like James for Sirius to believe, had forced him to bathe and then fed him what was easily his best meal in a long, long time. It was actually kind of odd. Harry had met Sirius twice now, seemingly by happenstance, and had fed him both times.

Sirius was seriously considering staying in dog form as the boy's pet!

_'That bird with him was certainly interesting,'_ Sirius thought to himself, yipping quietly in amusement. _'Third year and he's already got a girl on his arm! James would be so proud! Lily would be furious, but still. And they both smelled far too strongly of yet another girl for them to _not _be romantically inclined together. They were literally covered in her scent! Something odd that reminds me of banana pudding...' _

What was probably the most incredible, at least in Sirius' opinion that wasn't related to bouncing bits or being able to remember what pudding smelled like, was that the boy was capable of casting a fully corporeal patronus. What Sirius wouldn't give to be able to do that! If only he had a wand...

It would have been so simple to just take off with one, pretending to want to play fetch and running about with it...

But no. That would only cause trouble and would be too suspicious. He couldn't do anything that overt until he could make a play for the rat. _'Everything else is secondary. The rat must die. First and foremost, James and Lily must be avenged!'_

Growling and being filled with a renewed sense of purpose, Sirius took one last, long look at Madam Rosemerta. _'If I were a free man...'_

Quickly, the black dog ran off to his cave, resting and planning for his next assault. After cleaning himself of course.

It _was_ twelve years...

xXxXxXx

"Face it, brother mine. We have been out-pranked," Fred said with a sigh. "A school-wide food assault-"

"-Dying agents in the showers-"

"-Laxatives in chocolates-"

"-Itching powder and cayenne pepper in the Slytherin bog rolls-"

"-Fake spiders in Ron's bed. All of it and we haven't had one big prank yet. These are pranks against the whole school and we didn't pull off a single one of them."

George sighed, sitting on a chair in their 'lair', as they affectionately called the spacious crawl space behind a suit of armor that originally housed a rather large number of naughty witch magazines that the two had long-since copied and sold off. Oddly enough, new ones kept appearing and they eventually realized it was a storage area for such offensive materials after confiscation. The big question was wondering who had been caught with the ones that were naughty wizards. "I'm aware, Fred. It's certainly not right. We've our honor to uphold, you know."

Fred nodded. "I do question some of them. Come to find out, those balls of paint are rather painful when getting hit with them."

"We need to think of something suitably embarrassing," George considered out loud.

"We can't just do something against all the houses," Fred offered. "It's been done and if we're honest, we don't want to be seen imitating anyone now."

"School wide assault. Difficulty rating?" George asked.

"Eight," Fred answered immediately. "Large number of variables, targets and extensive planning required with near certainty of being caught. Faculty-wide assault. Difficulty rating?"

George grinned. "Nine. Ten if we snag both Snape and Dumbledore. Guarantee of being caught, but infamy rating rises."

"It's our honor as pranksters at stake. We can't afford to pull any punches. For the pride of the Marauders and the great legacy they've left us." Both miscreants nodded resolutely. The students, this time, were safe.

Probably.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, After breakfast – Antechamber of Great Hall**

"Thank you all for coming," Dumbledore said as the final member of the staff sat at the antechamber of the Great Hall. While it was easily accessible most of the time, it was actually one of the most secure rooms of the school. It was actually a secondary meeting room to the Headmaster's offices, though it hadn't been used as such in nearly two hundred years. For now, it was used mostly for staff meetings like this one where they would deliberate while they ate. "I am aware many of you have busy schedules even if it is our lunch hour."

"Why did you want our staff meeting early?" Madam Hooch asked the headmaster, her golden eyes following the plate of chicken on its way towards her.

"I did, actually," Sprout explained, acknowledging the looks everyone sent her way. "The Headmaster saw fit to honor my request. I am deeply disturbed by the events that transpired a week ago. Miss Granger was brutally attacked after stepping forward to block an unknown spell cast by Miss Chang towards Miss Lovegood. The next morning, Miss Clearwater found Chang and her two cohorts in crime while making her rounds and it was discovered they were attacked and as a result, their minds shattered."

"We're all aware of Miss Granger's foolish actions and the subsequent retaliation," Snape murmured, sipping his coffee.

"And we're also all aware not a single thing has been done about either event," Madam Sprout snapped angrily. "They aren't my Hufflepuffs, but shouldn't _someone_ be attempting to find out what happened? Regardless of their guilt, we cannot have vigilantes running amok in the school!"

"The matter isn't as simple as that," Dumbledore spoke into the burgeoning argument, hoping to sooth ruffled feathers. Or scales and fur, as the case was.

"Why not?" Professor Babbling asked, more than just a little belligerently. She had grown more than just a little fond of Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. Harry was perhaps the most devoted student she had ever had or had ever seen. His essays were things that made her breathing quicken and her pulse thunder in her ears. Hermione wasn't much different, though she was certainly more academic in her essays than Harry's practical use essays.

"The law still sees muggleborns as little to no concern," Albus explains in long-suffering tones. "From a legal standpoint, there is little that can really be accomplished in regards to Miss Granger's attack."

"Her assault, you mean," Bathsheba grunted. "Don't make it sound as though Miss Granger was in the wrong here. She protected another student and was severely hurt because of it. If Mister Potter hadn't an ironclad alibi, I'd be walking carefully around him after what happened to Chang and her misfits."

"There's also something to be asked about the attack on them, as well," Filius stated from down near the other end of the table, getting near-incredulous looks. "I am not saying that they didn't deserve to have some form of punishment, and severe at that, but in Pomona's words, we cannot have vigilantes running about, enforcing their will in the school."

"Why haven't you been speaking up or looking into matters, Minerva?" Bathsheba asked, looking at Hermione's Head of House. "You seem to be taking Miss Granger's assault in stride."

"How _dare_ you!" Minerva hissed, sounding something like her animagus form. One could almost see her wanting to arch her back. "We know who did this to her and now I've no one to punish! What would you have me do? Floo Miss Chang's father and demand a counter curse? Poppy already did so!"

"Enough, you two," Albus said, sighing again. "Bickering will get us nowhere. Now, as to Miss Granger's attackers, we know who they were and they have since been disposed of. There is little we can do there until they regain consciousness. While we all have our own suspicions as to who has attacked them, there is no evidence. No magic was cast at them that any of our scans could trace. It is as if they merely saw something their minds could not comprehend."

"I've more than enough veritaserum that we could-"

"Severus!" Scolded Minerva, still furious and not ready to take any crap. "One more illegal suggestion and we'll see just how far Albus is willing to go to protect your slimy arse!"

Pomona Sprout couldn't quite understand why that made her feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Of course, neither could Snape.

"That is enough," Albus said more forcefully. "The point is, we cannot _prove_ who has done any of this and, as such, cannot take proper action. Nor can we go about and question students. They need only lie and say they did not commit the crime. Does this satisfy you, Pomona?" Dumbledore asked, hoping she had been appeased by bringing the situation up where no one could ignore it any longer. Honestly, this wasn't much worse than what Slytherins or Cho and her motley crew got away with fairly often. The only difference between that, this and even some of what had been happening to Luna Lovegood was that this time, someone actually cared enough about the victim to speak up who didn't fear retribution.

"No, actually," Pomona said with a glare. "While it was discussed, it is nothing more than saying, 'too bad, so sorry, we don't know who did it so we will just ignore it'. This is last year all over again with that fop, Lockhart. To say nothing of the previous year."

"I suppose," Snape said in oily tones that sounded far too smug, "that this would be a poor time to simply point out how Mister Potter is in the middle of all of these _unfortunate_ events?"

"Yes," Minerva snarled, wishing the slimy bastard didn't have the right to speak his mind. She could see in several faces that doubts began to creep into minds of the staff that had moments ago been sure of Potter's innocence. Many people mocked and ridiculed the lack of common sense in the wizarding public. But the fact of the matter was it wasn't just common sense that was lacking. It was deductive reasoning. When faced with two arguments that sounded solid, they would generally remember the last one, simply because it was the most fresh within their minds and the arguments that much stronger because of it. Regardless of proof, since so much could be faked with the power they wielded in magic. Even the staff was not immune to this as Professors Hooch, Sinistra and even the Muggle Studies Professor Charity Burbage looked more than convinced and wary. What was worse, they all knew of Hermione's time-turner and, while they knew she was keeping it secret, or supposed to, they also knew the girl was more loyal to Harry than anything or anyone else and so the boy, despite his alibi, could have bent time to do the deed.

"The point is," Pomona said, getting back on target, "that no one has been punished, and nothing public has been done as a deterrent. What is to stop this from escalating? Malfoy and his ilk are constantly causing trouble with Potter and what's to keep it from happening again? Or worse next time?"

"Potter-" Snape began, getting quite indignant at the slight upon singling out his house and Godson.

"Stuff it!" Bathsheba barked out, actually getting the Slytherin Head of House to shut his gabbing yapper due to surprise. "We all see what happens in the Great Hall. Not severe, but obvious. That's with faculty and other students around. What the hell do you think he does when they aren't? I honestly won't be surprised to see Malfoy spending more time in the hospital wing soon. Especially with the new backbone Potter's seemed to have grown."

"There will be no escalation," Dumbledore spoke into the fray, forcibly parting the verbal combatants by putting himself in between their conversations. "We will admit to the truth. We have been running an investigation and have narrowed the suspects down. Once caught, they _will_ be punished as necessary."

Dumbledore had absolutely no idea just how much raw power and anger he would be going up against because he wanted to play peace maker.

xXxXxXx

Harry's eyes darted about suspiciously, wondering why he felt the need to prepare for an attack as in another place, Dumbledore was breaking up and disbanding a verbal joust between Hogwarts staff. The feeling had been happening a bit more as of late since the latest Quidditch match a week previous. He was used to it, when he was about to walk into something, but for some reason, he was finding himself a bit more aware of things on a grander scale than his immediate vicinity.

There were a good deal many things that made the older magicals in the world seem more all-knowing and wise than just their age and knowledge. Older people, in general, were more worldly. They understood how things worked and could feel the energy of the people to read them, understand a state of agitation or nervous air amongst them. Harry had been able to see and feel this first hand in his previous life when the wizarding public had been finally told that Voldemort had returned. People were nervous, scared and high-strung. Those that actually left their homes were usually the ones that had no choice or were ones who had lived through the first war and had a better understanding of when things were about to get bad.

In other words, they were able to read the world around them. It was something one could also find in a veteran warrior. The older aurors had it. Service men who had seen war had it. Harry had long-since lost sight of _what_ he was seeing, only acknowledging it was there, classifying it as required and then moving his eyes on, reading the next thing. But sometimes, when a person grew up faster than they were meant to, one who was younger could be aware of something in the wind changing. Of something _coming_.

Harry laid out several sickles onto the table for Tom at the Leaky Cauldron, paying for more than just the food and walked into magical London: Diagon Alley.

Harry had been dreading this part of the day's excursion. Knowing what he was planning to get, he had tied two mokeskin pouches to his belt next to the Sword of Gryffindor on either side. One would be for whatever he felt to purchase while he was out while the other was for his first stop. Almost as soon as he entered Diagon Alley, thankfully with very few people, he went straight through until he reached Gringotts, veering left and entered Knockturn Alley. A darker, seedier part of the magical bazaar where one could get anything they wanted, for the right price. Some of the first shops weren't too bad. One could get the different sort of pet in the first, the sort not allowed in Hogwarts or most normal homes, even of the wizarding variety. The second was for the bizarre and strange, containing shrunken hands, petrified human remains, trinkets that had shady histories.

He passed a few hags that looked at him with glittering eyes and bulbous growths on their noses and chins. These were the sort of women that muggle myths were built upon when one envisioned a witch in that culture. These women also had a constant craving for human flesh, preferring children and usually little girls who held a beauty they knew they could never get back, though they found fingers of boys to be the perfect sort of snack. In fact, they started towards Harry the moment he approached until he looked at them in the eyes and glared, walking past and subtly unlocking three percent of his limiters, broadcasting his aura and making them retreat to the shadows. The changes their affliction left upon their bodies wasn't just aesthetic. It also weakened their bodies and made them hesitant to create confrontation unless it was with someone they could sense was weak, leaving him safe as long as he didn't act like the scared little boy he remembered his first time in that alley.

About half way down the alley and before it forked, he passed a second wand store that looked quite different than Ollivander's. There were far less wands inside and of the two, looked less seedy, oddly enough.

At the fork, he turned right, ignoring the harlots down at the other end of the left fork at the brothel and pub. In that pub, some of the worst sort spent their time since it was farthest from the entrance of the alley. The harlots, by mutual agreement, were considered too valuable to harm, so the werewolves that frequented the location tended to not go to the upper floors or outside areas where the women called to the passersby, not wanting to risk their blood calling to them. To the right, at the end of the alley, however, was Borgin and Burkes. This store was Lucius Malfoy's primary claim to fame and where Mundungus Fletcher sold a good many of his stolen wares.

It was also where rested the second half of the vanishing cabinet Harry had claimed from the Room of Requirement, placed there by Voldemort many years before. The man hadn't just cursed the Defense teacher position when he was last there. He had, even then, made plans and implemented them for his eventual return and conquest.

The bell jingled as Harry entered, making sure he kept his shoulders back, his back straight and his head held high. This was not the sort of place one wanted to allow weakness to show.

He perused the shelves, looking at the extremely large variety of dark, semi-dark and downright evil trinkets within the store. Not a single thing was what Dumbledore would consider "light". It was either meant to harm, to kill, to assist in either of the first two or was meant to frighten. There was a mummified hand that was labeled as attacking the owner in his sleep and choking him to death, which Harry considered getting for Snape before passing on.

There were crystals of various blooded animals and a surprisingly large number of vials of blood from virgins that Harry didn't want to contemplate since that sort of blood could only come from that virgin losing the very status that made the blood so precious. Otherwise, you could take blood from children or a single woman for years and have all you needed. There would be nothing special about it otherwise, which was why it was so valuable and such a powerful catalyst.

After all, if blood was so powerful because it was a physical property of life, then blood one could only gain in an act meant for _creating_ life certainly then became more potent since it could only be obtained the once.

Then there were the curiously large number of darker tomes within the shop. Harry picked a few up, wondering if they would be of any sort of use.

"So, the great Harry Potter comes to my dark abode," a voice said from seemingly everywhere. "Not happy with Hogwarts' current teachings, I wonder? Hm?"

"I'm not fond of being snuck up on or having someone acting suspiciously hiding from me," Harry called out, looking unconcerned even as he prepped his magic to form a shield and he set his feet to dodge. "Come out and talk or I blast my way out. Three. Two..."

The mystery voice had no idea if it should believe the little brat, but then again, if anyone could get away with it, this would be one of the ones who could. Few people would probably even question what he was doing there in the first place, and certainly not over care of the proprietors. "You don't have to be such a Dumbledore, you know."

Harry chuckled despite himself. "I'll take the insult as it was meant and congratulate you on finding a unique way to curse his name that I think I may adopt."

"We're not here for sightseers," Borgin said. "What do you want?"

"That cabinet," Harry said, pointing towards the large wardrobe which he hadn't even looked at except in glancing, "all of your uncursed books, that shrunken head that insults people and those enchanted daggers."

Borgin looked mildly concerned as Harry pointed things out without looking at them, his eyes glued to the book in his hands. "You do realize those daggers leave cursed wounds, right?" He asked, knowing they could be traced back to him without much difficulty since they had actually been in the shop for a fair amount of time. "And why on earth do you want the head? You can't keep that kind of thing around in Hogwarts. Not unless you _want_ people to know you're dark! Most of them would set off the Headmaster's alarms. These things will be traced back to me and I don't want to be dealing with the likes of Dumbledore, you hear?"

Harry waved off the man's concern, shutting the book and looking at him with annoyance. "The head is for a Christmas present for someone I hate. I hope to see his expression as he opens it. If anyone asks, you sold it to a man about six-two, scruffy and graying brown hair, lean, werewolf. The daggers, I know, leave a Flamebrand curse on their wounds, but that is the whole point of getting them. As for the books, I expect there are plenty of people out there who aren't happy with my history, as you well know, and I'd rather know what they're going to hit me with than toss about jinxes like it was a schoolyard fight. Either you want the gold and sell them, or you don't and I'll get them other ways. The choice is yours."

Borgin was many things, but a coward was not amongst them. "You little bastard! You think to threaten me?" Borgin pulled out his wand, quick as a flash and flung it towards Harry who glared and then the man was thrown backwards while his wand sailed into Harry's open hand.

"Yes," Harry hissed as objects within the room began to shake and wobble as his anger was fed upon by his partial opening of the power-limiting seal earlier. "I know the people you sell to," Harry snarled, advancing on the cowering man. "I know what they want and what they do. One way or another, Mister Borgin, you will be parted with these items. The only question is whether you plan to be parted with anything else."

Borgin scuttled backwards and shook his head as the Sword of Gryffindor became visible on Harry's hip and enlarged itself, the metal blade literally humming loudly with a metallic ring as it sang to be used, Harry's magic charging the blade for something only it knew it could do. He pissed himself as Harry put his hand to the scabbard and flicked the sword upwards with his thumb and then drew the blade. "I'll sell! I'll sell!"

Had Borgin had his wand, he would have activated the anti-theft measures, but the frightening fact was that the boy had taken it from his hands without having to draw his own. Or he would have killed the boy and then sold him to the hags a piece at a time, after shaving the hair for the many things it could be used for, of course.

With his trousers soaking and leaking putrid yellow liquid all over the floor, Borgin sold Harry everything he wanted, along with all the books he admitted to having on warding, enchanting and curse breaking, most of which the man had never planned to part with but instead wanted to keep for his own collection to sell as a set much later. Harry had said 'all' the uncursed books, and since he seemed to know exactly where the items he wanted were at, he worried the boy knew about them, as well.

For his part, Harry felt sick for how this was turning out. He had already planned on buying certain things, but hadn't planned on taking it this far. Borgin, however, was a front man for the death eaters and one of their chief suppliers. Indirectly, he had caused a massive amount of suffering and Harry, while he couldn't quite put his finger on why, was furious with this man and wasn't willing to leave without getting what he came for. The cabinet and the daggers, no matter what, had to be taken from the store. The cabinet had been used to invade Hogwarts. It had to go. The daggers ... well, Harry couldn't quite understand why he needed those out of the store. There was something ... something about a memory of a memory. Like a ghost of a memory. Material but not firm. He could almost see a picture of someone having those daggers and doing horrible things with them, but he had no idea what or to whom. But he knew what they were. Somehow, he knew what curse they were enchanted with even if he couldn't remember where he learned it. He knew they had been used on someone important to him.

And then he could see her. Bellatrix LeStrange, taking great care to scar the flesh laying on the floor beneath her as Harry watched. Hermione laying there, naked from the waist up as her skin was slowly being burned from the cursed blades, melting her flesh as the curse did its work. Her clothes were mere ash on the ground where the curse had already burnt through them and they had fallen from Hermione's shoulders. He could see the smiling faces of the Death Eaters who watched on gleefully and could remember the ones holding him bound with their wands chuckling and relishing in Hermione's pain.

Ron was already a melted slab of skin off to the side and Luna was struggling next to him as several death eaters took the opportunity to grab at her since the brunette had been forbidden by Bellatrix to touch and the blonde wasn't. Bellatrix wouldn't allow anyone else but herself to torture the one girl who was most like herself, so fully devoted to one man. Only she was allowed to make the girl scream, she had told them. Harry remembered Hermione crying out his name, even then trying to tell him to escape. And then he remembered rage and an explosion of self-sacrifice to make his best friend's pain end.

In the next life after Harry blew through his power-limiting seal in his anger, though Harry wasn't aware, it would have been the Cruciatus Hermione suffered from instead and she would have been less devoted during their sixth year, while Luna, instead of joining them on their hunting expedition because of her knowledge and contacts, would have instead been neglected and in a cell under the same manor home where even worse unspeakable things would happen to her, keeping the Balance.

Harry's face was darkening in righteous fury, spurring Borgin to work faster and add things to Harry's bottomless sack as he wasn't looking, hoping to just stuff everything in and get the frightening child out of his store.

"Er, f-forty-three galleons," Borgin stuttered, not really paying attention that he had given Harry nearly two hundred galleons' worth of merchandise from his counter alone, to say nothing of the seventy that Harry actually owed.

Harry tossed a sack onto the counter. "Fifty. I'll leave your wand by the door." Harry turned to leave, casting a rotating mirroring shield at his back to reflect and swing back whatever Borgin would send at him if he tried anything and never seeing the shopkeeper draw a spare wand from under the counter or Dobby become visible long enough to destroy the man's memory of the whole event and rewrite it to Master Harry's specifications. Lucius Malfoy, Dobby's previous master who was a bad, bad man would also find himself in a perfect memory simply taking the things from behind the counter.

Master Harry _did_ say Dobby was allowed things when Dobby wanted them...

Harry left quickly and strode out of the dark alley, ignoring the harlots' calls of immeasurable pleasures or the hags as they hoped to catch him unaware, falling afoul of Dobby Potter and his belief that nothing was too harsh on those who would want to eat his Master. Though, the one that was charmed to attract hags and _look_ like Master Harry certainly didn't seem too thrilled with Dobby's methods.

Harry's next stop was to where he hoped planning ahead would serve him well, especially after what he felt had to have been a seriously horrible nightmare. He went to the apothecary shop and up to the counter where the middle-aged man who sold him his potions to induce a growth spurt was sitting and taking inventory of his stock. "Mister Fields, it's good to see you again," Harry said, remembering the man's name from when he had given it at the start of the summer. Plus it was always good to make people believe they were memorable. Oddly enough, this one actually _had_ been. But mostly because he had been as easy to manipulate as Ron.

Jacob Fields looked up and his eyes widened as Harry Potter walked up to the counter like an old friend. "Mister Potter! I mean, Lord Potter! What are you doing here? I mean, how can I help you?" He stuttered over himself, wondering why the boy was there when he should be in school.

"I was hoping you'd allow me to part with a lot of gold while I tried to get you to do the same with your potions," Harry joked, hoping to build a friendly rapport and forget the visions in his head as Dobby hit the unknowing boy with a cheering charm.

"Of course, Lord Potter!" Jacob said with a grin. Part Harry Potter with his gold? A lot of it? My word, the boy was a business genius! _'A _genius_ I say!'_

"Just 'Harry', please. I don't really care for my titles."

"As you say, Harry," Jacob preened, feeling light as a feather and wondering if Harry was coming for that not-so-subtle hint at an endorsement. "What can I part with for you today?"

"Actually, I was hoping to stock up on a lot of various healing potions," Harry said, trying to sound more like the kid he appeared to be. "I recently made it back home to my family's house and I found that it had a small medical wing. I guess it was for family births or something from a long time ago. Anyway, I've taken to training during the summers because I'm thinking about becoming an auror or hit wizard or something like that when I grow up and I was thinking it would be good to have potions to heal in case of an accident."

"I think you'd make an excellent auror, Mister Potter," Jacob said, hoping the boy would do just that and protect the people when he was older. "But, while I wouldn't mind selling the potions, wouldn't an emergency portkey to Saint Mungo's be more reliable and safer?"

_'Dang, I didn't think that far ahead,'_ Harry thought bitterly. "Probably, but I've got aurors and an on-site healer. I really want to take my future seriously. Not to mention they'll be good to have when I've got a family, and if I'm going to buy some, I may as well do it now so I can fill everything up."

Actually, while it had started out as a lie, that wasn't exactly a bad idea. It would bear thinking about.

Jacob frowned, thinking. "Do you want to fill a standard manor house medical wing?"

Harry blinked. "What's standard?"

"How much do you plan on buying, Mister Potter?" Jacob fell back to proper etiquette since he didn't expect to make a decent job out of this after all.

"Uh, I need a large supply of pepper-up potions, blood replenishing, skele-grow, sleepless draughts, pain-relieving potions-"

"That's enough, Mister Potter," Jacob said as he shook his head. "I'm one of the few apothecaries around and generally get enough traffic for daily uses and common maladies that I'm working most of my time to keep this place stocked. I'm afraid I couldn't possibly brew enough potions to supply your need. Even if you only needed them delivered by the end of the year, I'm afraid. For quality potions, you can't be stretched too thin. If you don't get some of those properly brewed, they'll do more harm than good."

Harry's face fell and he nodded helplessly, looking as downtrodden as he actually felt. He was hoping he could build a new side in the war that was coming, taking this time in the next two years to stock up on so many things that he could take care of his people when things got bad. It was ... Well, it made him feel like he had hit a barrier and that he could really fail in his over all mission since he failed, now, in something so trivial.

Something in his expression softened Jacob to the boy. Normally, he would never make the step he was about to, especially when he was going to be losing out on so much gold, but Harry's earlier actions had endeared him to the man. And there was still the hope of endorsements. "Lord Potter, there are those who are independent brewers. They have a tendency to be a little pricier because their potions are usually of the ... less favorable kind," Jacob hedged, unsure of how he thought suggesting this to a child, even the Boy-Who-Lived was a good idea. Many potions were addictive, and brewers often didn't care about whether or not their clients became so. It only meant more gold in their pockets if that were the case. Men like Snape made wonderful profits in the black market because of it.

"I need them and a lot of them," Harry said, feeling elated, which showed on his face. It made Jacob realize there was no going back, now.

"I require your word, Lord Potter, that you won't divulge any of what I tell you. They tend to assist me with materials when the school rush shows up in August and I will be forced to raise prices or be understocked should-"

"You have my word that I won't do anything to betray yours or their confidence, so long as they don't do anything to anyone I consider a friend or hurt someone under my protection. Then your confidence is safe, but they won't be," Harry interrupted, hoping to get Jacob to divulge his secrets, but also not willing to allow _anyone_ to hurt those he cared about again. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to run for long. Not after the ghostly images running rampant in his mind. _'That reminds me. I need to find Cho's dad and have a talk with him.'_

"I suppose that's the best I could honestly hope for," Jacob said, understanding the threat the boy didn't seem to have realized he said. "There is a woman, and please don't let the fact she's a woman lead you to think less of her potions skill as she's actually leagues above myself. There is a woman by the name of Clara. She is often times known to accept jobs that are extremely delicate and require a master's touch. She should be able to help you, regardless of what you require."

"Just Clara?" Harry asked, pushing the obviously nervous man from behind the counter.

"Clara Zabini."

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, 09:00 – During teachers' meeting**

"Master has given us new orders," Twinkle called out to the amassed fur people in their second-floor abode. They had built a tiny little city for themselves that, so far, only their Master Harry's moon girl had seen. And it was there that they had met while Claws, who had been present when orders were given to Twinkle, was hiding in the Transfiguration classroom with Master's Luna, ready to protect and maul.

"About time," Pitter-Patter growled out, her ears laying down atop her head. Her slightly-larger-than normal paws rested on her slimmer-than-normal hips and a single fang showed from under a furry lip where it was just a little too large for her. "What do we do now?"

"Our previous orders still stand," Twinkle explained with a nod of agreement with the female he wanted to groom. Her fur was always a little bushy, but she was rather fond of studying their prey and learning how they acted, which intrigued him. It would probably mean they would better understand how they would react, meaning they would become more effective hunters. Unless she got sidetracked by something shiny again. "However, we now have another that takes priority over others. If someone Master wishes protected is about to get hurt, and we can use our own judgement if we haven't been told directly, we may take any actions needed to protect."

"What about past scratches," Tuft asked, swaying his tail back and forth in agitation, the tip which was his namesake flicking in anticipation. He was looking forward to getting back at the ones who dared braid his fur. _'And I've got just the karate-chopping weapon to eliminate their oh-so-precious dollies, too!'_

"Past wounds or attacks must be considered behind us all," Twinkle stated firmly. "Swiping at them now would not teach them anything. They must learn to not do something when they attempt it. Otherwise, they won't know what they are being reprimanded for. Master was very clear about this." When not talking to Master Harry, the fur people found themselves reverting to some of their own vernacular, which was definitely more feline in nature. To them, 'swiping' was meant to be like rubbing the human children's noses in their wrongdoing or spanking them. The more time they spent in the world, the more unique they became and the more of their own culture was created.

"What about the ones who do not help?" Jinx asked. If humans were Thundercats, this one would be better known as Nymphadora Tonks. This one didn't trip or fall. In fact, it was one of the most graceful of them all. But she tripped everyone else and caused them all to fall. Even now, she had a wide birth around here save for Squeaks. His name was gifted to him because, somehow, he kept getting stepped on by Jinx and that was usually the sound he made. He would be the Ginny Weasley of the Thundercats. Only he took pride in pursuing Jinx and usually ended up beneath her feet because he was trying to steal her first kiss and her unlucky aura had thus far saved her from it. She was also one of the few with purple eyes that seemed streaked with pink lightning bolts, something that had evolved from their original appearance.

"We may play with them," Twinkle explained, thinking more in terms of a cat playing with a mouse before it ... died mysteriously since they would _never_ have anything to do with that unfortunate event...

"While we're all here and talking, could we change shifts?" Snarf asked. "The lemony one keeps talking to himself and it's beginning to get uncomfortable." That, and Snarf had eaten a lemon drop from the dish when the man wasn't looking and still couldn't quite unpucker his face.

"You are now the most familiar with him," Twinkle stated. "If you feel he's becoming aware, then you may- RAT!"

A hundred furry heads with perked triangular ears turned as one to see the half-entered form of the rat that was looking around the castle, hoping to find a place to hide from his old animagus friend.

Instead, he found a large growl meeting him from the throats of so many Thundercats as they licked their furry maws.

Needless to say, Scabbers did not find this safe abode anywhere on the second floor. He did, however, find it outside of an open window where he instead learned that not all owls are asleep during the day.

Hedwig cracked her beak in irritation as the extremely juicy morsel fell through the bushes before she could snatch it with her talons. Still, she rather appreciated the large number of cat-creatures that stood at the windows and cheered her on. That was certainly new.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, As Harry is leaving Borgin & Burkes **

"He's ... he's remembering his previous lives," Lora said, shocked. "But ... _how_! The memories don't even exist after Time is reset!"

The deep voice chuckled in amusement. **"My daughter, you still have so much to learn. Three thousand years and still a teenager at heart."**

Lora had the decency to blush. Physically, she may have nearly stopped aging at twenty, but because she and her kind lived for so long, their minds and bodies developed differently. Some stopped aging at six or eight and were stuck in their childlike personalities for a few thousand years when they were happy as they were. In Lora's case, she was only just out of her rebellious phase. That didn't mean he had to rub it in, though. "Then what's happening?"

"**Nothing is ever truly lost. For all of those realities where different choices could be made or things could have happened differently but for the hand of Fate, such as the wind blowing east instead of west, only one is truly within the realm of material and existence."**

"Right, but how can he remember something sent to the Abyss?" Lora asked, staring at Harry's memory, playing in the back of his head from his death before his last. In it, he had been much closer to both Hermione and Luna, having nearly developed his bonds fully with them both. Hermione had full faith in Harry and humored, if not trusted, his fears about Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape and was willing to help him look into matters and they had talked about the potions book that caused such strife in the next version of Harry's life. Luna, too, had been much closer, being respected by them both for her differences rather than being used as a scapegoat to mock and ridicule to make themselves feel more normal. Resetting that life back to second year resulted in them not meeting Luna and Hermione not bonding as closely and the last life Harry had experienced, which he remembered in full.

In this time line, Ron had still betrayed them, but had told the Snatchers that found him anything they wanted before eventually finding that the three had been found thanks to his squealing and he had been tortured and killed in front of his no-longer friends before Bellatrix LeStrange had chosen to hurt Hermione because she was as devoted to Harry as Bella was to Voldemort. She had shown how the Firebrand curse on the daggers she had purchased melted flesh and burned anything non-living into ruin on Ron's body, melting him into a lump of flesh.

Then she had turned the blade to Hermione.

Lora actually couldn't find it within herself to be upset with Harry for detonating his magical core to kill everyone within a hundred kilometer diameter. He didn't have the magical power to overpower several body-binds and breaking through the power-limiting seal had stopped Hermione's suffering and stopped Luna's before it had even started.

"**You are aware that mortals can occasionally pull off feats that even immortals and demigods are incapable of? You remember that of your studies?"**

"Yes," Lora said, refusing to meet the being's eyes, or where she felt they would be. In truth, she had always rather slacked on her literatures and stuck more with practical aspects. She was aware of this, but wouldn't be able to cite you any examples.

"**The Abyss can be reached by anyone, child,"** the voice said, sounding something akin to sorrowful or pained. Lora couldn't tell which. **"The boy strives to succeed and despairs over his lack of knowledge and memories. His Will is strong and he is bridging the non-space to retrieve what he knows he has lost."**

Lora rather hoped he didn't retrieve the memory if his first time through the Tri-Wizard tournament. He couldn't handle just _knowing_ he was buggered by a dragon, never mind remembering it. "So, he's going to remember everything?"

"**He will remember that which he felt he should not forget or that which he would actively try to remember, though he has no true control. This was, relatively speaking in regards to his deaths, a recent memory, and a powerful one. Its resurrection is not one I am surprised he regained. How many or how much he will find, however, there is no way to know."**

Lora truly felt pained for Harry as he remembered over and over again how the cut of the red-tinted blades melted the flesh of its victims, wishing powerfully that he didn't remember that event. She reached forward, trying subconsciously to stroke his hair to ease his anguish, but her fingers dipped into the liquid light of the Spheros, unable to truly touch that which was discarded into the Abyss. She didn't even care that Harry had been able to do something her kind was incapable of by doing just that.

xXxXxXx

Harry got to the Ministry with a half hour to spare, having just come from Potter Manor where he elected to wear a set of fine robes that had been in the closet of the master suite instead of his school robes. He also had absolutely no intention of going into the Ministry with so many dark items, so he left them there rather than bring them aside from the other vanishing cabinet when he changed. While he hated his fame and all the mindless sycophants who would love or loathe him depending on the day, he knew that he had to basically wade into the throng and be seen. Therefore, he couldn't be seen as Harry Potter, the school boy, but instead had to be seen as Lord Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and would continue to win.

The only flaw was that he had no idea where everyone was meeting or if they had to do anything early or not.

"Mister Potter?"

Harry looked to the side before he got to the station to check his wand, hiding the feeling of relief when he spotted Cornelius Fudge coming from a side door and looking confused to see him. _'Sweet manipulation,'_ Harry thought as he smiled at the man in the lime green hat. "Minister Fudge. It's good to see you again," he proclaimed a touch louder than probably necessary, causing a few people to take note of the interaction.

Fudge, never one to pass up a chance at being associated with high-profile individuals and on friendly terms smiled magnanimously. "You as well, Lord Potter," Fudge said a little loudly in return, hoping others would remember the situation. "May I ask what you're doing here? Shouldn't you be in Hogwarts?"

"There _is_ a meeting of the entire Wizengamot today, isn't there?" Harry asked, trying to sound sure of himself while silently wondering. The letter had said that there was, and the newspaper had said as much also when they found out about his other seats.

"Well, yes, but not for another half hour or forty-five minutes or so," Fudge muttered in confusion. Everyone usually showed up a few minutes before and went straight to the room unless they worked at the Ministry already.

Harry shrugged, feeling more at ease now that he felt he could get the man to help him out. "Well, I can honestly say I've not been to the Ministry before this point in time, so I was thinking of looking around. I don't suppose you know someone who could show me around the place? I've heard it's an interesting place to work and was curious to see if there was anything I really wanted to look in to to see if I wanted to think about working here later or not."

Like waving a flag at a bull, Fudge smiled grandly and walked Harry past the check-in station, stopping only long enough to let Harry check his wand and get his receipt. "I'd be happy to help, my boy! This is the wand-station. Basically, only Ministry personnel are allowed a wand past this point, even lords, I'm afraid. You'll have to check your wand here and it goes through that little hole there into a magical repository where only your ticket can retrieve it. So be sure to keep that on you, now."

"Thank you, Minister," Harry said, actually having wondered about that. No one that he could remember had ever told him that before. They just simply said it was the way of things. But, everyone he had ever gone to the Ministry with had been allowed to keep theirs, so he was never sure of what made them take his. He just always thought they didn't want him using it. Still, that made sense. Like security personnel in a building. They would be allowed their weapons, but no one else was. So, this made sense, finally, to Harry.

Fudge knew Harry was basically just a normal kid, despite his list of titles and economical power. While he could have pointed out his own office and spoke of how important he was to the wizarding world, this was one boy he didn't want anywhere _near_ that office in any official capacity unless he was endorsing the current Minister! Instead, he decided to do something smart. While Fudge was deplorable in many ways such as taking bribes or using people to meet his own gains, he didn't get to his position because he was easy to buy. Well, not _only_ because he was easy to buy. He decided to take Harry to the places that would interest him and that he would feel inclined to brag about later to his friends, thus ingratiating the boy to the Minister, getting him hooked on favors.

"While I could show you the normal Ministry, we haven't a lot of time to roam about, and the legal side of things is both time-consuming to cover and I admit, rather boring," Fudge said, actually projecting a fun persona that Harry was finding himself liking, oddly enough. "Instead, why don't I show you some of the more interesting places so you actually have something interesting to remember, hm?"

"That would be wonderful, thank you!" Harry said, honestly pleased.

"The Ministry is made up of three branches," Cornelius began as they descended on a lift. "There's the administrative branch, which is what you see upstairs and that we'll be in the thick of later. It's generally a bunch of boring talks and people arguing and no one budging a bit in what they want. The real secret there is not showing weakness or backing down because, if you do, they'll think you're close to breaking and keep going until you do. You've got to get them to do so first. So, while the most active, it's generally the most boring."

"And then there's the law enforcement side," Harry interrupted, suddenly seeing a way to get to go to the _other_ side that was usually hidden. "It's basically like the muggle bobbies. They make sure laws are upheld and go where they need to in order to keep the peace. So, since that's nothing special, I assume we're going to the mystery third spot?" Harry asked.

Cornelius quickly jabbed a button as he smiled nervously, and possibly in constipation. "Of course, my boy!" The door dinged and opened, causing the Minister to make a strange chuckle that sounded between a laugh and a moan of pain. "Just letting you see the department that keeps everyone safe," he professed, taking his cap off and screwing it up as the doors closed again. He had originally planned to show the boy how they were tracking Sirius Black and show how safe everyone was with the Ministry on the job. After all, what boy _didn't_ dream of becoming an auror? Unless they wanted to be on the other side and do evil things, of course, though Fudge felt that wasn't likely. Still, so much for trying to make a weapon of the boy.

The door dinged again and opened, showing a location that was completely empty of other individuals. "Th-this is the Department of Mysteries," Cornelius stated, walking forward. Normally, only Ministry personnel were allowed down here, and the higher-ranking ones at that. But, since Harry was a Lord, in a way, that meant he had a job, right?

"I've heard of this place," Harry said, his tone between pained memories and honest awe of the power of the surrounding areas. "This is where the Ministry studies ancient magic, right?"

"Of course," Fudge said, leading Harry on briskly. No point dawdling. "There's almost no one down here today since I've assigned almost every single Unspeakable – that's the name given to those who work down here since they aren't allowed to talk about their work since it's top secret – the task of finding out who the heirs are for the Founders."

Harry blanched, knowing no good would come of this and also wondering if an entire department had really been working on finding out who the heirs were for so long and still had nothing. Of course, will all the inbreeding, it wasn't as simple as following bloodlines. But at the same time, speaking up would help put the man less behind Malfoy and more behind himself. "Why didn't you tell me you wanted to know?" Harry asked, trying his best to sound confused and innocent. "I could have told you that."

"Whu-what?" Fudge spluttered, eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

"Yea, I'm the one who controls all the Founders' seats and votes," Harry said, trying to act nonchalant. A little hard when you felt like you were going to throw up. "So, what's so special about this place? Is there anything really neat you can show me?"

Fudge panted in shock and surprise, nodding absently as he shuffled forward, his movements more in line with inferi than a living man. "You ... you're the one in control of all of them?" After getting that underage exemption, Fudge honestly would have expected Harry would rush to tell him the good news. _'It has to be Dumbledore's doing,'_ Fudge decided.

"Yes," Harry explained. "Believe it or not, my mother was a descendant of Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Interesting records about the stuff they did in their day," Harry said, hoping to entice the older man with secrets. "Sadly, they've made it so their diaries can't be taken from their vaults. I may have to go and copy them some time so people can see how things happened then."

Fudge swallowed, his throat so tight the liquid actually seemed to squeak on its way down. This would be a powerful ally, or a powerful enemy. And his only chance was to make the boy an ally as quickly as possible. And that meant impressing the hell out of him. "This first room is where we study the universe," the older man stated.

Harry's eyes widened comically as Fudge actually took him to a circular room and showed Harry how to bypass the passive security of the rotating doors before he opened the door and gestured to the room that had a large, three-dimensional version of the solar system so realistic, Harry would swear he was looking at it from space.

"Next, we have a room where we study the nature of our existence and thought, itself," Fudge stated, calling out for the 'Thought Room' after closing the 'Universe' door. It was his hope that he could show off a lot of impressive-looking magic with the first option, then something a little on the gross side since boys had a wont to be curious about such things.

"And this next room is the Time Room."

"Time room?" Harry asked, disbelieving that he was about to see what it sounded like. "Like a break room?"

Fudge actually laughed, feeling a little more at ease at seeing the boy so ill-advised and wondering how to get him away from Dumbledore to manipulate. "No, my boy. It's called the Time Room because all of our experiments and knowledge of Time are hidden here."

Against all odds, the Minister began to lead Harry through the Time room to get to where he wanted to show Harry what many affectionately called the 'Treasure Room', which basically amounted to mysterious artifacts they studied or kept out of the publics' clutches. After all, what kid _didn't_ like the idea of treasure?

Harry didn't know what came over him, but he knew this was far too good of an opportunity to pass up. Silently and without his wand, he summoned a dozen time-turners from the cabinet to his left, ones that looked just like the ones Hermione had, and let them flood his belt pouch, silently closing the door as he walked by even as he summoned larger ones from the cabinet to his right that were as large as his hand and some as large as a saucer. As he moved to close that cabinet, he swiped his hand and conjured copies of the scrolls and ancient books in the cases to one side and let them fly into his pouch as well for later acquisition into his grimoire.

Harry suddenly straightened and tried to control his breathing as Fudge turned in the middle of the room and looked at Harry. "This room is almost always off limits, but since no one knows we're down here, we'll just keep this our little secret, alright?"

"Oh, I don't want to risk getting you into trouble, sir," Harry said, his heart racing and his breathing coming out heavier. He couldn't believe himself! _'Here lies Harry James Potter,'_ Harry thought in a false voice in his head. _'Died horribly before he could reach the rank of 'master' thief.'_ Not exactly a comforting thought.

"Don't worry, my boy," Fudge said, waving off Harry's concern with more confidence than he felt right then. "I'm the Minister. I could always just give you a temporary job, if you'd like. Would that make you feel better?" Internally, Fudge's thoughts were totally different. _'Please Merlin say yes! Otherwise, I'm so screwed it isn't even funny!'_

Harry shook his head, not sure what getting a job for even a single day would mean. "Oh, no sir. I think I may still be too young. Does the Ministry do anything like curse breaking?" He asked, suddenly having the most Slytherin thought he had ever conceived of. "I thought about going to Gringotts bank and working as a curse breaker there. I know someone who does that and it sounds really exciting! They've even shown me their library where they let their curse breakers study! They've also offered to get me tutors."

Fudge nearly had a heart attack. There was _no_ way he could lose Potter to the goblins! "No!" Fudge near yelled before having a coughing fit. "Er, no, no. We have our own library, too. Anything we ever find is archived here! You'll never find a more complete library anywhere!" The Minister looked at his pocket watch, seeing they still had fifteen minutes to spare. Plenty of time to let him see the Archive without breaking the Ministry's rules. At least, not if he went to the closer and more restricted one where no one would know about it.

Harry's blood sung in his veins as he summoned a few last things that had been in Fudge's vision earlier and was led through a few doors into dusty, stone catacombs that were obviously where the Ministry had originally obtained its start. After a few moments, they hit a wall where Fudge pierced his thumb against a bronze plate by a stone door that glowed a dark, blood red that Harry could tell was dangerous to anyone who wasn't blood-bound to access it. Then Harry gasped as the sight of a location that had to be larger than Hogwarts whose walls were a few dozen stories high and packed with ancient tomes and scrolls was revealed behind the stone door rolling away. And in the center, going up equally as high, were shelves upon shelves of the same. _'I'm glad Hermione never found this place in fifth year. We would have never heard from her again.'_

"As you can see, when you're ready, we have more than enough books for you, Harry," Fudge said rather smugly. "This place is off limits except by certain requests, but I'm sure if you worked here we could let you study to your heart's content. Usually, the Unspeakables would stop anyone from coming through here, but since they're all chasing _you_ down," Fudge chuckled nervously again, to a point where Harry was seriously beginning to wonder if the man suffered from ulcers, "no one was here to stop us. Only the Head Unspeakable, myself and those who used to hold our positions are allowed access here or they must accompany us. But few people know it even exists since there's a smaller version for other people to see that is about the size of Hogwarts' own library. But if you wish it, I'll be sure to authorize you if you work here."

Harry could feel his ears warm as his heart pumped faster. "Are _all_ of these on warding and curse breaking?" He asked, not having to fake his awe in the slightest. He had thought his family's archive was impressive, but this! _This_ was a whole new form of impressive!

Fudge shifted before shaking his head, knowing it better to not lie about something so trivial. "No. They're this way. I'll show you just so you know I'm not teasing you. Here, we have basic charms and transfiguration sections," Fudge stated, leading Harry through and reading the huge signs so he could talk and sound more knowledgeable, believing Harry wouldn't pay attention to the signs with all the books around. "Then we've got potions books and enchanting. Over here are rituals and darker, blood-based magics. Then we've got warding over here."

As the man was speaking, Harry took the time to look down each row and jab his hand forward, conjuring copies of the whole row and then summoning them to his pouches amidst silencing spells to keep the fluttering pages from alerting the Minister. All Harry knew was that there was simply no way he could pass this up. If only a few people came by or even knew about this place, then copying these wouldn't show up in the slightest. It was simply, as Hermione had said at breakfast long ago, sharing knowledge with everyone. Or at least with Harry. He had no idea if it was going to be needed or even useful. But he knew that every little bit he got, he could use against Voldemort and the Ministry later when needed.

So, he got everything down each row and for as far as he could see without risking getting anything in Cornelius' peripheral vision. At least until they got to warding, which Harry was most interested in.

"These," Cornelius said with a large smile, "are warding books. They're mixed in with the Runes and Arithmancy because they're so closely related," he explained, seeing Harry pick up one of those subjects from the shelf. "But as you can see, we have anything you could want to study, so you certainly have no reason to go to the goblins when you could work for your fellow man."

"Thank you, Minister. I think I'll reconsider. They didn't have anything like this." As Fudge smiled and began to lead Harry away, the boy sent a wave of magic to copy as much from behind him as his magic could and then summoned it all to his pouches, hoping he got some good stuff. He had no idea what was around the warding section or further back, but he knew he was able to get everything his magic could.

At least until his pouches apparently reached their limit and several hundred books fell to the floor in a heap.

While the books themselves were silenced, all that displaced air and dust from so many falling was not so easily hidden. Not when Harry was too surprised to stop it. So, the blast of wind from so many pages and covers fanning themselves hit the Minister, causing him to stop curiously and then turn around.

Harry didn't have time to contemplate and banished the silenced books up and away, off to the far side of the library and into the far wall where several hundred original books were knocked off the shelves, causing a deep, echoing rumbling to soon reach them.

The ominous sound made the Minister flinch and grasp Harry by the shoulder, rushing him forward. "Terribly sorry, my boy! But this place has ancient wards and defenses from the founding of the Ministry! There's no telling what that is, so perhaps we should go. Since you're not keyed in, you may not be safe and I couldn't live with myself if any harm came to you," he rushed out, quickly pushing Harry forward. It was true, too. Fudge would feel horrible if something hurt Harry. Because whatever did it would probably come after him next.

Seven minutes later, the Minister and the new burglar were up on the regular floors of the Ministry and heading into the council chambers where Harry saw Mister Lovegood, along with all the other reporters, looking for any sign of who the Founders' heirs were. Whether it was for his newspaper or out of sheer curiousity, Harry didn't know, since the man didn't have a camera with him, but he wouldn't leave him, or by extension Luna, out.

"Mister Lovegood!" He called out, smiling at the man that looked remarkably like Albert Einstein. At least in relation to the hair.

In a move eerily similar to the Thundercats of only moments before, all the reporters' heads turned to look at the young voice who called out for one amongst their ranks, sensing exclusivity in their dark, reporter veins. One, who was hoping to fly into the chamber to watch proceedings in the form of a beetle couldn't help but fly back out as it witnessed a surge in the humans below, leading away from the doors.

"Mister Potter! How did you become Lord Potter?" A random voice called out.

"Did your father really leave you to die and go into hiding for all these years?" Another called out.

"Harry?" A distracted voice from Xenophilius Lovegood asked, knowing the boy best by that name after the dozens of letters his daughter had sent him.

"Mister Potter, do you know who the Founders' heirs are?" Another random voice called out as the reporters surged around him.

Knowing the secret was out and that people would learn soon anyway, Harry decided the Quibbler was about to get its first Harry Potter exclusive. "Of course I do," Harry said, somewhat curious as to how the noise died down to an almost deathly silence. "And I've already promised the Quibbler an exclusive on everything, I'm sorry."

Outraged voices yelled over one another to be heard as they all tried to get him to talk, even as Xenophilius scratched his head in apparent confusion. "I'm sorry, Mister Potter. I seem to have forgotten all about that. Those blasted wrackspurts are everywhere these days."

Harry smiled warmly, happy this man was Luna's father. He didn't think she could have been anything remotely like who she was if it weren't for him. "Well, it's yours if you want it, Mister Lovegood. I figure since you're Luna's father, you get exclusive rights to me whenever you want."

The crowd was nearly becoming violent at the perceived slight upon them by this action. They were beginning to jostle each other and try to get closer, trying to be heard over the others and get the boy was was ignoring them to respond again.

Xenophilius nodded, thinking about how much money the Quibbler would get out of this, even if it _was_ going to be a lot of work. "I think I'd like that. I'm sure Luna would be quite displeased with me if I elected otherwise."

Finally, having had enough of being ignored, the rabble reached its crescendo and someone bumped into Harry hard, nearly knocking him over as the reporters began to get unsettled and riled up from being ignored. Harry wasn't about to accept it.

"**Get back!"** Harry roared, shoving outwards with a visible aura around him, knocking the reporters down and shoving them about a dozen feet outwards from him and Xenophilius. It was suddenly very quiet and Cornelius, who had been at the other end of the hall where he had paused to speak to a secretary to get things moving on finding out about Harry's claims, was goggling even as his secretary began to hyperventilate.

And it wasn't because she was scared.

"What's wrong with you people?" Harry roared, not seeing the beetle peel itself from the ceiling and drunkenly move back and forth in disorientation before making its way into the conference room. "You will give us our personal space or I'll really get pissed off! The next person who tries to knock me over gets a stinging hex in their left arse cheek!"

Never mind he didn't have a wand. The reporters didn't realize and didn't care. They simply got up and rushed away, being suitably cowed by Harry's display. Being so frightened, they wouldn't even notice that he didn't have his wand.

_'A wonderful friend, indeed,'_ Xenophilius thought of his daughter's best friend. _'I wonder if it is too early to start picking out names for my grandchildren.'_

"Sorry about that," Harry said with a blush as he turned back to the older man who was watching him with a curious glint in his eye. "It annoys me when they can't respect people's privacy and try to force me to do things."

_'Yup! Too early.'_ Xenophilius chuckled in good nature. "Not to worry, Harry. Reporters may not like it, but they _can_ be trained. And it seems you've figured out a simple way to teach them."

Harry grinned. "I was wondering if you'd like to talk about stuff after this. I was also hoping to ask if you'd be okay with it if Luna joined Hermione and I at Hogsmeade in the future."

Xenophilius clasped the boy warmly on the shoulder, the dad in him hoping his little girl found happiness by this boy and the reporter in him enjoying a good scoop while the naturist in him was curious about how he'd react in their home. It was too good an opportunity to pass up. Absolutely no part of him disliked this idea. "Why don't you come by my home when you're done? Just floo 'The Rookery' and you'll find me. Now, you should go in. They're about to start things and you need to be in your seat. Yours is top-center. Look for your coat of arms and good luck, Harry."

Harry thanked the goofy-haired man and walked into the chamber, not letting his nervousness show as virtually all parties within the chamber stared at him, most with sneers, many with indifference and some with curiousity while others, like Augusta Longbottom, he just couldn't read.

A few minutes later, everyone was taking their seats and casting curious glances to the seats reserved for the founders when Dumbledore entered, looking straight up to Harry's location and nodding when he saw Harry was there and had made it. After he had taken his own place towards the front and facing everyone, he tapped a gavel lightly. "This meeting of the Wizengamot on November thirteenth of nineteen hundred and ninety-three on our calendar is called to order. Presiding is Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore."

Dumbledore turned to the scribe who was creating a transcript of the day's meeting. "Are all parties present and accounted for?"

"All but the seats of Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. All the other active seats are either already imprisoned or on the run."

"Whoever claimed these seats should be in Azkaban for not appearing," Delores Umbridge stated, standing as she spoke as was custom. "I say our first order of business is to set out a warrant for their arrests."

Feeling the adrenaline coursing through his veins and feeling like he was about to throw up, Harry stood and projected his voice strongly, hoping that would cover for the nervousness he felt. "Actually, I am Lord Harry Potter, and I claimed these seats by virtue of blood."

"Don't lie, boy!" Lucius Malfoy said angrily, but not nearly as viciously as he would have liked. "You may have taken your seat as a Potter, but that doesn't give you the right to claim other seats." If it had, Lucius would have paid an awful lot to have done so.

Harry glared at the blond aristocrat. "You will address me as Lord Potter, Mister Malfoy. Unlike you, I've come by the title without buying it. And I happen to wear the rings to support my claim."

Lucius obviously bristled at being rebuked, and was more than a little shocked the brat had stood his ground and even more so that he actually _did_ claim to hold those seats. Though he would think up a suitable punishment for telling everyone his family had purchased the title.

"Lord Potter," Dumbledore warned carefully, "perhaps you should keep your own advice in mind while dealing with this esteemed body of individuals?"

Harry nodded, looking properly contrite, but still unable to not provide one last jab. "You're right. I apologize for taking myself down to his level of pettiness." Several within the room who would normally laugh with the person who held the most power found themselves unsure of what to do. Potter had a large block of votes behind him, but Lucius, while having far fewer votes, was more likely to pay them a visit in the middle of the night.

So they thought.

"Can you prove you are who you claim to be, _Lord_ Potter?" Umbridge asked, looking as though she expected to be calling for his head very soon.

Rather not liking Umbridge, Harry showed his ring and cycled it between the various coats of arms. "You may freely come and look at my rings if you wish."

Not being willing to leave her place by Cornelius, and possibly thrown out even if she _was_ sitting proxy for a family she was blackmailing, Umbridge merely gnashed her teeth and gave up, letting things continue. There would be a very swift and very extreme search into genealogy lines to disprove the little upstart, and then he would pay.

Up amongst the rafters, a little beetle's eyes sparkled as she got her biggest scoop of her life. _The_ Harry Potter was heir of all of the Founders and Lucius Malfoy had _bought_ his title? Oh yes. She would get properly drunk so she could figure out the best way to write this out and then send it to be published.

xXxXxXx

_'Potter looks down at the pathetically weeping Dark Lord Voldemort, not listening to his pleas for forgiveness! The boy knew he could not show this man mercy as Dumbledore would do or the whole world would soon perish! He squeezed his hand and the massive power he held crushed the Dark Lord to bits and the war was over! Rah!'_

Harry knew he probably shouldn't have been using his legal pad that had been put in all the places where the members of the Wizengamot would sit for doodling. But he had really underestimated just how horribly boring this would be. It would seem Dumbledore wasn't exaggerating nearly as much as Harry thought when he said it was a stuffy room filled with old people.

In light of that fact, he had drawn his defeat over Voldemort seven times now. Each method more different from the last. And best of all, these legal pads were charmed so only the one who sat the seat it was assigned to could really read it. Therefore, all of those who were below Harry who gave mildly concerned looks, or simply looked at him curiously, were wondering who he was taking so many notes on and what that childlike mind was coming up with for alliances and his own agenda.

Harry didn't notice any of that, however, as stick-figure him was crushing stick-figure Voldemort's tackle while stick-figures Hermione and Luna kicked him in the head.

An hour of discussing old topics and other things that Harry really couldn't figure out why they would matter to a government, _'Really, why should it matter if someone is going around buying mass amounts of butterbeer just because he doesn't show his face?'_, another topic came up that caused Harry's furious scribbling to halt.

"Our next order of business is the tax rate from the muggle currency to galleons. It has been proposed an additional one percent be taken on all conversions. The Ministry's coffers have suffered from our spending on tracking Sirius Black and we believe the additional surge in funds would provide us enough to pay our aurors and expedite his arrest," Dumbledore stated, reading from the agenda put through for the day. "Those against this motion may speak now."

Realistically, no one had ever argued against a tax hike on muggleborns before. They have argued against them should they be found too large, but a single percent, at this moment, would raise it to sixteen percent. Dumbledore suspected, as was the norm, to pause only long enough to give someone to the chance to speak before his gavel would hit, but even though he was already swinging away, Harry's voice stopped him.

"I oppose."

Dumbledore whipped the gavel up so quickly, shocked to have had an opposition, that he almost whacked himself in the face. "What?" Not only Dumbledore, but several voices began to mumble, wondering what Potter was playing at.

"It is my understanding that Auror spending is currently frozen. There are no additional funds going into the program to gain new recruits or to spend on overtime. No new supplies are being purchased and the Ministry, from what I've been able to gather, has done nothing significant since Black's escape to warrant additional spending, and certainly not a knut of it went through the Auror department. For that reason, I oppose this tax hike since it appears to be a fraudulent reason that bears scrutiny. If the Aurors are being blamed, but we _know_ they can't be spending the money, then I would suggest finding out where that money has gone, first. If anything were to be done for example, I would suspect that some aurors would have been in Hogsmeade on the school's first weekend there, but there hadn't been a single one. And we already knew he was planning on going that direction because guards from Azkaban had heard him talking about it the day before he escaped."

Shocked faces looked up at the boy who gazed at each one, trying to read faces, though he was failing miserably. For a brief moment, most were only shocked that someone had actually opposed, but others were doubly so when Amelia Bones spoke next.

"I agree with Lord Potter," the strict woman said, actually glad to have this brought up. "As the Head of the DMLE, I can verify that not only has our budget been frozen, but a quarter of our annual funds removed. If any of this money is missing, it is not due to our efforts. We've had to shorten hours to keep our numbers just because we aren't allowed to hire more at a time. However, you make another valid point, Lord Potter. On future Hogsmeade weekends, I will ensure to have a small group of aurors available there during that day, even if I must ask for volunteers since some in the Ministry don't see the safety of the children as paramount." Secretly, she was furious she hadn't come up with the idea. Her niece went on those weekends!

"Thank you, Lady Bones," Harry said with a nod, truly grateful.

"Actually, I think an internal audit could do the entire Ministry some good," Augusta Longbottom stated, watching several faces pale around here, as did Amelia. "I would like to add a Ministry-wide audit to the docket and propose a motion to do just that. In light of our financial troubles, it is obvious we should do so to know where we stand anyway."

"I could get behind that," Harry said with a grin.

"I believe the term you are looking for is 'seconded', Lord Potter," Amelia said with a large smile of her own. "However, I will save you the trouble and do so myself. The house of Bones seconds the motion for a Ministry-wide audit."

Fudge jumped in his seat and squeaked as Dumbledore's gavel hit with a resounding 'clack'.

"Motion is carried. The next item of business is werewolf registration. This proposal would require all werewolves to register themselves and how they would spend their times during the full moon to ensure the safety of others. Is anyone opposed?" Dumbledore looked up to Harry, expecting the boy to oppose and scrunching his brow as he realized Harry was watching attentively and not speaking up against the action. After a moment longer than he would usually wait, expecting Harry to speak up, he snapped the gavel and then asked for those who supported the motion.

"The house of Potter supports the motion," Harry said before Umbridge, who had put the motion through, could, shocking most of those present.

"You what?" Dumbledore asked, being too surprised to keep his usual wits about him in that chamber.

"What?" Harry asked, honestly unsure of why this was so surprising or a bad thing. "Werewolves are normal people most of the time, but when they're transformed, they're dangerous. Even if that's the only time unless they're bad people in general, at which point being a werewolf doesn't matter except that they're stronger and have better senses and greater resistance to magic. Even _I've_ heard of those like Fenrir Greyback. He happily spreads the disease around. Those like him should be registered and probably locked up. But since we can't lump all werewolves in with him, it should be a registration process. At least then we know who _isn't_ doing something horrible."

"Don't you think that view is a little ... harsh, Lord Potter?" Dumbledore asked, plainly terrified that Harry wasn't opposing this. While the argument was sound, it didn't matter. Harry Potter should not be for supporting such actions. It wasn't the kind thing to do.

"I'm not saying we lock them up each full moon," Harry said with a frown. "Though offering to if they have nowhere safe probably wouldn't hurt and probably help more, but if registering means we know who is safe, or if there's a way to track down those who are spreading the disease somehow, then I'm all for it. You didn't say anything about restricting them or subjugating them, so there's nothing like that that you had us vote on without warning, right?"

"Of course not!" Dumbledore said, sounding affronted.

"Then all we're really voting on is basically finding out who is a werewolf and possibly getting some numbers to find out how many there are."

"The house of Malfoy seconds the motion," Lucius said, having already made a deal where he would do so with Umbridge. He wasn't very happy about agreeing with Potter on anything, though.

Dumbledore sighed and cracked his gavel once more. "Motion passed. Onto our next order of business..."

For the rest of the hour the group was coming up with various laws, Harry paid attention and found nothing else to vote on. He either didn't know anything about whatever it was, or got lost in the conversations, not really understanding what they were talking about at all. During those times, he spent thinking about his stolen trove of goodies and began to wonder how much and of what he had obtained.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – Next chapter revolves around the relationship.

(1) – **Status as a lord**. It strikes me that many people will use the title as an honorific, but I wondered, WHY don't we ever see more reality in this title? Thus, I've put in a little history (all true) and given that to Harry, along with any other lord. While many may have purchased titles, some truly do own land and what amounts to 'vassals'.

(2) **Security** – If anyone can think of a better security system, functional by both magical and not, I would like you to offer it. Succeed, and I grant you either any one question answered about this story, regardless of what it is, or a scene within that you request, regardless of the nature of it.

**Ministry for Magic** – This is something I've been kind of curious about. There is one author, in particular (Radaslab,) who gives powerful and extraordinarily detailed histories for the government(s) in his stories. While I appreciate that, I don't care to know all the different people, for the most part, up to present. I chose to go away from government history and more with 'secret society' history. We know of the "Knights Templar", "Free Masons", "Illuminati" and others (yes, I just took the three more currently popular ones.) Heck, even in CANON we have the Order of the Phoenix (ineffective as it was) and the same could be said for Voldemort's Death Eaters and even Grindewald's Knights of Walpurgis. But, why not something similar in the magical world? I do that here. It isn't very detailed in the chapter, but I plan to expound upon it later.

Paladeus


	15. First Domino

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter14** – First Domino

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Suggestive Language, Suggestive Themes/Situations,

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:] - Next chapter already almost complete at 32K words right now.**

Gotta thank KatDemon18 for the Owl Alliance concept and Kitty Foxxe for her idea for a challenge that I'm adding in here (mostly) to touch up the dreary atmosphere a bit since things are about to get very ... proactive. The latter has a Crookshanks challenge on her profile wherein I realized I'm basically ignoring the furball. *Rallies* No more I say! With the whole cat thing I've already got, I'm actually kind of ashamed of myself for forgetting the original. KatDemon18 bounced usable methods for it with me. Awesome mind in that one (she has an answer to this challenge visible from the first chapter, if you're curious, under her previous pen name "KittyDemon18".) I swear, that girl is like my own Hermione. She's brilliant.

**Search for "Legal End" if you do not care to find out about the next paragraph's reasoning.**

**Why the last chapter and this one are so important:** This was asked by many. Remember there is a stagnate growth from just about the Middle Ages, so much of their society shall reflect this. I just want to explain some holes in Canon and explain why things are able to happen in this story as they are since it also explains some of Harry's abilities, legally speaking. If the Ministry is so powerful and able to get away with so much, why not just step in and do more? Why allow so many people to get away with so much and to so many people? Why not just control Harry magically? This first scene is partly to finish that, but also to answer several questions many of you had about how they could pass laws with only two or a few people voting for or against something. This isn't meant to be realistic in our way of thinking. It is meant to explain why the wizarding world is so screwed up.

**Many of you brought up soul magic for the security system. So many, in fact, that I will explain in-story why that is not being accepted (next chapter.) I thank you all for your ideas, though.**

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Fuzzy Wuzzy Protector" by ssjgokillo (H/Hr/L – An entry from one of my own challenges on my forum) – Also, another entry to this challenge has been added at the end of the list on chapter 1 (or by Ruskbyte for those who know him already.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

"_The house of Malfoy seconds the motion," Lucius said, having already made a deal where he would do so with Umbridge. He wasn't very happy about agreeing with Potter on anything, though._

_Dumbledore sighed and cracked his gavel once more. "Motion passed. Onto our next order of business..."_

_For the rest of the hour the group was coming up with various laws, Harry paid attention and found nothing else to vote on. He either didn't know anything about whatever it was, or got lost in the conversations, not really understanding what they were talking about at all. During those times, he spent thinking about his stolen trove of goodies and began to wonder how much and of what he had obtained._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Friday – November 12, 15:40 – Wizengamot Chambers**

When the meeting of the Wizengamot was finally adjourned, Harry had to fight with his instincts to not dance a merry jig. Something that he had already known, but had admittedly forgotten with his time away from Mrs Figg, is that old people loved to talk. That held true in the magical world just as much the muggle. And apparently, the more important you were, at least when in regards to politics, the more you felt that desire to hear your own voice drone on, and on, and on.

He knew it wasn't totally true, at least as far as he could tell. According to Neville, his grandmother was rather powerful politically, and that woman, while she spoke a bit, she didn't go out of her way to do so. Usually, she only spoke up while working with Amelia Bones. He was almost willing to bet that some of what they did in there was choreographed. He had only ever seen the twins work so well in sync together, though much of the school would say the same about him and Hermione. And with Luna in the mix, the phrase 'they fit together pretty well' was becoming more commonplace since she was, as often as not, laying in laps or cuddled up against at least one of them like a human jigsaw puzzle. It had started as a joke, but things have a way of growing life and then off on their own.

That was why they tried to keep shiny things out of the common room or there would be no telling what mischief Luna could get into.

Harry had found himself curious about how two people could pass motions to get laws established or, in the case of his own accidental motion, cause an audit of the entire government. His rings, as it turned out, held the answer. What he had done didn't actually cause the audit to happen. It merely put it on a docket to be brought up in a future meeting. Only things that had been brought up in a previous meeting could be voted on. At least in regards to laws.

There were exceptions, of course. Times of war when a state of emergency had been declared or just simply actions taken during a war could be activated immediately, but that was also a time where all members found themselves forced to show up and when immediate action could save lives. There were no options available to sit a session out during a time of crisis without incurring the wrath of the government as there was during peacetime. Basically, any time the whole Wizengamot met, which could be requested by anyone if they wanted action taken and didn't mind being seen as very rude, thus forcing it to happen, could a law be passed immediately since everyone had to at least be made aware of the laws or amendments to be put through. This was also allowed so long as a majority was sitting so long as enough people voted to allow something assuming everyone else who wasn't there voted against a law's passing. That way, one could still claim it would have passed anyway. But it was only _required_ bi-annually for the entirety of the Wizengamot to meet or once a state of emergency or war had been declared, that all members were to sit and not miss any meetings. And only in the latter two could a law be passed immediately without that majority present. Though they were all required to be there that day, since there was no state of emergency, there was no reason to do more work in the eyes of the government who had awakened and, in a few cases as seen when they arrived, keeping them from going back to bed since one ambitious member still wore his fuzzy house slippers.

In Harry's case, Dumbledore had asked for anyone opposed or for Harry's accidental audit. No one had opposed, since it would be obvious that those who did had something to hide and they would hope other departments were focused first so they could forge some records. That meant that one person was then a majority rule, and a second was then considered the overwhelming majority since it was then double the other side or, since there wasn't a single person refusing, also considered 'unanimous'. And since no one forced the issue, as it was considered very poor etiquette and form to do so, it would be on the docket of the next meeting, where only those who wanted to feel important, or those who had something to hide, would apparently show up. And since they weren't in a time of war, even though everyone was present, since no one requested an immediate action vote, it would be passed to the next meeting so people had the opportunity to vote, or elect not to.

As odd as it seemed, not _everyone_ had to vote on the Wizengamot!

That was the very same reason Harry wasn't forced to either give up his additional seats, without a wife or proxy to sit for him, or get a wife for them if he wanted to keep them. And not a single person in that room was willing to force Harry to become more powerful by ordering he take a wife. At least not until they could figure out a way to get their daughters into those roles, of course. He couldn't use the Founders' seats because to do so would require dissolving them into his own family's collection, but that was not possible because they had always been honorary seats up to this point in time.

When the Ministry was first created, those seats were given in honor of those who would create a single location to train their young in a safe environment and without the need for apprenticeships as had been the case for centuries beforehand. It was a tribute of thanks to those who provided formal, though also standardized, education to everyone instead of a lucky few or the noble elite. But because they were honorary, they were not like those of everyone else who was a normal part of the new organization created at the same time. They could not be dissolved by merging it into a family with rights to claim it either by blood, duel or alliance. That was also why no one had been able to take up Merlin's honorary seat, since no one could successfully claim it. No one had taken them up in fear of assassinations, something Harry already had to face.

Well, assassinations or rape attempts. Harry's progeny would now be worth quite a bit of political power. And not a few plans were currently being made to either acquire those very wealthy genes, or to sell a daughter or two to him.

Daphne Greengrass was about to get a very awkward letter.

As was Susan Bones.

Blaise Zabini didn't would admit to absolutely nothing, even under threats of cruciatus exposure or the awkward pictures Daphne had from first year.

So, in light of all members being present and no one voting against Harry's suggestion, laws were passed that day, but nothing new could be until it was handled at a future meeting a month later where not everyone had to attend. Only those who really cared to vote, or wanted to feel important, would be there. Or those, such as Augusta Longbottom, who wanted to keep an eye on the things that would be set up for a future meeting so she knew nothing was being passed on the sly. Of course, several would also be there to ensure their vote went _against_ the motion.

Via proxy, of course.

Harry now understood how so many laws could be passed by Voldemort in the future and why the wizarding world was so totally screwed up! Unless it was the mandatory meeting, all an evil witch or wizard had to do was control who actually _went_ to the meetings! Want your vote passed to put muggleborns into camps? Why, just stop the others who would oppose you from attending! Want to sneak a law in that favors your family? Do it during a meeting when few people will show up so you've got the best chance!

It actually kind of scared Harry in a way Voldemort never had.

The inherent laziness of the wizarding world had also found its way into their government so anyone with the desire to actually _work_ for what they wanted only had to do a very small amount of that work to succeed. It was only those diligently standing vigil like the Lady Regent Longbottom and Madam Bones who kept things from going to Hell in a hand basket. Without them, Harry had a very good idea of what some of the others would do.

Thankfully, every member received a record of motions to be passed in another meeting, so the obvious couldn't be done in a sneaky way, unless you were subtle and built up your laws and means so all those innocuous little things finally became one large, big problem. It was only for that reason Malfoy Senior found himself making deals with Delores Umbridge, passing her registration laws and the now failed tax increase.

Apparently, somewhere around six hundred years ago, they realized they could make it optional so long as they enforced that rule of not passing laws that weren't brought up in a _previous_ meeting and everyone made aware. That way, in theory, everyone knew what matters were coming up, but didn't have to do anything without wanting to.

[Legal End]

"Lord Potter. I wanted to thank you for pointing out that the Auror department was not responsible for the financial problems of the Ministry," Amelia Bones offered as she got close to Harry, with Augusta Longbottom at her side. "For a long time, we've been the usual ones to blame according to the Minister and any attempts to say otherwise usually fall upon deaf ears."

"Not a problem, Madam Bones. I know Fudge froze your budget a few years ago and didn't think he remembered that," he responded, missing Amelia's quirked eyebrow. Fudge had only frozen their budget a few months ago, to be honest. She was unable to do anything about it, but it had been right after Lucius met with the Minister and Amelia had learned he had some incoming wares from somewhere in China. Recent laws stopped her from checking carefully, but he was obtaining a large number of decorative statues that Amelia would be willing to bet were more than they appeared.

"One of my cousins went into the Auror program, so I got curious and looked up a bit. Perhaps you could tell me who I could contact to get a copy of the transcript for the Black trial? I've looked into it as much as I could from my side and there's a bunch that doesn't add up that I was hoping to puzzle out." He turned to the woman that scared her grandson with a smile, noticing she wasn't fond of being ignored. "Lady Regent Longbottom, correct? Neville's told me a bit about you. 'Stern, but a softy at heart', I think was the phrase."

Harry's grin widened as the woman blushed, even as her face became more McGonagall-like in nature. Hopefully, Neville wouldn't suffer the backlash of that. He hadn't actually said that until their sixth year after he had developed a bit more backbone, but he had apparently always thought it. From a different room, at least.

"I am the Lady Regent, Lord Potter."

"Please, just call me 'Harry'. I don't really care about titles or anything," Harry said, hiding his blush from nervousness. His mind may have been more war-driven, but he still felt a little insignificant around adults that he didn't hate more. "During something like earlier, I can understand it, but I don't really care to be singled out. I would rather just be a normal kid than a lord."

"Then why on earth did you take up your lordship?" Amelia asked, boggled by his decision. "That would appear to do the complete opposite."

Harry looked at the woman with the monocle curiously. "Susan never told you?"

Amelia's eyes narrowed, not being fond of being out of the loop, especially when her niece was involved in any way. "Told me what?"

"I've definitely got to thank her for not talking about me like everyone else," Harry mumbled to himself, just loud enough for the others to hear him without meaning to. "Madam Bones, the relatives I used to live with kept me locked in a cupboard under the stairs until Hogwarts started. That was my bedroom and where my first letter was owled to," Harry said, not really paying attention to the horrified expressions on either woman. "I was worked like a Malfoy house elf, and believe me, I know since I tricked Lucius into freeing his and hired him on for my own home. The only difference is that I didn't use magic and they preferred to beat me rather than make me do it myself. I was fed little and did all the house work."

Amelia tried to speak, but all that came out were garbled words where she couldn't form a coherent sentence. _'This is _Harry Potter_! How on earth was he treated like that!'_

"Now, a bunch of people at school suspected stuff like that, but I never told people about it since Dumbledore was hell-bent on sending me back, so I can understand if you didn't know about that. But if that wasn't enough, each year so far, I've had to go into life-or-death situations. First year, I fought against our DADA teacher who was possessed by the spirit of Voldemort, run from a Cerberus, fought a troll and wound up getting saved by a centaur in the Forbidden Forest during a detention and had to kill the teacher or be killed by him. Last year, I had to talk to the king of acromantula to prove Hagrid was innocent and outrun his thousand hungry spawn and learn some about what Slytherin's monster was before I eventually went down to kill the bastard basilisk and wound up having to do it with a sword because my wand was tricked from me while having to deal with another DADA teacher who seemed far too interested in me and who admitted to being extremely good with memory charms."

Harry pinned the older woman with a strange look. "This year, I've got the man who is supposedly responsible for my parents' deaths, but is my godfather, which means he is magically bound to work for my safety and a hundred or more dementors at the school at any given time, which is, from what I hear, half of Azkaban's numbers which now surround every child in that school. The buggers already came close to me on the train and seem to gravitate towards me. So, I became a lord for the emancipation and so I could use my wand whenever I need to. I'm free of the Dursleys and can now legally defend myself and was able to get an exemption order from Fudge for any of my friends who accept my aegis so they can do the same. I took the title for self-preservation and to protect my friends, not to stand out."

"Why have we never heard of this?" Augusta asked as Amelia was still rather shocked. This was the boy her grandson praised so highly in his letters and wished to emulate? She liked her family _alive_ thank you very much!

Harry shrugged in reply. "After first year, I was dealing with knowing I basically killed Quirrell. All I did was put my hands on him, but whether it was accidental magic or something else, I don't know, he just kind of dissolved and burned. It took me a while to deal with that and I don't tend to talk about it. Second year, same basic thing. I don't like to talk about it. As for why no one else said anything? I don't know that, either. The students at Hogwarts are really very fickle. They'll be on my side one day or against me the next depending on what's going on. When they found out I was a parseltongue, they thought I was evil until Hermione got petrified by the basilisk, then they weren't sure until after I rescued Ginny from the Chamber."

Neither woman really knew how to respond to ... well, any of that, really. It was extraordinarily rare for anyone to face a basilisk and live, much less a child. The rest? Well, it was a bit surreal. The savior of the wizarding world grew up in a highly abusive environment and, each year since returning to their world, has faced peril multiple times.

"Anyway, I was wondering if I could send you both something to be set up at your homes?" Harry hedged, suddenly realizing he would rather have these ladies' permissions before actually sending them anything.

"What exactly would you be sending us?" Augusta inquired, handling the influx of shocking information a little better than the Director of the Magical Law Enforcement. Susan's aunt couldn't, for the life of her, figure out why Susan never felt the need to discuss any of this with her, or even how much she may have known.

"I've become friends with both Neville and Susan," Harry said, trying to explain himself as he went. These women were sharper and with more life experience and he figured coming from a caring friend perspective than a wartime view would help him here. "In the last two years, I've faced either the spirit of Voldemort himself, or a shade he created when he was a teenager that possessed and nearly killed Ginny even though it was in a book. Knowing at least about the first one, I made plans to protect my friends. There's something ... new ... in wizarding travel that one of my companies developed. The security system on it and the way it works is something totally new, but the long and short of it is it's a portal that'll only work for those allowed. I want to give it to you two to set up and give you the codes so you can use it if you're ever in an emergency. Floos can be shut down and apparition and portkeys warded against for most people and very quickly. Call me paranoid, but I'd like my friends to stay as safe as possible."

"Mister Potter, Voldemort is dead," Amelia stated with a frown, not comfortable with the conversation. Maybe the boy really was mad? He _did_ admit to living and growing in an abusive household.

"Would you like my memories or a veritaserum questioning?" Harry asked simply, causing both women to become a bit more cautious at his assured manner.

"Would you be capable of using these portals to travel to our own homes?" Augusta asked.

"Possible, yes," Harry said with a nod. "But only if allowed. The security systems are designed ... well, one person controls who is and isn't allowed through, so I'd need permission, but yes, I could. But so far, this is only meant to be used for an emergency escape, so I'm only giving them to a few people that I trust since everyone would be allowed to come to my home when they want. Neville and Susan are among those few."

Both women found themselves confused and more than a little disturbed by the way this conversation had been going. And to be honest, neither really felt inclined to continue it. "We shall see, Lord Potter," Amelia stated, using Harry's title since she was both worried at his state of mind and planning to make a retreat. "I would like your memories, however, if you know how to give-"

She was cut off as Harry reached into his pocket and, due to leaving his wand at the security desk, wandlessly conjured a glass vial before he stuck his finger to his temple and deposited several memories into it. The first was of the day he got his Hogwarts letter, then Lucius slipping Ginny Voldemort's diary even if he hadn't actually witnessed it going in, he hoped she would be able to spot it in the memory. He was glad he arrived after that event in time and hoped it had happened as he remembered in this time line.

He also added the Malfoy patriarch in the middle of a killing curse after he freed Dobby, just in hopes it could put the man in hot water. Then he withdrew each memory of Voldemort: the Dark Forest in first year, the confrontation at the end of the year and when Quirrell was attempting to jinx his broom, followed by each of Ginny's possessions in second year and the final confrontation with the shade at the end of the year, along with the conversation with Aragog in hopes of getting Hagrid's record cleared. And lastly, he provided his memories of Dobby trying to stop Harry and the dementors getting onto the train.

"Here you go," he told her, wishing he could provide more. He briefly explained what she should expect to find. All his memories related to Voldemort and Lucius, plus one to prove he wasn't lying about his relatives since he thought they looked like he wasn't telling the truth, which he purposefully led them to believe he had misread them. While he hadn't received anything more than a smack to the head during that memory, it was enough to show a common occurrence.

"Er, thank you," Amelia stated, holding the surprisingly bright vial of memories. "Do you always carry a potion's vial in your pockets?"

"I'm on a potion for malnutrition from the apothecary," he told her, not telling her this vial didn't belong to that regimen. "I'm supposed to take it with meals. Plus I ate lunch before coming here."

Amelia nodded as she pocketed her new cargo, curiousity warring within her and making her want to go look them over immediately. However, she still had her reason for approaching him to begin with. "All this aside, I wanted to come over here in the first place to tell you I had received a letter from Susan about the attack on Miss Granger. I wanted to apologize formally for not being able to do anything more than put pressure on Mister Chang to look for a counter-curse."

Harry's mood instantly darkened, his eyes becoming cloudy and the greens looking more sinister, causing both older women to straighten, sensing his magic pulsing. "I've looked into the laws, Madam Bones," Harry stated, his voice level and lower, sounding quite surprising from a thirteen-year old. "She hadn't accepted my aegis yet, so I know I can't officially call a duel of honor against him."

"Lord or no, you are far too young to be fighting people, Mister Potter," Amelia chastised him, sounding more in mother or aunt mode than her legal capacity.

Harry's eyes darted up to meet hers steadily. "I'll remember that the next time something like this happens and hope it isn't Susan laying in the bed."

Amelia stiffened at the unintended threat as her monocle was squeezed in place between her cheek and eyebrow with the narrowing of her eyes. "_Lord_ Potter, if you think I'm going to stand her idly while you threaten-"

"I'm not threatening Susan," Harry stated immediately, looking surprised that's how she took his meaning. "She's a good person and a great friend. However, if you think I'm just going to stand by when someone's being hurt, especially someone important to me, you've got another thing coming. I _have_ killed for my friends and I will do so if it is necessary. In this case, I'm just pissed because all I can do is wait, and it doesn't suit my personality."

For some very strange reason, Amelia found herself soothed by those words. She had absolutely no clue why, but even with his wrathful countenance, she began to trust him. Next to her, Augusta Longbottom was watching her friend and the boy in front of her who was playing as a man carefully, looking for details to share with the other woman later, when she, too, began to feel calmed and soothed by his words. Both women could feel his outrage in the magic that gently washed over them and, somehow, that brought his point home.

In this boy, was a powerful man. A great friend and a warrior. Amelia was quite familiar with those eyes the boy sported. She saw them in some of her best and most trusted aurors. Even Augusta saw her comatose son in them, making both women feel as though they were amongst a friend and ally. So much so, that they welcomed the push of his magic into them, without even realizing it, accepting its soothing commands. Each was feeling the presence of someone from their past that they mourned the loss of, and were willing to accept what they felt if only to remain close to something they had lost long ago. For Amelia, she felt the presence of her long-dead husband and several trusted aurors. For Augusta, the son she mourned for daily. People the two elder women were proud to know and whom they respected. For a moment, these women forgot they were seeing a thirteen-year old boy and felt like they were with someone else, and that feeling stuck, even when they came back to reality.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Amelia apologized. "I understand how you're feeling quite well. It's not a place one enjoys being. What I meant is that he is bound to have a good deal more experience than you and challenging him is not a good idea. Especially since his own daughter was attacked."

"I've been wondering about that," Harry questioned, feeling like he should already know the answer. Like he had heard it just that day. "Why aren't you able to do something about that? About what happened to Hermione or others?"

"It's not a direct part of Ministerial control," Amelia near-snarled. She did _not_ like that. Not when, as Harry insinuated, it could have easily been Susan. "It is virtually untouchable in regards to crimes there unless it's a direct threat to the Ministry or Wizarding Britain unless the Headmaster gives us permission to enter. But his views tend to lead towards him trying to fix everything on his own and doing so keeps anyone from gaining a criminal record, so he hopes to rehabilitate them."

_'Oh yea,'_ Harry thought sheepishly. He _had_ only heard that a few hours ago.

"So, theoretically, if a person were to commit murder of another student, it is outside of the Ministry's jurisdiction?" Harry asked.

"I hope you're asking for the sake of curiousity," Amelia stated, scrutinizing Harry carefully, "and not in reference to something more sinister."

"It's the worst sort of thing I could think up off hand," Harry defended. "But since that is very thing almost happened, and still may if Hermione doesn't keep getting better, I'm curious."

"Then it would depend on who it was," Amelia stated carefully. "Both who committed the crime and who the victim was. For example, if it were against Susan, it could be seen as an attack against the Ministry to get to me but, for the sake of examples, were it Miss Granger, it would be someone with no affiliations to the Ministry and, sadly, of less importance. It would be like the difference between a murder in France to us. If it is someone there, it is sad, but nothing we take note of unless it is one of ours or our diplomats. Dumbledore usually refuses to allow us to come in to do anything as I mentioned. And we could generally do nothing on our own since Hogwarts is run separate from us. It is, for all intents and purposes, its own independent city-state, left over from near its creation."

Harry's face contorted into a silent snarl as he nodded, not liking it, but accepting it as the current way of things. As a general rule, that meant no matter what happened, it fell to the Headmaster to punish those who required it. It was no _wonder_ Snape got away with so much! And Draco! It was suddenly clear why he always went after muggleborn in his verbal assaults, and occasional magical ones, as well, but never anyone of note. _'Not anymore. And never again!'_

"Anyway, Mister Potter, we simply wanted to know if you would appear next month to lend your vote towards your suggested audit," Augusta questioned. She was finding it hard to get a read of this boy. Something within her said to trust him, but he shifted from one strong emotion to another quickly and without apparent reservation. It was almost painful to watch for a woman who did everything conservatively. He just didn't hide his emotions and it made reading what she was seeing more difficult.

"When is it?" Harry asked. "I wouldn't have known about this meeting if it weren't in the paper, and I didn't even know it was mandatory. I was just lucky someone sent me a letter about it and the consequences of not coming or I wouldn't have shown up."

"We meet the second Friday of each month excluding possible equinoxes and important holidays," Augusta stated. "And we don't usually send letters out since it is considered commonplace, though you may not have received your agenda since we only recently learned you took up your seats." She decided not to mention they knew about the Potter seat and should have sent him the agenda for at least that one. It would bear scrutiny, regardless.

"Alright. I'll be there." Harry bade the two older women goodbye and then left the building, heading to a magical post office in Diagon Alley to send off a letter he had written in the last twenty minutes of the meeting before going to Ollivander's to request some special help, then one final stop before heading to Hogwarts.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, As last scene ends**

Severus Snape was many things, and most people would take great joy in telling you exactly which of the worst things they could think of he was for as long as you were willing to listen. He was well aware of this. More than just a few graduates each year would send him howlers and general hate mail once they felt they were safe from him, never considering he was petty enough that he would find them during that same summer and show them his displeasure.

He actually looked forward to those days. He took his time torturing the men or using them as guinea pigs, and kept the women until the end of the summer, where they would be used for his own sick pleasures before being locked in a room in his basement when he left for Hogwarts to die of starvation and dehydration in a room that blocked magic from being used, just in case they somehow tried to use accidental magic to make their suffering stop or look for freedom. Assuming he chose not to use them for potion ingredients, that is. Humans weren't an exclusion to magical supplies, after all. There were just very few potions who used them and every single one was considered dark for their requirements. Of course, most were quite potent, but the research potential was tremendous.

The man had even taken great pride in learning that a person who died in the form of another while under polyjuice would remain that way. Which meant the magic for the transformation was inert, thus allowing the human components to be used like the original's would, like the person's hair. It was very curious to note that the magic of the polyjuice potion didn't wear off, but that a person's magic fought the effects of the potion, meaning those who were magically weaker tended to stay transformed longer. After all, a muggle woman had taken a week using the same dose as a standard witch to revert back to normal.

Snape had realized he was quite disturbed when he dug up Lily Evans and divested her of every hair on her body. Well, to be fair, it was after he was done using her body, finally claiming her in the one way she would never have allowed him if she could say or do otherwise. As a Death Eater, Snape had done far worse than desecrate a corpse. The fact magicals preserved their dead for burial with a stasis charm and runes in the coffins made it much better than it would have otherwise been after the two weeks it took to break the safety wards around the graveyard she was buried in. So, despite that realization, he didn't have any problems with his plans.

Still, all those hairs meant he eventually didn't lose out on anything. And it didn't sometimes take the man too long to make those women believe they were truly Lily Evans, either. He had grown increasingly precise with his methods over the last decade and a half.

In his own way, he was his own dark lord. He had supreme rule over those in his House, or 'domain' as he preferred to think of it. Slytherins knew what to do when he gave them orders, they stepped to the side to allow him clear passage and any of them that were needing better grades in potions knew what nights he entertained his 'guests'. His students knew to fear him, but also respect him. Or else.

Snape knew there was really only one redeemable quality about him. He was mortal. He would eventually die. And he was perfectly happy with that.

But that was why he was working on the most insidious potion he had ever created for his own, personal gain. At least that didn't involve his own gain along with another like Voldemort or Dumbledore. Harry Potter, the brat that he was, had the sheer audacity and _nerve_ to tell him no to his face! He was given detentions and refused to go. He had even brought in other staff to validate his blatant act of stupidity.

Snape was willing to allow him to think he won, for now.

The contents of his cauldron were some of the darkest magics in existence, or would be if anyone had ever known about them before now. But Snape had used his own potions ability to create something completely new and truly horrible. The components were expensive in a way that would have broken most men, who didn't run a black market potions trade or blackmail the right people.

You could get a lot of hairs of influential daughters while forcing them to sleep with you for proper grades, even if they didn't deserve the bad ones to begin with, after all. Toss in a few compulsions to do a single step wrong and there wasn't even proof you lied about the grades and the girls truly believed they deserved them. To be honest, he was quite disappointed he was restricted to his own House females in that regard. He was in a position of power where he had access to them at any time to quell any potential problems and keep an eye on them. He didn't have that luxury with the girls from other Houses, so he could not risk it. Otherwise, Granger would have been taking the brunt of his anger towards Harry. And the youngest Weasley would suffer on behalf of her brothers. Oh, how he wished he wasn't so restricted!

Once the potion was complete, it would be slipped to Harry Bloody Potter and the boy everyone knew now would be a thing of the past within the course of a single lunar cycle. The new Harry would be loyal to Snape, emotionless, feel no pain or pleasure, retain anything he was told or taught and his magical core would never cease growing. Harry Potter would become Snape's weapon to eventually take over the magical world, or he would die while doing so, which Snape would still consider a win.

The best of all, however, was that the conversion would force him to destroy anything and everything he held dear to him, thus breaking all bonds he had to the living world.

Snape smiled down at the boiling cauldron, fantasizing over exactly what would happen and wondering if he could convince the brat to do some truly heinous things to his friends first since Snape knew he would be forced to restrain himself for the foreseeable future and unable once they were dead, excluding the ability to snatch a few hairs and possible dark resurrections to bind a soul to a host body with polyjuice. Granger had always been rather uppity and never seemed to know her place. Lovegood was becoming more of an annoyance the more she spent time with the group, as well. And it was always fun to see the Weasleys suffer. Perhaps it would be easiest just to sic the boy on his entire House?

Almost reverently, Snape stroked the cases that held the hearts of the elder Potters. "One more new moon, and I can add in the necromantic components to bind you to me forever," Snape muttered to himself. "Then your arse is mine, Potter."

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, 16:10**

"Hello Mrs Granger," Harry said as the older woman answered the door.

"Oh! Harry. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" Emma looked about, wondering and hoping Hermione was with him even as she stepped to the side and motioned him in. "Would you like a drink?" She was a bit disappointed to not see Hermione walking through the door with a smile on her face.

"No thank you. I just came by to ask if I could give you something for Christmas so you and Mister Granger could see Hermione," Harry explained. "Someone who works for me invented something that is like a door, but instead of going into another room, it would go from one door to the other, wherever it is. I'm hoping you'll let me give you one so Hermione could come by when she isn't working on school work or, for this Christmas since she is thinking of staying at Hogwarts, you can still have her come by for the day before she comes back."

Emma smiled brightly. "That sounds wonderful! It isn't overly obvious though, is it? I'm still having a tough time figuring out how to make that library for her so she has somewhere to put her magical things without building a new addition to the house. I've been seeing contractors about turning the attic into a usable workspace, but it would require a lot of work, unfortunately."

"No, but I've actually got that covered, to be honest," Harry offered. "I got her a trunk that has something like an apartment in it, including a room for a library. It needs shelves and furniture still, but I got it for her for Christmas during the summer before I learned about this."

"So that's what you were talking about," Emma said with a smile, remembering that morning Hermione had tackled him. "But isn't this a bit much?"

"Nope," Harry said. "The doorway things are basically free since one of my people designed them. I'll put it in another apartment trunk if you want it. That'll keep it hidden so you always have it here. And then with Hermione always having the one I'll give her, you can meet with her any time you want to, or she can come to you. I just thought you might like this for Christmas so Hermione doesn't have to keep choosing between the magical or non-magical worlds and can freely move between both. She could even spend parts of a weekend with you as long as she isn't gone too long. Would you be okay with that?"

"I think we would, yes. Thank you," Emma said warmly. "Would you like to join us for the holiday?" Emma wasn't sure why she chose to offer that all of a sudden like that. She had spoken with Hermione about not coming home during the holiday and, while disappointed, she was willing to allow Hermione her independence. As a mother, she knew it was something everyone needed, but she only wished it hadn't happened so soon. Of course, knowing the boy was an orphan and that he was being so thoughtful probably had the biggest part of her actions. Telling Daniel would certainly be a curious conversation, though. _'Maybe I should do it just to see how he reacts...'_

Certainly it had _nothing_ to do with the idea that she could make this wonderful, thoughtful boy enjoy the holiday in an attempt to play matchmaker for her only daughter. If it weren't for the fact that Emma didn't care for money beyond being comfortable, she would be worried about her own attempts to pair the two off. Thankfully, she really didn't care in the slightest. She had fallen in love with Daniel when he was working two jobs to pay for college and surviving on ramen and bread and the primary reason they went on so many trips was because it made him happy. It was that assuredness that kept Emma from fighting that urge to get her daughter with what was the best boy she had ever heard of, much less met.

"No, thank you though," Harry said with a thankful smile. "I learned from Hermione that Christmas is a time for family. I think I'll go and visit my parents that day." And this time, hopefully Nagini wouldn't be there under disguise. "Anyway, I'll teach her how to use it and you'll get the trunk in a little while. Mind if I use your fireplace to head home?"

"Not at all, go ahead," Emma said, watching Harry leave in contentment, despite his willingness to walk into flames. Apparently, she would be able to see her daughter much more often and that pleased her to no end. Still, she would never quite get used to the kids willingly walking into flames like that.

Meanwhile, Harry stayed at his home long enough to meet with Xenophilius to get written permission for Luna to join them in Hogsmeade, then return and grab his haul of books from the shady shopkeeper, along with the daggers he had obtained, and then wrote a letter before heading back to school. All of that talk with Amelia Bones had made Harry realize something very important, and it was time he took action. Not to mention it was closing in on dinner time.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, 16:30**

Luna dictated everything from Hermione's classes using her own dicta-quote quills and parchment, having freely taken the time to miss her own classes so she could ensure Hermione was fully caught up. Or at least, that she would be able to catch up. She knew that Harry could take notes as well, but Harry was unable to write fast enough to catch every word and question. And he didn't have a dicta-quote quill. Of course, it was also an excuse to stay as close to her remaining healthy friend as possible.

Except for today.

This Friday, Luna was alone in all of their joined classes. All of the students ignored her, save the girls from Hermione's dorm and Neville Longbottom. They stayed relatively close when sharing a class with the Slytherins, which Luna was silently thankful for. The teachers, while docking her a point for each class missed, were under silent orders to speak nothing of her actions. They didn't know why, and Dumbledore didn't explain, though many were under the impression it was because she was Harry's friend.

Snape was the only one that really had any problems with the order, but Flitwick had apparently taken the man aside and out of sight. Once they returned, Snape was rather quiet, but agreed to the order. That was also one of those things the teachers ignored. Flitwick had been acting strangely ever since that Bolt character had attacked his House with warnings that the man hadn't been able to figure out quite yet. Well, other than this whole fiasco with Chang and her groupies. That he had been unable to notice the heavy antagonism between them had made the short man fear for what else he was missing and felt it didn't bode well.

Most people hadn't noticed it before, but after spending time with Harry and Hermione, they realized that Luna Lovegood just hadn't really smiled since Hermione was attacked. Not out of amusement or humor, at least. She smiled for Harry, and only in his presence, but she was as silent as a shadow elsewhere, and if asked a question, she would look at you with dead, empty eyes. She seemed to never blink and every member of the faculty, save Snape, felt guilty for something and were unable to look at her without averting their gaze. It was like they were looking at a beaten puppy that merely looked back, wondering and asking "Why?".

The faculty learned she wouldn't answer a question for them. She didn't speak to anyone unless Harry was around. After the first day, they didn't bother. She would jot down her own theories and ideas on the notes she had for Hermione in case the bushy-haired brunette chose to look into them, but she just didn't speak.

It was truly terrifying what a silent second-year could do when her face showed no emotion, but she could fling hexes that made Malfoy more thankful for the Gryffindor honor guard than Luna was. If he opened his howling yapper, it was going to be to Harry, who wouldn't be so mean. At least _he_ got riled up when he called Granger a mudblood. This girl just attacked him! That wasn't how things worked! Where was the name calling? The angry faces and empty threats?

So, for that day, Luna sat for Hermione's Arithmancy, Transfiguration and Charms classes and was now on her way to eat dinner when she saw Harry walk up to the second floor where the Charms class was ending, on his way up to see Hermione.

She was stuck to his side before she even realized she had crossed the distance between them. "Welcome back," she said quietly. "I have your notes for all your classes."

"You don't have to do that, you know," Harry said, hugging the small frame to him. "You'll get in trouble."

"I may not have to, but it helps me feel a little useful. And I'm only losing a point each class. Not even a single detention." Luna pulled back and stayed rather close, ensuring she could feel the side of his arm on her own as they walked to get their dinner. "Did you just get back?"

"Yes. I was going up to see Hermione before I got my dinner."

"Oh. I'll join you, if you don't mind. Madam Pomfrey still doesn't let us in for long and I didn't want to see her if you couldn't, too." Luna resisted the urge to hug onto Harry as they made their way through the halls and into the medical wing. She had been lonely throughout the day and had grown addicted to positive human contact. The fact that Harry and Hermione both accommodated her only made it all the better. She couldn't believe how bad it was when she knew what she was going without. Somehow, the show of solidarity by some of the other Gryffindors didn't mean nearly as much, though she did very much appreciate it.

"You may have thirty minutes," Madam Pomfrey told the duo as they entered.

"How is she?" Harry asked as he and Luna settled into their chairs on the side of the bed closest to the windows so they could see the doors and the healing matron's office.

"Getting much better, finally," Poppy said with a warm smile. "The spell residue is nearly completely faded and I don't have to keep her in a magically-induced slumber. That will make her progress speed up as well."

"Why can't I just flush Cho's magic out with my own?" Harry asked. "I've been thinking about it and, if I can just override all of Cho's spell-"

"Mister Potter, the reason you cannot is for the same reason that I can't allow you to sit with her as often as you did last year," Pomfrey interrupted him firmly. "Any magic, even ambient magic, keeps the spell residue from fading as quickly. I shouldn't have even used potions to keep her asleep, but we had no other alternative! If you allow your magic to touch the residue, then it will only strengthen it, thus causing Miss Granger further suffering. It would be like trying to wash mud off of you with fecal matter. Not only pointless, but making things worse."

"Then how do you know she's getting better?" Luna asked. "Wouldn't any diagnostic spells do the same?"

"Yes," Pomfrey agreed. "However, they are not invasive, and I only need to read the magic from her body, so it isn't bad and only a little worse than the sleeping potions. Much like five minutes with a visitor, really. But I'm sure she's getting better because her readings are almost clear and she has begun to speak in her sleep now that I am not keeping her asleep magically. Something about a 'knicker launcher' and whatever a ... 'bikini', I think is what she said, is," Poppy said, tripping over the unfamiliar word. "She keeps asking how it looks."

Harry blushed while the younger girl made a mental note to ask Hermione what it was and if she could get one. Harry's reaction would have been funny if she were more inclined to humor at the time.

"Mm, black lace," Hermione mumbled.

Some primal part of Harry, some part of his genetic makeup and an instinct even stronger than self-preservation, screamed at Harry to club the sleeping girl over the head and drag her to his cave to learn something about the intelligent girls that it was trying to tell him.

"She keeps talking about that," Pomfrey said with a frown. "I swear that girl has a fixation on lace and silk. From what I can tell, I believe she wants to be a seamstress. I never would have thought her the type, to be honest."

Harry knew he shouldn't be aware of that, but really didn't mind knowing at the same time. "So, when will she be awake?"

"Now," Hermione mumbled groggily. She had just been having a fantastic dream where Harry had been tied up and he was _finally_ getting him to tell her what he thought of the various undergarments when Luna's voice popped in, along with the girl where Hermione realized they both looked like the versions in Harry's head and wearing something black and with more than just a small amount of lace that Hermione nearly drooled over. They looked nice on the petite blonde, but she was sure they would look better on herself and had been _just about_ to get them from the girl to try on herself when that reality faded and a new one, one where her body ached, replaced it. _'Ugh! Give me back the raunchy knicker dream and tied up Harry! This hurts...'_

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, rushing to the girl's side and barely making enough room for Pomfrey to do her thing. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Harry paused long enough to give Hermione some water, which she drank greedily.

"Like that bloody mountain troll got me," Hermione huffed after a moment, sitting up slowly. "What happened? How long have I been out?" Her body felt far too weak to have simply been an overnight stay. She felt as weak as a kitten and like she had a bottomless hole where her stomach was supposed to be.

"You jumped in front of a spell that Cho was trying to hit me with about a week ago and have been in the hospital wing since then," Luna explained, looking worriedly at Hermione and desperately hoping the older brunette didn't hate her now.

"Oh right," Hermione seethed. "That _bitch_! What happened to her?"

"Miss Granger!" Pomfrey scolded. "While I understand your sentiments, perhaps you could refrain from such foul language before I find myself forced to report it to your head of house?"

"Sorry, Madam Pomfrey," Hermione said, glaring at the girl in question across the room where she saw her laying at. "What happened to her?"

"Someone attacked them right after you were hurt and their minds snapped," Poppy explained. "Now, please answer Mister Potter's question. How are you feeling right now?"

"Pins and needles all over my body, but like it's my muscles and deeper, not my skin like normal," Hermione explained. "It aches, but doesn't really hurt much anymore. But I feel like my stomach is trying to digest itself and my body. I'm really hungry!"

"There isn't much I can do, I'm afraid. Any magical pain relief I could try to give you will only exacerbate the situation and it must finish running its course. But if you promise to come back as soon as you feel any form of increase in pain or if you become tired, I'm willing to allow you to go to the Great Hall for dinner only. You must return right after. You really do need real food in your stomach. It will help in your recovery. Try to stick to beef, sausage, spinach and broccoli tonight. And if we have fried chicken, you may partake of that as well. Your magic will break down everything you eat very quickly to make up for the lack of nutrients this past week, so eat until you feel full, not what you normally would. You will eat at least as much as you've missed as your magic tries to repair everything." She also needed a good idea of what ambient magic would do to her right now and this was easier than casting minor spells around her for a little while.

A growl erupted from Hermione's sunken tummy that sounded more like a dragon's roar.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – November 12, As Harry meets with Luna**

After a solemn talk with his new master, Dobby popped into the Hogwarts kitchens wearing wee fatigues that he had somehow found in his size. Or perhaps some unfortunate recruit was currently scrubbing a bathroom floor with a toothbrush for his missing apparel. The elf was in shiny black combat boots, his pockets were filled with only he knew what, he had a field jacket with the Potter family crest on his left sleeve and five tiny wands on either shoulder in golden buttons and his name proudly stamped over his left breast pocket. He moved with confidence and clean movements as the female elves fell victim to an old axiom.

They _loved_ a man in uniform!

Despite the sudden spike of pheromones in the kitchen, and the fact that most of that night's dinners were going to be presented in suggestive placements on the tables and plates, Dobby went to the center of the room and put his hands behind his back, standing at parade rest since it just seemed appropriate and felt right since donning his new uniform. "I is being Dobby Potter, house elf to the great and powerful Harry Potter. Dobby is being finding sick house elves and is asking that they is being allowed to come here to get better soon."

Many of the house elves' eyes went buggy as this elf took his master's family name as his own and didn't suffer pain because of it. Usually, if a house elf dared to do such a thing, its own magic would cause it to suffer pain greater than any spell the humans could possibly conceive of as their magic ate away at their bodies from inside out. They weren't allowed to have their own family names! Not unless ... they were _adopted_... "Is these elves having no master?" A female elf asked, hoping to draw the uniformed elf's attentions.

"They is having a master," Dobby said with a nod. "But they is being sick and hurt and Master Harry Potter is hoping to help them. I is not being able to explain, but they is needing lots of help soons."

"Is they being free elves?" Another female asked, smoothing out her pillow case robe and trying to look presentable, adding a dash of flour to her cheeks and side of her chin to appear both hard working and cute.

"No. Their master is being ... making them ..." Dobby was unsure of how to explain and disgusted that he had to acknowledge it. "They is being forced to make elf babies without the babies by their master so they is not thinking they can ever leaves." The sudden intake of breath from all of the assembled elves was not unexpected. Ever since their creation, it was found that doing such an act to a house elf was like liquid fire to them. What was more, they weren't the same as humans. When they bonded like that, it was forever. If they hadn't already bonded, then they could never find a mate.

"We is helping them," a male elf finally said. He was Henry, one of the oldest elves in Hogwarts and the head elf, named at a time when names were not the degrading things that many acquired now. "Bring them whenever you is able. We will heal them."

Dobby nodded. "Dobby and Master Harry Potter thanks you. They is being having to go back before students is getting back home." Dobby popped away after obtaining a nod of agreement from Henry.

xXxXxXx

"Why on earth are the chickens packed with so much stuffing?" Ron asked loudly, trying to get the leg off of the bird without the insides trying to come out.

"Does this bread look oddly shaped to you guys?" Dean asked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. The bread was oddly ... masculine. He looked over to his side where Parvati and Lavender were giggling over a design the gravy had ended up in on their potatoes. He couldn't tell what the design was, but all the bowls of mashed potatoes were sculpted to look like tiny ... babies? "What the hell?"

"Honestly! It-"

"-wasn't us!"

Harry, in an outrageously good mood, winked at the twins as they got dragged out by McGonagall by their ears, wondering what prank they were pulling had backfired on them. When he got to the Gryffindor table with the girls, not once removing his arm from Hermione's waist since she was obviously still weakened and sat down, he realized what it was with a shock. "Why the hell is there a sausage stuffed into all of the chickens?"

Luna poked at something in front of her with her fork, causing Harry to look over even as she looked at him curiously. "Why do you think they put a banana and two plums like that in the center of a jello mold?"

Hermione had already piled her plate with three sausages, six chicken legs, two beef steaks and was practically gnawing on the bone of the second chicken leg she had already finished devouring. She was extremely hungry and couldn't care less about presentation. She even had a whole gravy boat by her side that nearly got Ron's hand stabbed when he reached for it. Harry wasn't sure if it was her, or her stomach, that growled. The Thundercats wouldn't come within twenty feet of her the moment they heard the sound.

"Better than the prank they pulled on McGonagall," Neville told them sagely. "She bit into her sausage and a bunch of mozzarella cheese gushed out onto her. Covered her whole face. And I'm happy to see you up and about, Hermione. Harry's been grouchy the whole week."

Harry blinked in confusion as Lavender and Parvati's giggles got louder as they looked around, growing with many of the other girls. Then, Harry realized what was so funny. "Oh, now that's just wrong," he said, looking at all the food that was, in many cases, stuffed with innuendo.

"What is?" Hermione asked around a bite of her sausage link, ignoring Harry's blush since she was more focused on eating than looking around. Neville raised an eyebrow as Hermione acknowledged Harry's voice, but not his own or the two others who said they were glad to see her.

"Somehow, a prank was pulled where all of the food is somehow based with some kind of sexual innuendo," he explained, smirking lightly as Hermione paused for only a moment before continuing to eat as she finally chose to look around. "Sausages are stuffed into chickens, mashed potato sculptures of babies, white gravy in the potatoes that have sausages in them, desserts that look like human anatomy and I'm not sure, but I think there's something weird with all the bread. Lavender and Parvati keep giggling at it."

Having finished her sausages, Hermione glanced over and speared Harry's from his plate. "As long as I get to eat it, I couldn't care less what it looks like. Hand me that stuffed chicken, will you? And pass the baby bowl. Dean, hand me that bread!" Dean, more than happy to get the awkward, phallic-shaped bread away got it to her before Harry could comply and yelped as Hermione ripped the larger end off, whacking it with a knife and smearing butter on it. Dean could honestly say he hadn't seen anything so horrifying from the young brunette before.

Amused, Harry handed her the mashed potato baby and stuffed chicken, watching her devour it all. He and Luna working in tandem to make sure she both got enough to eat, and that there was enough food near her that she wouldn't snatch it from their plates. Ron wasn't so lucky and got a fork in his hand for trying to protect his territory. He did get to keep the fork when Hermione snatched up Harry's and let Harry take the one from the empty seat next to him on the other side.

It hadn't taken long for Ron to realize the faster he ate, the less Hermione could take from him. She still had perfect manners, though. Well, at least if you didn't count using cutlery as weapons.

xXxXxXx

"You saw it as well, correct, brother mine?" Fred asked as he and George scrubbed the floors of the Great Hall once everyone was done for the night. It had apparently been close, but Harry had managed to lure Hermione away from the tables, being the last there, by pointing out he had stuffed his pocket with rolls. The bushy-haired one wasn't ready to leave the tables even though she was beginning to fall asleep with a full tummy and a desperate desire to sleep warring with her need to continue eating, eventually letting Harry carry her after deciding he could get her all the way to the infirmary without having to cast magic on her to make her lighter. She gnawed on a roll the whole way as she slept in his arms.

Luna thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.

"Indeed I did," George responded, trying to get the potatoes from the floor from where his youngest brother had made a rather large mess. A lap was certainly not the best place to squirrel his food away from the ravenous Miss Granger. She didn't dare go near his lap, but he dropped half of his food on the ground. At least he ate most of it, still. "Mister Potter winked at us, once again. You realize what it means?"

"I do believe it means war," Fred agreed. "We didn't even get a chance to respond back in kind yet, and he goes and pulls another prank upon us."

"No sense of decency," George agreed. "Hogging up all the time and pranks himself. You'd think he'd allow us a turn before going off on his own again."

"Still, it does show he truly is the son of Prongs. No mercy in that one. None at all. His Marauder soul is as black as night, it is."

"Indeed it does, Fred. And indeed it is. But we can't let such a travesty of justice go."

"Perish the thought!" Fred exclaimed dramatically, slapping his soaping brush against his chest with a wet 'flop'. "How long until the potions are finished?"

"Three days, but I think we should save them for a much larger more wide-spread affect."

"Do tell," Fred whispered conspiratorially.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 13, Morning**

The next day, most of the school was sleeping in as was the norm for Saturday. The sun wasn't shining, the grass wasn't green, and McGonagall was still hung over from the night before with Professor Sprout.

Mostly a normal Saturday.

Most days will start off normal. A person usually wakes up and goes about their morning routine. They wake up, relieve their bladders, maybe brush their teeth if not purely raised in the wizarding world and they always make sure they're clothed before opening their bed curtains to go take a shower due to a lifetime of insecurity.

And sometimes they don't start off so normal.

Sometimes, you get a cuddly, snuggly blonde sleeping partner in your bed, keeping you from getting up because she lays over top of you and actually growls in her sleep when you try to get out from under her because you're warmer than the bed and you can only hope she wakes up before you end up getting embarrassed for one reason or another.

Sometimes you wake up with a large pile of dinner rolls under your arms in the hospital wing after a week of not eating and don't want to even _begin_ to consider what happened to the butter you remember putting in your pockets or why you expected to not be alone in the bed and what happened to your best friend. Along with the butter again and if the two were somehow related, hoping not because you prefer the idea of chocolate, not that you'd ever tell your parents.

_Some_times, you also find yourself being approached by tiny cat fur people who all seem to have brought offerings of bacon.

Some days were just simply better than others.

"Great winged warrior," Twinkle began, motioning his people forward and depositing bacon to the one who had obviously become the Alpha of the owlry. "Our master is your wizard. Yesterday, we saw your magnificent skill at nearly capturing our elusive prey. We wish to speak with you for an agreement in hunting."

The other owls looked to Hedwig pleadingly, each and every one of them wishing to try this wonder that was bacon she had so often praised about. Her wizard was the only one to have ever offered her any, as he was apparently the only one who truly cared for his feathered familiar, and they all wished to partake. Still, not a single one was stupid enough to attempt to steal a piece if she claimed it all for her own.

A familiar's intelligence, power, strength and basically everything about them was augmented by the bond they shared with their wizard or witch. In many ways, it was the same as it was with House Elves. The stronger the magic in the human, the more pronounced and powerful the familiar became, on top of their usual. Add in a portion of mental aptitude from the human to familiar, and you would find their intelligence was directly proportional to the strength of the mind of their human.

To be honest, some of the familiars couldn't figure out why Crookshanks hadn't already begun reading books and discussing philosophy with the humans.

Of course, it wasn't purely intelligence that did it, but the strength of the human's mind and their Willpower. Harry's Will was stronger than anyone else's in Hogwarts. He had been put into a situation to grow up in that many would have broken in. The fact that he had a sense of self and self-desire at all really set him apart after that. The fact he didn't turn out evil just so he wasn't like the Dursleys also showed that iron-like Will. It would have been _easy_ to dominate and enslave, becoming worse than they were. Had he wanted it, his magic would have enforced it, much like it had with another boy in a similar situation that was now his nemesis. And he just simply wouldn't break.

It was for these reasons that Hedwig was easily able to dominate and cow the other owls in the owlry. And all the other familiars were prey to an owl, so they were more than happy to obey and live than not and get eaten.

Hedwig's human wouldn't feel bad for what he didn't know, after all. So it was only prudent to obey.

In a way that all animals could communicate, they began their discussions. "Your gifts please me, Twinkle," Hedwig's low, alluring voice spoke. Had she been human, men would have believed that at least that much of her was Veela in nature. "I am aware you are my Human's creation. I watched him plan your design and saw him create your first forms. He needed something silent and stealthy, possibly dangerous and with decent reflexes."

"My Lady," a male asked, the Alpha male, though not nearly good enough for Hedwig, who denied his repeated attempts at courtship.

"Split it evenly amongst our people," Hedwig stated. "I shall take only one piece as acceptance of our talks. What did you wish to discuss, Twinkle?"

"Our purpose is to be scouts and informants for Master Harry," Twinkle explained. "We are to observe as much as possible and relay anything important to him. However, our abilities are limited. Mostly, we watch the inside of the place of learning, but our duty is also to ensure we keep watch outside in case someone risks trouble with the wraiths or the dog-man approaches, as we are to help him."

Hedwig turned her head to look behind her, taking in the vast space and the small amount of ice that had formed in the last few weeks. Then she turned back to Twinkle, who simply watched her. "You wish for us to watch outside for you," she said more than asked.

"Hold on, right meow," a new voice stated, coming out from the shadows. His gangly, rusty fur was mussed as if he had just gotten out of a fight, but was simply the usual for him. His legs were bowed, looking a little awkward, but ultimately giving him greater balance and more power. His squashed face looked smug and proud, and definitely like he knew a secret the others didn't.

He was a smug little bastard. Most of the familiars would agree to that.

"Crookshanks," Hedwig glared at the ball of fluff. "Perhaps you could explain what you are doing in _my_ domain? Or why our discussions are any concern of yours?"

The damn feline began purring. "Meow here I was, thinking you'd like to meet me again and chat a little," Crookshanks teased, licking his paw and bathing his head in a manner that suggested he was wholly unconcerned. "Your Human, according to mine, is the one who pressed her into getting a cat, you know. And the way she speaks, she wishes to mate with him. And he's certainly been sniffing around her, so we may be seeing much more of each other soon. Even though we don't see each other much right meow, we're bound to be family soon once they pursue and mark each other. Is that any way to talk to your new brother?"

"Speak," Hedwig actually hissed, coming out human. Crookshanks noted the other owls settle themselves for an attack and knew that, even though he'd escape, and probably eat well, there were too many of the tasty morsels. He felt cats were better, of course, but birds had their uses. Usually as a rotisserie, and he rather enjoyed them with a little lemon, but still. At the same time, however, he knew his Human would never forgive him, and somehow, she'd find out. That girl seemed to find out everything.

"Our Humans are in danger," Crookshanks stated, getting Hedwig's attention. "I don't mean the entire school, at least not right meow. But our Humans, yours and mine. I am here for my Human. And since she seems to desire mating with yours, it seems only logical to work together right meow and come to a full agreement."

"Of course your Human wishes to mate with mine," Hedwig said as if the cat were as crazy as most appeared. "My Human is the most powerful within this place of learning and has chosen yours as well."

"Yes, but your Human is such a _scrawny_ thing," Crookshanks growled lightly, speaking in tones one could almost see a neighborhood gossip using.

Crookshanks blinked as the large number of Thundercats around him hissed. "That is our master you speak poorly of," Twinkle growled, his fur standing up and his ears leaning back as he proudly showed off strong fangs.

"But it is still true," Crookshanks said, unconcerned. His fangs were bigger. "But we are getting off track right meow. I wish to speak of the rat that is not."

"Not what?" Hedwig and Twinkle asked as one.

"A rat," Crookshanks stated, wondering what was wrong with these creatures. "He looks like a rat, and smells like one, but he is not a rat. He is like the woman who had the intelligence to take the form of a cat, but she is still not a cat."

Hedwig hissed, ruffling her feathers in anger. "The rat is Peter Pettigrew! My Human spoke of him often this summer. He is the one who betrayed my Human and allowed his family to die!"

"And this is the same rat we've been chasing that has escaped?" Twinkle asked. "Pitter-Patter!"

"Yes, Twinkle?" The bushy-furred Thundercat asked as she stepped over to him.

"Do you remember what the rat looks like? I would like to distribute a copy to all of our people and the owls. This is one of the ones Master asked us to watch for, but was unable to describe well enough to compare to the normal rats in the school."

Pitter-Patter nodded her head, nibbling on her lower lip as her ears twitched rhythmically, showing intense concentration and visual thinking. "It will take me a little time, but yes. I may require help in making copies, however. I'll get right on it." She disappeared suddenly, making the owls somewhat curious and Crookshanks to give a kitty-frown. He hadn't tried to catch them, but he wanted to. Especially when they moved like that. It would be more fun than chasing those invisible creatures, anyway. And the other familiars wouldn't look at him funny anymore.

"What did you desire of your alliance, Twinkle?" Hedwig asked, feeling the rat was dealt with for now.

"We would request two things of the owls," Twinkle began, glad to be back to the reason they came. "The first is, as you mentioned, aerial surveillance. The other is part of Master's orders that we are to protect students except those on his black list and since we are now allowed to attack in order to protect ..."

"Yes?" Hedwig asked, curious.

"You know how you're always carrying letters and such around?" Twinkle asked, trying not to show his enthusiasm.

One hour later, the deal had been struck, but not everyone was happy about it.

"Hiss! Pfft! Rewowr! Pfft! Pfft!"

"Ow! Ouch! Oh please no... YOUCH! That belongs attached!"

"It won't hurt for long!" Pitter-Patter growled, swiping at Twinkle's midsection and attempting to maul him. It had been going on for the last ten minutes and the leader of the Thundercats was currently missing fur in several patches around his body, his clothing was shredded to such a degree that he'd be just as covered without them and his tail had three massive bite marks.

"You know we need to be able to get into the air if we have to protect the students!" Twinkle screeched, hopping over Pitter-Patter's lunge and scurrying away. "You're the one who suggested it!"

"I _also_ told you I wasn't going up there!" Pitter-Patter growled, her ears laying back as she spit out another tuft of fur she had managed to get that Twinkle hadn't noticed. "You _tied_ me to the damn harness!"

"_You_ said that everyone had to get used to flying in case we were ever needed for support! 'No matter what', you said!" Twinkle tried to get some of the others in between himself and the furious kitten in front of him, and not a single one of his subordinates would allow it. _'Loyalty my tail!'_

The deal had been simple. The owls would keep an eye out for students out when they shouldn't be that could risk the attentions of the cold wraiths. They would do their best to keep someone informed, usually through the rotating guard that the Thundercats would leave in the owlry who could get where they needed to go faster than the owls could. They would also keep an eye out for this rat, Peter, since he was such a danger to not only the combined leaders' Humans, but to their own Humans as well, for all the other familiars and owls.

The reason Twinkle was currently getting mauled, however, was because the Thundercats would be spending time on the owls with riding harnesses in case they were ever needed from the air, or in case a Thundercat had to get delivered somewhere that their incredible speed couldn't take them.

Like anywhere other than Hogwarts. They didn't know anywhere else. The owls, however, could find anyone, and relatively quickly.

However, another curiously shared trait in Pitter-Patter as with Twinkle's master's mate was something of a problem with flying. Well, she was okay with the flying. It was the falling she had a problem with, along with seeing the ground, not having a seat belt, or being in a cabin, the height, the lack of control, riding on the back of a carnivorous predator that routinely went after things her size ... Being tied up probably hadn't helped, either. Nor the fact that they wouldn't allow her to make a quick parachute.

Of course, the owl had only hopped from one owl perch to another since the female Thundercat was so obviously against flying. No one was sure where she learned the languages, but she cursed them, their ancestors and their descendants in at least three languages in between the hissing and growling.

"Alright, meow," Crookshanks interrupted, moments before Pitter-Patter got Twinkle's throat and after the amusement had gone on long enough. No cat deserved to be fully hairless, after all. He still flinched when he considered sphynx cats(1). Poor critters. "Enough of this fighting. We have our dignity, right?"

The assembled Thundercats, most of which had been betting on the outcome, grumbled their agreements.

"Good," Crookshanks said with a nod of his furry mug. "Meow breakfast should be starting soon. It's time to beg for table scraps."

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 13, 10:00 – During last scene**

"Hermione, I brought your homework!" Luna greeted the next morning. It was a Saturday, but she had awakened at the same time Harry did due to him bouncing or shaking underneath of her. She had at first thought he was taking care of his hormonal needs, but realized it was only his legs. Rather than feigning sleep, she looked at him groggily in question and he practically begged her for forgiveness as he rolled over quickly, pinning her beneath him, much to her shock, and then rushed to the loo where she counted for nearly a minute and a half as she listened to water drain over Ronald's painful-sounding snoring. Rather impressed, she decided to remain awake and join him for breakfast before going to Hermione. She wondered why he mumbled something about it being special as he walked back from the loo, though.

She didn't know he had been awake nearly twenty minutes longer than she had or that she had been resting on his bladder.

"Oh thank you!" Hermione cried out gleefully. "I'm not allowed to leave yet and I was getting bored. Madam Pomfrey is great for conversation, but that only lasted for a half hour before she had to get back to checking her potion stocks and her regular work."

Luna handed Hermione her satchel and took her own while levitating a table over for them. "I understand. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Yes. That's when Madam Pomfrey and I chatted," Hermione said, raising an eyebrow at the notes she found. "Who took these notes?"

"I did," Luna admitted. "Harry was quite diligent about taking his own, but he was focused more on application rather than theory and only really kept track of things he wanted to delve deeper into. His own dicta-quill had apparently gone missing at some point, and he also can't write fast enough to keep up with speech, so I used my own dicta-quill for all of your classes while writing my own notes in the sides or a separate parchment with number tags to identify them."

Hermione's eyes boggled. "I love Ravenclaw note-taking," Hermione stated, almost rapturously. Seeing the efficiency, order and thoroughness in front of her gave her a curious tingling feeling she had learned to associate with Harry in the past few months. "Er, thank you. But, how did you get notes for my classes? What about your own?"

"I am well ahead of all of my classes," Luna said, blushing lightly and looking away from Hermione. She didn't feel as though she had done anything wrong, but somehow, admitting the extent of what she _had_ done seemed to embarrass her for some reason. "Harry said you were a bit ahead in your own classes, as well, and not to worry about Care of Magical Creatures, Divination or Muggle Studies because notes there wouldn't be a big deal due to the subjects, which I felt inclined to agree with."

"You ... attended my classes for me?" Hermione asked, finding that somehow endearing. But at the same time... "But, what about yours? Wouldn't you get in trouble?"

"Merely a point for each class missed," Luna stated. "I have earned enough so as to still be ahead for my House."

Hermione looked at the numerous and detailed notes in front of her, feeling a great sense of gratitude for the blonde. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Shall we?" Luna asked, feeling slightly uncomfortable that Hermione was putting her concern for Luna before anything else in their conversation. She appreciated it, and rather enjoyed it, but didn't feel she was worth the effort or care. Not when Hermione had her homework in front of her to work on.

Hermione started on her Arithmancy work, having been most behind on that than anything else when she went to the hospital wing, but every few minutes, she would glance up, or rather glare lightly, at Cho and her two cohorts. She still found it hard to believe that Cho Chang would go to such lengths to hurt Luna. Or that _anyone_ would, really. She was such a wonderful girl and a great person. A trifle odd, sure, but endearing for the same reasons.

However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she wasn't actually sure what had really happened after she was hit. Nothing other than the quick blurb she heard the night before, which she wasn't exactly focused on.

"Luna," Hermione finally asked after nearly an hour.

"Hm?"

"Harry didn't do that to Cho and the others, did he?" Hermione asked, looking carefully at the blonde girl. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that, even with his newfound ... well, everything, this wasn't Harry's style. She wasn't sure _how_ she knew that, or what that style was, but she was sure this wasn't it. For some reason, everyone found their predicament 'strange' or 'off', according to Madam Pomfrey when the medi-witch had fed Hermione her breakfast and sat to talk. That seemed uniquely 'Luna', to Hermione.

Luna's quill had stopped moving, but the girl hadn't looked up or spoken since Hermione stated, more than asked, her question. For nearly three minutes, she sat statue-still under the older girl's gaze until finally... "They hurt you," Luna whispered, a shiny tear dropping from her chin and onto her parchment. "They came for me, to hurt me, but they hurt _you_."

"Luna..." Hermione wasn't sure how to respond to this. Still, she didn't dare look somewhere other than the top of Luna's bowed head until the blonde girl finally looked up, making Hermione's eyes widen fractionally as she noticed the silvery-gray had changed to a darker blue and tears were welling, making Hermione's heart clench in pain for her friend.

"Hermione, Cho said you were probably going to _die_!" Luna said quietly, harshly, trying not to cry. "You almost _did_! You screamed so loud and your body went stiff..."

Hermione knew how much the spell had hurt. She still felt phantom pains when she remembered that event. Still, she hadn't realized how bad it may have been just to _witness_ her reaction. Hermione didn't even know when she had moved, or that she had, until she realized both Luna and herself were trying to hug the stuffing out of one another and Luna's tears had come quickly enough to feel through her hospital robe. Hermione could feel her own running down her cheeks, though she couldn't tell you exactly what was making her cry like this. Whether it was remembering her own pain, or realizing how close she had come to death once again, or for her best female friend whose pain was easily seen. Luna was such an expressive girl that you could almost tell that she had nearly broken that night. "Shh," Hermione cooed into Luna, rocking back and forth with an instinct borne into women, passed down from mother to daughter.

Having been expecting something like this from Hermione, Poppy was waiting in her office with a listening stone, feeling remorse that magic could be so beautiful, but still do so many horrible things. Any time a student had such a horrific event, she used these stones to ensure that, when they inevitably broke down, she could be there to comfort them in their grief once the near-death experience sunk in, and offer the calming draught to help them past it. In all her years, however, Hermione and Harry had been the first two to have such events occur and not break down, but she always stood vigilant. Always ready to be there, just in case. However, with the Lovegood girl there, she chose to wait, instead. It was always best to get past grief naturally, and she was hoping to find out exactly what happened to the three hellions who were comatose. Not because she wanted to turn anyone in, not this time, but because she _did_ take an oath regarding her patients.

"Hermione, you were screaming so _loudly_," Luna finally said through a sob. "Madam Pomfrey was worried you wouldn't make it and I couldn't _do_ anything."

Hermione ran her fingers through Luna's silky tresses, her eyes closed and mentally trying to draw Luna's pain and sorrow into herself, wishing she could take it away from her. After a few minutes, Hermione felt Luna's crying had subsided enough to ask her to continue. "What happened?" She asked gently.

"I...," Luna hiccuped, "I was trying to scare them to death," she whispered.

Hermione's hands froze for just a moment, long enough to instill a sudden fear into Luna, before they began stroking her gently again, while her other arm chose to hold her tighter. "What?"

"They wanted to kill _me_, Hermione," Luna began to sob again, not caring in the slightest about what had been planned for her, but how it went wrong and her friend suffered. "But they got you instead! After I brought you to Madam Pomfrey, I ran to them..." She trailed off, beginning to shake, not wanting one of her only two friends to hate her or be scared of her. She knew she would lose Hermione, but she also refused to lie to her. She would _never_ betray her friends' trust in her! Even ... even if it meant she would lose them. She would be a true friend to the end. Whatever that end was.

"And?" Hermione asked, not sensing the full impact of what the story was doing to Luna.

"I cast an illusion," Luna admitted softly. "My mother was a master of them. She would use them to teach me before she died. I learned and used one on them. Their minds broke, if Madam Pomfrey is right. I gave them each a kick for what they did to me, too, after I did that for what they did to you."

Hermione couldn't understand the complexity of the feelings she had as she realized Luna would only kick these girls for her own treatment, but would nearly kill them, attempt to even, for what they did to her. She could feel sadness that Luna felt she was worth such little retribution, and sorrow that she held her friends in such a higher esteem as to go so far for them. Pride, somehow, was there for standing up to her tormentors at _all_, even if it _was_ something so horrible to bring it about.

Luna shivered, dreading her answer. "Do ... Do you hate me now?" She asked in a tiny voice, one that sounded as vulnerable and scared as she actually was.

"No Luna," Hermione said immediately, her heart breaking for her friend. "I could never hate you."

Luna was relieved and more than a touch confused. After an immediate hug of gratitude, she pulled back, unable to relish in that feeling as confusion won out over it. "But, but they almost killed you because of me! Why wouldn't-"

"It _wasn't_ because of you!" Hermione hissed. "It was because of _them_. They chose to do that to you and _I chose_ to jump in front of the curse. You are _totally_ blameless." Mentally, Hermione couldn't help but wonder, _'what is it with Luna and Harry? Do they really think everything bad that happens is their fault?'_

Luna's tears grew stronger, but were finally of joy and acceptance rather than fear and shame. She squeezed Hermione hard before pulling back and darting forward to kiss her on the lips, only to hug her again, tight enough to make Hermione's eyes cross. "Thank you!" She chanted in a whispered frenzy.

Ignoring the fact that she just had her first kiss, and by a girl to boot, Hermione held Luna for a near half hour as the blonde came down from her emotional roller coaster and leveled out. "Why did you do something so serious, though?" Hermione asked. "We could have turned them in and just gotten them expelled, I'm sure."

"They had just hurt you," Luna said with a shrug, unwilling to leave Hermione's warm hug. Since it was a place she was comfortable in, and Hermione was used to, neither felt too inclined to expend the energy required to move. "All I could think of was making them pay for it. If it had been me they hit, I wouldn't have cared nearly as much, but once they hit you, they couldn't be allowed to continue. And I was worried about what would happen to them if Harry got to them first, although only peripherally."

Hermione felt Luna sigh deeply as she tried to cuddle further into the older girl. She valued other people's privacy enough to have not asked many probing questions about Luna's history in Hogwarts. What she had asked, along with Luna's answers, were enough to know that the things Harry had saved her from that year, or that Hermione herself and noticed, was the norm. It was an almost daily occurrence that she would be pranked somehow, and often in a painful way. She had never introduced them to a single person and claimed them to have been a friend, nor had anyone approached them, and she had never once spent time with someone other than herself and Harry while not in classes.

Basically, Luna had been lonelier and had a much rougher time than Hermione had before Halloween of her first year. And while not exactly as bad as a troll, bad things like that followed her like the plague in the form of the cruel pranks pulled on her.

All of Hermione's observations and thoughts about her best female friend solidified in that moment of quiet companionship. Luna Lovegood desperately clung to her and Harry because they were her only respite. The only good in her life while there at school. All of the cuddles, the hugs and bright smiles of surprise when invited to join them, all of the freezing up and flinching in the beginning, much like Harry had in first year, had all been because of her Hogwarts years and undesired solitude. She wanted to belong, quite desperately, but she saw things in a different way than most anyone else. She spoke about things that the general public didn't like, so they ostracized her, not letting her in. Both worlds disliked anything different, especially that which they didn't understand. And Luna always had a habit of discussing fantastic creatures or strange theories from her father's newspaper. Hermione noticed she toned it down now, but she still liked to talk about them. She just wouldn't blame them for everything now.

Hermione knew enough to know that her pre-Hogwarts life was similar, though it was almost strictly the Weasleys that had been those on the inside, keeping her out. Ginny had been something of a friend, but that had ended fairly early, apparently. Other than that, she was alone ever since her mother died.

It suddenly made a _lot_ of sense to Hermione. Luna had been starved for affection, _true_ affection, and Harry had offered it, bringing Hermione along with him. If the reaction of the Weasleys at the beginning had been any indication, they hadn't been nice to her, Ron especially.

Hermione saw herself.

It was an epiphany that sent a shiver down Hermione's spine as she realized she was, quite literally, looking at an emotional version of herself. Until Harry and Ron befriended her that Halloween, she saw herself, exactly as Luna was right then. Pranks from the twins and a few others, nasty names, no one being nice to her unless they were asking help with homework and a burning loneliness every single night, wishing for one person to say 'hi' and smile at her and mean it. It took two months for her, but had taken two _years_ for Luna, just in Hogwarts alone.

When Harry had first been in trouble after coming to her, befriending her, she had set a professor on fire! Luna, when Hermione had been in trouble, cast an illusion. Not quite the same thing, and certainly with different results, but still...

Hermione had, to herself on many occasions, stated she would do anything for Harry Potter. No matter what it was, she would always help him, even if it meant missing her last year of Hogwarts and going off to who-knows-where, she was, and would be, there for him. Why should she begrudge the same from Luna Lovegood?

Hermione frowned, trying to understand part of her sudden epiphany, feeling like there was something lost that helped her, but didn't make sense, but the feeling was fading as quickly as it came, which was bad in the case of a sudden epiphany. Deciding to shelve the thought for later, Hermione leaned down and hugged Luna hard, even using her head to apply the hug from as many angles as possible to get her point across. Hermione accepted her. They were still friends. Luna didn't have to worry.

"Do you know of any way to heal them?" Hermione asked, feeling a little vindictive and not having anywhere to vent that. "If their minds are broken, then they don't really suffer any real punishment."

Luna shrugged. "A mind healer is all I can think of. What I did wasn't meant to break their minds. They did that themselves for escape, so there isn't a counter spell, just as Cho's family claimed there wasn't a counter spell for their's. I didn't really care, to be honest."

Hermione kissed Luna's head, smiling lightly. "Thank you for telling me the truth."

"You're my friend, Hermione," Luna said as if Hermione were crazy for ever doubting that. "You and Harry both. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for the two of you."

"Or we, you," Hermione said as Luna retook her seat, her cheeks pink, so they could get back to work. After a moment, Hermione double-checked her notes. "You said Harry told you not to get Care, Muggle Studies and Divination?"

"Yes, why?"

"Just being sure so I knew not to look for them," she explained. Hermione just confirmed that Harry knew she was taking classes that overlapped each other and hadn't asked about that little problem even once, nor had he tried to follow her that she was aware of. She could, however, remember talking during the summer in his library just before Fawkes showed up that she confirmed that was her plan. But the question then became, why didn't Harry question it?

The girls worked on their homework, feeling much more at peace with things and each other, until lunch, where Hermione was allowed out for no more than two hours. However, after an hour at the table, Harry hadn't shown up, so they chose to go looking for him.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 13, A place that doesn't exist during a time that never happened**

Alastair, Mad-Eye, Moody sighed, though it sounded more like a growl, as he looked at the paper on his kitchen table. He sipped his pain-relieving potion from his hip flask and burped before taking his eyes away from it and looking around his home.

Well, it was actually a bunker, underground and fortified with every spell, enchantment, ward and trap he knew how to make, along with dozens of fake ones that looked damned impressive, but didn't actually do anything. It was always best to let your enemies piss in fear, after all. And if that was from the disturbing number of protections, or the lethality of them, then all the better.

He had supplies to last the rest of his life here, even if he never left his home again. Food under stasis, books to help his paranoia by teaching him more defenses and ways to kill, and even a top-of-the-line doll for when he _really_ needed companionship.

You couldn't trust humans, after all. They thought for themselves.

Throughout much of Moody's life, he had survived because he put his trust into others only after a long time knowing them and after they've fought beside him, killed beside him and in one case, woke up naked beside him.

Well, actually, he killed that blighter. One of those, 'if you woke up next to a man and killed all the witnesses, did it really happen?' scenarios. Moody believed 'not'. It most certainly did _not_ happen. It hadn't been an ally, just a prisoner where the intimidation went way off track when the man didn't believe the Light side would do whatever it took to get information out of him. He was wrong and he sang like a canary.

You do what you have to in order to win a war.

Moody was a man of few trusts. That trust had been betrayed far too often, and more often than not, by willful selection. Not the Imperius, not blackmail. But because humans were too damn weak and wanted too damn much. He retired twelve years ago and was happy with it.

But then again, he _was_ lonely.

It wasn't anything perverted. The man had outgrown such base needs. In the past, Moody could spend a month not saying a word to anyone and not socializing when he was on the surface, and he was perfectly fine with that. A month under the surface, though, and he got antsy. It wasn't that he wanted friendship or anything. He just couldn't really stand the silence and lack of movement. It reminded him too much of the 'calm before the storm'. Even though it pained him, he had to get up, move around, and see something else moving before he could feel at ease enough to sit and do whatever it was that had caught his fancy. Otherwise, he would see things moving when they weren't or, knowing how much magic was around him, it actually did move, which put him into a state of paranoia for a few days. It was rare, but all of those wards weren't like windows, but were like bubbles and slightly fluid and shifting, so when they touched, the air would waver to his eye and he just couldn't ignore the possibilities and had to check his entire bunker for signs of foul play.

Moody glanced back at the letter on his table.

_Hello Moody,_

_My name is Harry Potter. I know you're probably curious about what a kid like me could want to send you a letter for, so I'll get right down to it._

_Training._

_I don't know what you know about Voldemort and his current activities. And, yes, I know he sort of died when he killed my parents, but he has a way to not totally die, even if his body is destroyed. You'd have to talk with Dumbledore about it, though. He wouldn't tell me what it was called, but I had to fight off a spirit form of him last year that was stuck in a diary. I also had to fight him off at the end of my first year (two years ago) where he was on the back of my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's head. It was after something Dumbledore stored at the school that year called the Philosopher's Stone._

_Anyway, from what I can tell, he will be back again. And Dumbledore as much as admitted it, without actually saying it. He said he wanted me to 'enjoy my childhood' while I still could. _

_Pardon the language, but I think that's bullshit, sir._

_If I've got a dark lord after me, or if one has any intention of threatening my friends, I will kill the bastard. I had to do it in first year. I had to kill the basilisk last year. This year, I don't know what they think they are doing, but we've got a bunch of dementors at school and Dumbledore seems to think that letting me play children's games is going to help me beat him. Instead, I've managed to teach a few students to do a Patronus charm to protect themselves since no one else seems inclined to do so. A few are even corporal._

_I asked Dumbledore why Voldemort was after me and he said I wasn't old enough to know. I think if he's tried to kill me as a baby and I've been in almost a dozen life-or-death situations at school, then I should be allowed to know and defend myself and the people I care about. Dumbledore disagrees, it seems._

_I am writing this letter to see if you're willing to train me to kick death eater ass, basically. I know Lucius Malfoy is after me. He threatened me at the end of second year. I know Snape is the one who told Voldemort the thing that made him come for me that night. I can train on my own, but to be honest, I don't know what I'm doing and I know I need help._

_Are you willing to help me? _

_For now, I'll say that I'm practicing all the physical exercise I can think of, running, push-ups, sit-ups, swimming, dueling practice. I just don't know if it's enough. If you have ideas, I'm willing to listen. If you'll train me, then I'll see what you want to do at the end of the school year. _

_Sincerely,_

_Lord Harry James Potter_

Moody sighed again. The civilian life never really sat well with him, and here he was, being offered a way back in where he could fight the good fight and take out more of those death eater bastards.

Without those pansy rules the Ministry harped on about ... like 'taking prisoners' or phrases like 'excessive force'.

The problem wasn't in deciding if he wanted to go and train the Potter brat. It was what he revealed in the letter, which was far more than Moody felt he should. The Dark Lord was going to come back. Hadn't actually died, to be honest. And while not totally sure it was to be believed, if anyone could do it, that blighter would have figured out a way.

Now, he just had to confirm a few things with Albus before deciding on whether or not he would accept the Potter boy's offer. He had three-quarters of a year to make his decision, after all. And if he could choose his apprentice, then the stories about this brat's adventures in Hogwarts made him a prime candidate. Moody even considered fitting the boy for his own future peg leg.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – Next chapter: "Know Thine Enemy" - Harry makes a decision in how to approach the war by taking a path that worked for the winning side in the two wars he knows of. And it _wasn't_ for the Light...

This is a third of where the chapter was at, and I admit it's slow. Most of the action will be in the next one, which includes the beginnings of the New War, the relationship is confirmed, CHRISTMAS(!) and the time line forever altered beyond repair. Nearly the entire first scene is from requests to better understand things.

Christmas MAY have its own chapter, however. But, only because of the side-story. If you are curious, think "Jingling Moonbeams" kind of side-story (one of my one-shots if you check my profile.) That, and Christmas is an important part of this plot.

(1) Sphynx Cats – This is merely one breed of hairless cat. I selected it for the magical/mythical explanation, along with the knowledge that "Hairless" cats can, sometimes, have hair, which could explain the lion's mane, in part, when thinking of a sphinx. A simple detail, but one I thought you may enjoy.


	16. Know Thine Enemy

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter15** – Know Thine Enemy

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Character Death, Murder, Darker Events, Suggestive Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - The "memories" will not be actual scenes, but a brief mention of what they are as though Amelia is making mental notes, but usually in third person. Italicized for clarity.

So, I DID wind up breaking this chapter up (this one is just shy of 30K words.) I apologize I'm not getting through things as quickly as I wanted to. It didn't SEEM like so much in the outline... Next chapter is almost purely the actual relationship and Christmas with a little manipulation thrown in.

Credit Given: Any mention of a "ninja" in this chapter is a near direct, situational recreation (fitted for the HP Universe) from a web-comic called "EGS" or "El Goonish Shive" (NOT Spanish, just a weird name.) if you're interested. Quality starts poor, but gets MUCH better (in drawing – The story itself is always strange.)

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "The Dawn of a Golden Age" by I Am Atrocity (H/Hr, possibly H/Hr/L – Dark Comedy – I highly recommend this.)

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Saturday – November 13**

Dobby kicked the bad wizard that was laying on the ground, growling at the man who would dare try to stop him from gathering what rightfully belonged to Master Harry Potter Sir! The green-eyed house elf turned up his nose and sniffed disdainfully as though smelling something foul, which was actually quite the case since the man appeared to have not bathed for the past few weeks, and then continued to stuff his previous master's emergency money into a trunk.

The men working here were muggles, all ten of them, with two magical guards. Their minds had been shattered and reformed in such a way that their previous knowledge was not harmed, but any sense of self identity or personal desires were totally destroyed, making them automatons to keep track of the Malfoy nest egg, which was actually what was kept 'off-the-books' due to their nefarious dealings that could not, under any circumstances, leave a paper trail. This was where Lucius Malfoy squirreled away all the money he didn't want _anyone_ to know about, even his own family. From here is where he got the funds to pay for his dark items purchases, questionable potions and supplies, bribes and hired those who eliminated certain 'problems' when they became too much of an annoyance.

The wizards that monitored the muggles wouldn't even be trusted except they were from the previous war where, as a Death Eater, they had the option to swear upon their life and magic to do Lucius' bidding and their families would remain safe, or they could instead watch as males were tortured, females raped and tortured, and then everyone killed, slowly and painfully in as many messy ways as possible. Voldemort had absolutely _adored_ Lucius' depravity and, those who were given the choice were allowed those choices while in _His_ presence. The Dark Lord probably wouldn't have cared except he had grown fond of watching grown men cry, beg and grovel. They held a tendency to offer far more after a few minutes under a Cruciatus or after the first violation of their daughters or wives. That usually amounted to spying opportunities when those magicals were either a part of, or friends with, the Order of the Phoenix.

Thus these magicals, that currently feared Dobby Potter more than Lucius Malfoy, had been guarding the sort of money that made all of Lucius' underhanded dealings worth doing because, no matter what happened, he would have the money, free from the Goblins, free from the Dwarves and free from Ministerial control.

And his wife couldn't know about it to spend it, nor Draco open his foolish mouth to talk about things he shouldn't.

Though, since Lucius and those working there who were never allowed to leave were the only ones who knew of the location, they had no need to work magic. It was against Lucius' rules anyway, since he didn't want any risk of someone finding it through use of magic, so they grew weak and soft, which would have been bad for going up against another wizard, but even wizards were generally amateurs against house elves.

"All Dobby did was kick you in your shins," Dobby grumbled, wondering if he should knock the men out since he was going to obliviate them in a few moments anyway, showing memories of Draco and his two friends coming to take all the money. Master Harry Potter _did_ say Dobby was allowed things Dobby wanted...

Money, some impressive gems and jewelry that was mostly stolen from raided houses and anything of value that had been stashed were taken by the green-eyed house elf who, despite what he thought, did not blend in at _all_ with his green and gray fatigues, no matter what that poor recruit Dobby had 'borrowed' them from had been talking about. That was why Dobby had taken them, of course. They blended in.

As the group of muggles walked past, Dobby held himself still up against the wall with his bag of loot over one shoulder and a black scarf around his eyes to hide his identity, grinning as they didn't even glance his way, not thinking that they simply didn't pay attention to anything but their assigned tasks of taking inventory. A quick memory charm, and the grinning house elf went to store his loot with the other goodies he had stashed away the past several weeks.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 13, Mid-Morning**

Albus Dumbledore let himself drift, his eyes closed and his heart weary as the dulcet sounds of Handel's 'Sarabande' drifting through his office. Somehow, the old man felt it fit his mood perfectly. Slow and sad, but an overtone of continuation and 'the greater good'. That feeling where everything that happens is required, and all will be well that he loved so much.

He had all but locked himself away in his quarters at Hogwarts while contemplating the nature of Harry Potter and the plans that the boy would have to follow to beat Voldemort for good. But, his new attitude and that backbone he developed put virtually all of Albus' plans to ruin. He didn't listen, nor was he trained enough to handle things on his own. He just hadn't the knowledge or experience.

Almost as to prove that fact, Harry had helped in pushing through a law on werewolf registration, something that had been denied in the Wizengamot for years. No one wanted to be seen as the one who showed the prejudice to actually force them to do so. The packs would determine who had done it and many were scared those packs would come for them. Most wished only to be left alone, but there were those few, such as Fenrir Greyback, who would hunt anyone down for it, which was the one werewolf that virtually every member had worried about. To say nothing of the fact that most of those in that body of government knew that registration was but the beginning of something truly horrible. Harry had simply proven to be too naïve to realize what would come later.

Those in the Wizengamot who hated half-breeds would now know exactly where they planned to make their changes during the full moon. And that could cause a good many possible problems. After all, this was a lesser form of what had been suggested before, which was forcibly taking werewolves to 'experiment for a cure'.

But that was all beside the point. Dumbledore looked out his window into the midday light and sighed wearily. He hated to cause any form of pain or suffering, but as the Leader of the Light, he had no choice. Some people had to be sacrificed for the good of the many. He had always known it. And he had always followed through, though he hated every minute of it.

Harry Potter, was just such a case. And now, so too was Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood and, if he could manage it, Ginevra Weasley, Susan Bones and Lavender Brown. Harry was officially the heir of five different family lines. At the very least, he had to ensure that the boy had one, legitimate heir in order to keep all of the Potter wealth and power from going into the nearest hands, which was a toss-up between the Malfoys and the Weasleys, legally. That basically meant the Malfoys since they could, and probably _would_ grease palms to ensure it happened.

Hopefully, it would also give the boy a reason to sacrifice himself by his own choice, giving Lily Potter's protections to those he was giving his life for. Similarly, if Harry successfully mated with either the Lovegood girl or Bones heiress, then that would add on one more pureblood line to his power.

Albus twiddled with a lemon drop in his hand, finding himself unwilling to allow the bitter-sweet treat to ravish his taste buds. He knew he was going to end up causing these girls great sorrow in the future, especially with the stigma of raising a child on their own, but it had to be done. Their young ages and desires for who they would rather have as a life partner could not be taken into account any longer. There was no telling when Harry would have to die, though Albus hoped it would not be until Harry's seventh year or possibly later. But because it could very well be as early as that very day, there really wasn't time to lose. Those girls needed to help sire an heir.

If the worst had to happen, then the children could be taken and secreted away while the memories of them removed from the girls in question. Miss Granger was certainly one who needed to be by Harry's side to help him survive as long as possible, and she wouldn't be able to do that while worrying about a child. Miss Brown was garnering quite a bit of attention from the lads, so he felt she would be a good choice since she was the more likely of girls to be somewhat promiscuous if Albus' insights meant anything. Miss Bones would be good for the additional line and the link to Amelia, of course, and she would not allow her family to be harmed if within her power, so she could easily take care of the child. And Miss Weasley was already quite infatuated with Harry, even planning children's names, weddings and even the pets they would have according to her mother, who had assisted with children's names and planning the wedding as the girl grew up and played various games of House with her mother. Molly was also near frothing at the mouth for her first grandchild. She'd be overjoyed and, overprotective as she is, would be quite the solution for that.

Miss Lovegood ... Well, she was an easy selection to help with an heir, really. Albus wasn't quite sure he could willingly let Xenophilius raise another child after seeing Luna come into Hogwarts. Perhaps Molly would enjoy another one, even if not by blood. Or the Dursleys, if the wards around the house remain. It would be the ultimate defense from any harm, after all.

Still, this was an awful lot to place upon one boy's shoulders. Was it really needed right now?

"He will not declare myself proxy, thus leaving himself open to attacks," Albus began, needing to hear another voice and talk with someone once again with the troubles his position entailed, and not being willing to allow anyone else to shoulder the burden while he, himself, could do it. "I _need_ control. He cannot be allowed to go dark or fail. I ... Do not have any choice, it would seem."

Snarf, hidden underneath the Headmaster's desk, paused from placing the noose he had fashioned out of the old man's stolen beard hairs around the old man's big toe and listened, wondering if he was finally going to get news that made all this surveillance necessary.

"I cannot allow a meaningless death, especially when it cannot be guaranteed to help bring him back under control," Albus said weakly, feeling tired throughout his entire being, his bones aching through exhaustion rather than age. "No. It would be much better to create life, than take it. And it protects the Potter heritage at the same time. One public heir, possibly with either Miss Granger or Lovegood due to his association, and a few secreted away, to keep them safe."

Snarf looked longingly at the noose before sighing and taking it down. Maybe now he wouldn't be tempted with those lemon drops and he could finally get his face out of the puckered expression it had been in for so long. _'Maybe I'll finally be able to get a new assignment!'_

"I wish there was another way," Albus said quietly, finally removing the silencing wards around the portraits to ensure they didn't hear anything they shouldn't and slowly getting up to visit with Severus to see if he would be willing to supply the potions required to help in this matter. The man was truly repentant, after all. He had put all of that darkness behind him after Voldemort's demise when he failed to protect the one woman he ever claimed to have loved. Albus trusted Severus with his life because the potions professor had promised him he wanted to change. Over the years, Albus' trust simply grew and Severus had become his greatest confidante and advisor. Even with all the rumors going about that he was cruel, he had never shown to be anything more than a little grumpy as far as Dumbledore could tell. It wasn't _his_ fault potions was generally a boring subject and students didn't pay attention anymore.

Plus, Severus had the most delicious sweets! Even buying from the same store Severus claimed his own stock came from, there was always just something _special_ about Severus' sweets. And he assured the Headmaster that they were purchased _just for him_! What kind of dark man could do that?

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 13, Mid-Morning**

Harry groaned in misery after his morning workout, having upped his exercises that day. His body was twitching as his muscles protested the high activity and he panted as he lay on his back, longing for the day he wouldn't have to go through all this. He envisioned a day when he could simply not have to worry about Voldemort, the Ministry or anything. When he would have children around him and he would be able to spend time with them and be happy. The vision began to warm him, allowing him to ignore the pain. Until he realized the warming sensation wasn't the vision but was, instead, his muscles tightening.

The books had said he shouldn't just stop moving after using his muscles or they could lock up and cramp painfully, but to be honest, he didn't care at that moment. It wasn't too bad. His back and shoulders hurt, his legs hurt and his abdominals felt like they were still trying to fold in half, but he had dealt with worse and, simply tightening and flexing seemed to alleviate some of it.

But despite his pain, his mind was still on Hermione and her situation, which had changed his entire outlook on the war. He had made a decision yesterday and took steps to begin it so he wouldn't back out due to fear. This decision was one that was the ultimate cause of punishing his body so thoroughly this morning. Rather than do any set number for any particular exercise, he instead did each and every one until he just couldn't squeeze out even one more. He did pull-ups until it felt like the backs of his arms were on fire, then push-ups until he couldn't hold himself off the ground, much less do one more. Sit-ups until bending was awkward and then running until his legs felt like Dudley had been on his heels, along with Ripper, his aunt Marge's bulldog.

And then he'd do it all over again, tomorrow.

It was Saturday, and there were no classes, so he visited Hermione with Luna, wondering why Hermione's face was so red and why she didn't want to look at him, thinking it was probably because of the way she ate the night before and then had to be carried back since magic couldn't be used on her. Or possibly because she still had a pile of dinner rolls under either arm.

There, he left Luna and Hermione, begging off and saying he had a lot to think about while the girls worked on catching Hermione up in her studies since she could move about, even if not quickly or with much strength. Then he came here to work his body into oblivion.

Harry didn't want to think. He didn't even want to feel, but he knew he would fall into a broody mood and, to be frank, Hermione in his past, but the current future, had eventually told him off for it.

"_Yes, it's horrible that you have to be at the head of this bloody war, Harry_!" She had told him, holding him down on the ground as she lay over top of him, her hands on his shoulders and her face inches from his after an extra self-loathing comment while watching the Marauders' map and seeing Ginny's dot, overlapped by Terry Boot's._ "I understand this is hard and I _know _how you are feeling! I _do, _Harry! I _do_! Because I swore to you I would _always_ walk by your side and be there every step of the way! So when you have to kill the bastard, I'll be there either shielding you or killing the bastards along with you! I will _not_ leave you, Harry!"_

Harry let out a ragged breath, still gasping for air as he conjured a wonky cup, too tired to focus more than just barely enough, and then filled it with water, guzzling it down. That had been nearly a week after Ron left them and both had been about as depressed as you could get after Ron's most recent betrayal, along with Ginny's nightly forays into the boys' dorms and elsewhere. The difference, however, was that Hermione had been the stronger of the two and kicked Harry's ass into gear. She forced it into his head that he wasn't alone, and wouldn't be, and that she was going to go through the same things he was by choice, just for him, rather than because of some stupid prophecy.

"_I can leave at any time, Harry,"_ she had told him, laying on top of him after her outburst, crying gently into him as he held her tightly. It had taken him a few minutes, but he realized that the light touches he had felt on his neck were lips. _"I don't have to fight. I can get up and leave, but I don't. You may be the one with a prophecy, but the only way you are facing it alone is whether or not you're stupid enough to stun me, and you know I'll find your noble ass and beat you to death, find a way to revive you, and then win the war before kicking it again."_

Harry smiled, dropping his cup and twitching a finger to vanish it. He had two memories that seemed to overlap one another. In one, with Luna, they arrived at Malfoy Manor, but had been closer to their goal than when it was just him and Hermione, suggesting something could have happened to end up with them there again. Especially since Ron left in both memories. But also, the Death Eaters seemed to use Malfoy Manor as some form of base of operations.

Harry realized he couldn't let it happen. He _wouldn't_ let that happen. In both versions, Hermione was tortured and he could still remember her screams. In one, she was being melted alive and, in the other, he suspected it was the cruciatus since she was in another room. He could also remember something important had happened with Dobby, but had no idea what. Just that the little guy deserved a pile of socks as tall as he was, and all silk.

Talking about Hermione's situation with Amelia had allowed him to know what he needed to do and the path he had to take. He was going to start the war earlier, and not let the other side know about it. And it would start with the same methods his enemy used, since Voldemort always seemed to be the one who would win: assassinations.

It was really a moment that seemed more epiphany than change of heart. In the first war with Voldemort, everyone admitted the Light side was losing until baby Harry ended things. In the second, it was happening all over again. Voldemort's minions were in the Ministry and controlling things, Umbridge had a frightening amount of power and anyone who stood up to it all wound up dead. That _meant_ something! Other than the fact that Dumbledore was hesitant to kill anyone and wanted to reform everybody, and those who ended up in Azkaban wound up getting released a little while later, it meant that the Dark side was using tactics that _worked_. So, that meant that Harry, and the Light side, couldn't simply do the same thing again.

Therefore, it was time to work things like his enemy would. Use tactics that you knew worked, instead of those you knew would fail.

Harry hadn't realized it at the time, but choosing to do as much as possible for his workout for the weekend had taken much longer than usual since he was getting much more in shape and had greater endurance than any other time of his life. So, even though he skipped out on swimming, not daring to put his exhausted body into a situation that begged for another premature death, he had still missed lunch, which had begun an hour and a half earlier. The pain in his stomach was a great deal less than the rest of his body, so his mind had just ignored it since it was focused on matters deemed more important. So, that was why Hermione and Luna had both elected to search for him after packing away a few sandwiches.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, entering into the Room of Requirement before Luna, looking at the training room Harry had set up and seeing him laying down on a grassy field, looking like he was staring into the sky or sleeping. "What were you doing in here?"

"'Lo Hermione," Harry grunted. "Hi Luna. I was exercising. Just stopped a couple of minutes ago."

"You have been exercising for five and a half hours?" Luna asked, frowning.

Harry would have looked shocked if he had the energy for it. "Dunno. I just decided to test myself today and did everything until I couldn't anymore," he partially explained, somehow finding the energy to turn his head to look at both girls. The pain he felt seemed to intensify as he remembered what he had learned the day before from Lora about his relationship problems. _'Bloody hell! Even when I'm told I have a soul mate, I still can't have that be simple either, can I? Who the hell did I piss off in my last life?'_ It took him only a second to realize who. _'If Lora had something to do with this for dying last time...'_ Suddenly, he began to wonder about that.

"Harry, it isn't safe to work your body like that!" Hermione scolded. "You don't always do this, do you?" She was concerned because she could see his muscles twitching and swollen from their abuse. His clothes were soaked from sweat and having been there for nearly two minutes, his breathing was only just beginning to even out. Beside her, Luna's face adopted one of greater concern. Harry and Hermione were both very important to her and she didn't want them hurting at all. Plus she knew how often Harry worked out.

"First time," Harry promised. "I've just got a lot on my mind and knew this would help."

"You can talk to us, you know," Luna offered. "We didn't do something to upset you, did we?" She had been on pins and needles about this since Hermione was hurt. She got attacked because ... well, she always got bullied, but Hermione got hurt trying to help her and felt she was responsible and was worried Harry would change his mind.

"No," Harry explained. "It's not anything you two did. It's just ...," he trailed off, not sure how to explain and not being willing to lie to the girls.

"Just what?" Hermione asked as both girls sat next to him and offered him their napkins with sandwiches. Luna had gifted him with bacon and cucumber while Hermione offered more traditional ones with plenty of vegetables. Well, after they helped him up and propped him against a rock that rose from the ground.

"I have things I have to do, and things to figure out. And I'm not sure where to begin," he said, moving his arms slowly to eat. It was amazing how heavy those sandwiches were!

"Well, maybe we can help," Luna offered gently, looking for any signs of dislike and being relieved to find none of that.

Harry blinked as he chewed carefully before opening Luna's sandwich and finding a dollop of pudding in one corner. It wasn't _bad_, just very strange. It made him smile. Though he had to wonder how she got it for lunch since the house elves didn't serve it until dinner. "Sorry ladies," he said, continuing the demolition of his late meal. He usually preferred tomatoes on his sandwich, but the cucumber was definitely nice. "I really need to try to figure it out on my own first. I promise I'll tell you about it. I just really need to figure out both the how and the when, along with making a bunch of decisions."

Unable to realize one of those situations was on how to deal with the three of them in any form of romantic entanglement, Hermione felt she had to let Harry know they were there for him. "As long as you know we're here any time you need us and you can talk about anything with us, no matter what it is," she said.

Harry swallowed, staring off into nothing for a brief moment. "And I will. I just have to try and figure out some of it on my own first."

"Well, we just wanted to see how you were doing and figure out where you were. Madam Pomfrey wanted me back soon and I need to get caught up on my homework," Hermione said, wanting to question him about his advice to Luna in regards to her classes, but not daring to draw attention to her impossible schedule. She was simply thankful something had been done for it and that she still had the time-turner when she woke up.

Though she _would_ figure out a way to ask without coming right out and asking.

"No problem, Hermione. But one thing I'd like to mention," he said, looking at both girls with a more direct gaze. "I couldn't do _anything_ officially about what Cho and the others did because it isn't officially my business. I'd really like you to look into accepting my aegis so I can help protect you both while you're here. And remember, you need to do this in order to use magic at home, too."

"I've looked into it," Hermione admitted, "but couldn't find much information about it. That's what I was doing before the Thundercats warned me about Luna and Cho." Sighing, Hermione shrugged. "I trust you Harry. Just tell me it's safe and I don't have to worry about anything strange, and I'll talk my parents into it. I'd just like some information to actually give them about it."

Harry nodded. "I've ordered some for you from the Ministry," Harry admitted. "You should have it in a few days if all goes well."

Harry smiled warmly to himself as both girls warned they'd hug him if he wasn't all soggy from sweat. If he had more energy, he'd have hugged them anyway, just to see their outraged faces. Instead, he took the mature route. He stuck his tongue out and showed them his chewed food as they left.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – November 14, Breakfast**

Sunday morning, Harry made his way down to breakfast, meeting with Hermione and Luna who had stayed the night in the hospital wing to work on Hermione's missing classwork. In truth, the girl was still vastly ahead of the classes, including the work itself, but Hermione had been frantic, worried that she may have missed something important.

Harry sort of felt guilty for telling Luna not to worry about Divination or Muggle Studies. No information for those classes, regardless of how things were turning out, seemed to be stressing his bushy-haired brunette friend spectacularly.

"I don't understand," Luna said, looking oddly surprised for still looking confused with her slightly larger than normal eyes. "How did you manage to get notes for those classes and Runes, Muggle Studies, Divination and Care at the same time before? I mean, Runes and Divination are at the same time, as are Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, too."

As Hermione paled, Harry knew he was to blame for this, at least in part, so he did what he was used to with Ron and changed the subject. But, with Luna not being obsessed with Quidditch, Harry went to the first place he thought of that wasn't a sport, sadly. It was the main thing on his mind recently. The only good thing about it was that was something the girls deemed important enough to not come back to classes right away. "Hey Hermione, Luna? What do you two think you'd look for in a boyfriend?"

Brown and silvery-blue eyes looked at Harry in shock, not having expected anything like that to come from him so randomly. Harry tried to ignore their stares as he sat down uncomfortably. It probably wasn't the best approach, but it kept Hermione's secret safe for a little while longer and, sadly, he was desperate for a way to fix what he had heard from Lora. And a part of that, he felt, would only be solved by finding out that Luna really would care for him, even if just in basic principle.

"Where did that come from?" Hermione asked while Luna shoved half a banana, some blueberries and a quarter of a lemon into her cup of milk to make some Fruit Smash. Regardless of what Harry's motivations or thoughts, she was thankful it pulled attention away from her schedule. _'How did we think we could hide this for so long? Sure, Ron only questions it when it's brought up around him, but Luna cares enough to pay attention and ... I really don't know about Harry. He's always the one drawing attention _away_ from when we...'_ Suddenly, Hermione realized that Harry _did_ draw attention away from her schedule every single time it came up. Only once had she ever had to do it herself, and that was when he wasn't around and Ron caught her doing the same work Harry was assigned for a class they didn't share. Even the very first day...

"What? Two of my best friends are pretty girls and you think I wouldn't notice?" Harry asked before mentally wincing. _'Just great! The last thing I need to do is sound like I'm flirting with _both_ of them!_' He failed to notice Hermione's calculating gaze, wondering both at his odd behavior over the school year in regards to her schedule, and now that he mentioned his apparent physical attraction to their appearances, his odd behavior since summer in relation to how he spoke and interacted with any female that she could remember.

In short, she was confused.

Luna drank slower than she was making it look, hoping to hide her blush behind the cup and wondering if Harry had heard her a few nights ago telling him she was in love with him. She hoped not. She couldn't live with herself if she was responsible for somehow stopping Harry and Hermione from getting together. It was obvious the two cared for one another and, as much as she wanted him to care for her as she did him, she would never allow herself to be a threat to that. After all, she had only really spoken with him for three months. While she was sure she loved him, she knew it wasn't likely that it was deep or as real as she thought it felt. She couldn't ruin what the other two shared for something that probably wasn't ever going to be as complete as their own affections.

_'They're my friends,'_ Luna thought to herself, reaffirming her decisions. _'I'm not worth the trouble of breaking the two of them apart when they go together so much better. I can be happy just being by their side and remaining their friend. I can't ever lose that._'

Finally setting her drink down and ignoring her new pale blue mustache from the fruit smash, she looked to Harry. "Daddy always said he married his best friend. That Mother was someone he could share everything with and was happy and content to just be near every day. He also said that it was important that, if they argue, they were willing to discuss their views calmly and that they only ever raised their voices if the situation called for it, but that it never would because they were willing to work on things. Well, except for when she was giving birth to me," Luna said with a frown. "Daddy said she tried to turn him into something called a eunuch and yelled at him for three straight hours saying how she was going to turn dark just so she wouldn't feel bad for turning him into a woman and making him give birth. Do you happen to know where the bacon is today? I don't see a single piece."

Hermione couldn't help it. She laughed loudly as Luna described a very highly amusing scene; one that her mother had described to herself when telling embarrassing family stories. It was a mother thing.

"Hermione, do you know what a eunuch is?" Luna asked curiously, stopping the brown-haired girl's laughter abruptly so she could stare in horror at the younger blonde. "Daddy wouldn't tell me and he removed all references to it in our books and made me promise not to look it up while at Hogwarts, so when everyone laughs, I think I am missing a part of the humor. However, he never said I couldn't ask, so long as I didn't ask a male. He said it would make them quite uncomfortable."

Harry stayed far away from the sausages today.

"Er, I'll tell you later," Hermione eventually croaked out, getting a pleased smile from Luna. "But, er, my parents sort of said the same thing, though my mother's most recent version of that talk was a little more ... _focused_."

"How do you mean?" Harry asked, deciding on eggs. Had he paid more attention in biology class, he'd have probably stayed away from those during the discussion, too.

Hermione was _not_ willing to tell Harry he had only caught the first of three very pointed talks with her mother. Therefore, she simply did what made the most sense: she ignored him. "But, I think my parents described it a little differently. Basically, if you can't be a good friend, then you can't hope for more from a deeper relationship. A good, solid friendship is like the foundation that you'd built a romantic relationship on top of."

"Like you and Ronald?" Luna asked, getting two very strange looks from her friends. "Oh, no! Not as good friends, but that's what I mean. You two argue all the time about the smallest and most inconsequential of things and he is always trying to get you to do his homework and seems to hold little regard for anything muggle if there is a wizarding variation unless it's food. That would be a bad foundation for a relationship, yes?" Luna felt it was only proper to try and help Hermione and Harry along if she could. And simply put, she felt scared that Harry may have heard her, at least in some part, and that she was somehow responsible for this discussion. Better to remove one other potential suiter from Hermione's options if possible.

"Yes, that makes sense," Hermione said, nodding slowly as she considered it, unconsciously taking the subtle advice and placing Ron in the 'friend only' category in her mind. "We really do fight a lot, and usually over his work, my cat or general culture differences between magical and muggle society. Or just what we do for fun. Or studying for the future. Or dietary habits since he never eats enough vegetables. Or ... well, I suppose a lot of things, really." Hermione frowned as she began trying to figure out a topic she and Ron _hadn't_ argued on. Even _Quidditch_, a sport she loathed considering how much danger Harry was always in, they argued over and she hated talking about it.

Luna nodded, having seen quite a bit of that, though little in the way of the stories she heard about. It seemed they argued less this year than the past two, but it was also heard to be said that Harry and Hermione spent less time directly with Ron, too. Since Harry spent more time studying and on his own, Ron wanted less to do with him and Hermione, even more so after getting Luna to join them. Still, playing matchmaker, a girl couldn't stop to think about the one not involved.

"Another thing that Daddy hasn't really discussed with me, but that I've learned while growing up and putting things together is that dating is simply what we once called 'Courting'. People in the past didn't simply date for the sake of it, but courted one another for the sake of finding a partner to share their life with, right?"

"Yes," Hermione said, sounding intrigued on where this was going while Harry found it to be all totally new information. He wasn't very fond of courts. This 'courting' sounded like a long, drawn out and possibly dangerous thing to him. Surprisingly, that wasn't far off the mark unless two were drunk and elected to not meet the father-in-law. "Dating like we do now would probably be not only frowned upon even possibly a hundred years ago, and further back, it would be considered even worse, scandalous."

Luna nodded, giving up on looking for any of the missing bacon and instead getting eggs and potatoes, trying to make a tiny house out of it so she can play the part of the natural disaster later. "That means that when you date, you should be looking for a life partner. Someone to share in your future and be a part of it later. So, I think that I would want to be sure it was someone I knew could do that. So, it should be someone I can be a good friend with instead of someone who can simply make me happy for a short time before they're gone or I find out they're different than I would approve of."

"I can agree with that," Hermione stated, looking somewhat approvingly at the younger girl. She hadn't thought of it like that, and decided to share her own, personal views. "But, that is what dating has become for this day and age. It's simply become less socially strict because society, as a whole, has loosened up a bit. At least the muggle world. The wizarding one seems to be a little behind the times there, too. But we still court, just a little differently. We date a person to get to know them and learn about them to decide if they are worth spending the rest of our lives with."

Luna smiled warmly on the outside, while on the inside, she felt like giving an evil little smirk as her plans came together. "I think I would rather see if we can be friends, first. By doing so, we can be sure that we have enough in common to enjoy each other's company without all the hassle of what dating or courting would entail. If the other person can't handle simply being friends and instead wants what comes from dating these days without waiting, then that is a very serious sign of something I want nothing to do with, I would think." It was also how she handled her friends in the past at Hogwarts. Those who wanted to drag her along for various things were pretty much putting up a red flag of warning that had kept the quirky girl from some of her harsher pranks.

Hermione once again found herself nodding, seeing Luna's point. She still felt dating could be okay, but a girl would simply have to watch how fast the guy would want to take the relationship. At least in regards to her. She never had any intentions, whatsoever, of being easy to seduce or quick to shag, though it was how society saw premarital sex that defined the majority of dating. But then again, she didn't think it was a big deal so far. She had done well enough without those things, even if she did know the joys it could bring. She decided she much preferred to think of dating as courting, as well. She may not care about sex before or after marriage, but she'd never sleep with someone she didn't think could work out long term. It seemed that was exactly what Luna was saying, at least in part, and if she were honest, Hermione could agree with that. She could always take care of those urges on her own, after all. She certainly wasn't a stranger to it, but it neither ruled her actions nor was she willing to do something with a man that didn't actually mean anything to her. Hermione rather disliked the idea of being judged and hurt from it for now, anyway. "I guess I can see that."

"So, it would instead be better if friends as good as you and Harry were to get together? You are both good, dependable friends, respect each other and can simply sit and do your own things while in each others' presence and remain happy." Luna smiled as if her argument was over and the two blushing and nervously shifting Gryffindors were already together. Hopefully, she got her point across. It was difficult for her, since she thought in pictures and emotions, to get her thoughts across in speech, sometimes.

"But what if there were, say, two people who more than met what you thought were qualities you looked for in a partner?" Harry asked, wondering if perhaps Lora had been wrong and Luna wasn't actually thinking of him romantically. Why would she suggest him with another girl if that were the case? Maybe he was stressing over all of this for nothing. Though, if he were honest, both girls _did_ meet the requirements for what he wanted in a girlfriend. _"_Even if your requirements for what you thought were perfect were few and extremely picky, but each very important, and not just one person meets them? What if, hypothetically speaking, there are two gi-people that you think would be great and are what you want?"

"I suppose it would depend on who meets those qualities the most," Hermione suggested, wondering what was on Harry's mind. All thoughts of her schedule and Harry's odd behavior in regards to it were long gone and she was suddenly curious about everything being discussed right then. Harry didn't really spend time with any other girl exclusively. He spent all of his time with both herself and Luna. At least, as far as she knew. Granted, there was the time she was petrified and the last few days while under Madam Pomfrey's care that someone could have come in, but Harry wouldn't get that attached to someone that quickly. She knew him far too well to see that happening.

"How could someone meet requirements more than someone else?" Harry wondered with a frown. "I mean, honesty, kind, caring, intelligent, open-minded; these are things I'd look for, for instance, but either someone meets them or they don't."

"It shouldn't just be yes or no," Hermione said, shaking her head gently. "It's the whole package. All of it along with the personality and everything that makes that person who they are. I mean, there are a lot of guys in Hogwarts, but I wouldn't dream of dating hardly any of them. I don't like to think of myself as shallow or above anyone, but I do think I should have high enough standards to be happy. They've got to be fairly intelligent so I don't feel like I'm speaking with a retarded spider monkey, they've got to be open to the muggle world and willing to be comfortable in it, a decent and good person and they definitely have to respect me. The respect bit, sadly, removes a very large portion of the school populace, if we're going to be honest. But that's pretty much what friendship brings. So, I suppose I see Luna's point."

Luna smiled winningly as she devoured the sausage-people from her egg and hash house. She even ate the pet toast-cow.

_'That doesn't really help me at all,'_ Harry thought as he ate his food, the three teens falling into a comfortable silence. _'So, if I apply what I look for in a girl like I did with Hermione to Luna, I get a possible partner out of it. And, I'll admit that Lora was right. I did have some feelings for Luna last time, and they _did_ carry over. If I'm honest, that's where my need to help her out and protect her came from. I didn't realize how I really felt until we were on the hunt for the horcruxes since Ginny was with Terry or Dean most nights and Hermione was so weird about Ron and hot or cold. I just thought it was guilt for how I treated her but, if I'm honest, I really appreciated her. I just didn't show it the way I should have.'_

The Great Hall, the general noise of the room and pretty much everything, seemed to fade for Harry as he ate mechanically, not really thinking about it, and focused his thoughts instead on what he learned from Lora and his own feelings.

_'I can admit that I fancy Luna, much like Hermione, but I also know I'd never cheat on Hermione if she was willing to be my girlfriend. But, whether I fancy Luna or not, I can't just abandon her friendship or it'd break her spirit entirely! Even I can tell she's grown to love having friends and I won't leave her. I even _promised_ her I'd never leave her alone again! How can Lora expect me to just abandon my friends like that?'_

Owls flew through the windows, dropping off mail to the various students and distributing the Daily Prophet to those who held subscriptions. Harry still saw nothing of it, even as the noise dropped considerably as the headlines were noticed and in the cases of a few students, reception of letters from their family Head.

_'I guess it really boils down to what Lora said about Luna not being willing to break Hermione and I up,'_ he considered, a nagging feeling at the back of his neck like he was being watched being ignored for the moment. _'Lora said Luna would stick by us and be happy for us, but miserable on the inside and get reckless in fights. That could also be what she is trying to do here, now that I think about it. I would see about setting her up with Neville or Ron – well, maybe not Ron. I could never do that to her – so she doesn't feel left out, but Lora said as long as she was my friend, she would never be attracted to anyone else. How can I possibly help her without hurting her?'_

Suddenly, the feeling of being watched was too much to ignore, so Harry zoned back in and looked around, seeing several faces looking at him in shock, wonder and awe. Frowning, he looked down at himself and then back around, wondering what had happened this time. "Did the twins get me or do I have something on my face?" He asked, turning to Hermione. Rather than respond, she slid her Daily Prophet to him, letting him see for himself. Her apologetic look did not make him feel better.

_**Five Lordships, One Boy-Who-Lived!**_

_By Rita Skeeter_

_Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Lord Harry James Potter, also known as Lord Gryffindor, Lord Ravenclaw, Lord Slytherin and Lord Hufflepuff? Yes, that's right! Our own Boy-Who-Lived is a direct blood descendant of all four houses. How, you may ask, can that be when his mother, Lily Potter-nee-Evans, was a muggleborn witch? Believe it or not, she was the descendant of Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff. The Ministry's archival records have proven this._

"_Of course I knew," stated Minister Fudge. "Why, we discussed it the morning of the Wizengamot meeting. Lord Potter knows he can come to me whenever he needs and I've always got time to help those who need it! Why, with Black on the loose and known to be hunting the boy, he even used his power to protect several of his friends after getting my permission. If Black were to go after the boy now, he'll find Lord Potter and those under his aegis are exempted from the various underage decrees and quite able to protect themselves! Let's see if that murderer can handle Lord Potter now!"_

Harry felt himself wanting to growl at the Minister for revealing those exemptions. All that blustering and wanting to look like he was chummy with Harry made the man reveal something that was probably going to get him hit with flak from the Weasleys and ... well, any student unable to get exemptions, really. Harry could admit it wasn't fair, but there wasn't much choice in the matter. They really needed that ability to defend themselves. Just not from Sirius. Harry hoped it wouldn't get worse, but it really, _really_ did.

_Since the founding of Hogwarts, all four of the Founders' blood have never been acknowledged as living in the school at any one time, and certainly no one has actually taken up the lordships. What does this mean for Hogwarts now? I'll tell you!_

_Through exhaustive research for my dear readers, I've learned that Hogwarts itself belongs to Lord Potter, as does Hogsmeade, the forest surrounding the school and a large amount of land around that. As it belonged to Lord Potter's ancestors before the Ministry was created and all of magical Britain fell under the authority of the Ministry, it was its own, independent land that, to this day, is still governed by the ruling Lord, in this case, Potter._

Harry clenched his teeth, doing his best to ignore the very loud rise in volume, the furious whispering and the many, many eyes he knew were locked onto him right then. It would appear Miss Skeeter had elected to go into bug form when Fudge was given his report that validated Harry's story. At least, that was all he could think of, unless she parted with a decent amount of gold as he had for the same information. All he needed was for Snape to think he was right the entire time he said Harry ran about the school, lording over it as if he owned it. This would make the cantankerous bastard even worse, he was sure of it. But sadly, it didn't end there.

_My dear readers, this actually means that all that belongs to Hogwarts, belongs to Lord Potter; a thirteen-year old boy who was unaware of his magical heritage until he was eleven years old and given his Hogwarts letter like any other muggleborn. But if you think it ends there, you'd be mistaken._

_Lord Potter is also the de facto leadership of the school. Even the Headmaster's authority pales in comparison to that of Lord Potter's, who legally has total authority for the castle. And because, as stated earlier, it is outside of the Ministry's control, it is like a foreign land. Lord Potter can make his own rules and enforce them as he pleases._

_What does this mean for your children? It means that they must, officially, obey his laws if they choose to remain there. The Board of Governors, as I'm sure many of you are aware, was created to oversee the running of the school and ensure it remained up to standards to keep it the best magical school in the world and functioned like a middle man between the Ministry and the School. With Lord Potter's return, he could simply dissolve the Board, thus reigning over the castle like a dictator._

_I have much more information, dear readers. I shall endeavor to work hard and confirm more of my information to tell you everything, so keep a look out in future editions!_

_For Wizengamot voting results, see pg 12_

_Laws passed in last session, see pg 13_

_Potter Family Tree, see pg 21_

Harry closed and folded the Daily Prophet, feeling so angry with Skeeter's usual dark spin that he was shaking. Rather than say anything meaningful and being done with it, the crazy bat had decided to put it all in a bad light as though he were some evil bastard who was going to force the girls to his bed at night and cast them away in the morning or set up a power block at the castle and rule them all as the first stages to becoming a dark lord.

The worst part, of course, was the fact that of all the facts she laid out, it was all true, meaning he could bluster and rage all he wanted, but the woman had not truly done anything wrong other than spin it in the worst possible light. He had no idea how she found out about most of it, primarily him not knowing about the magical world, but felt it was similar to them knowing about his appearance. He was supposed to be hidden away, but everyone knew about his scar, his glasses and to be frank, the drawn pictures in the books written about him looked very accurate.

"Is – Is it true, Harry?" Neville asked, gesturing to the paper as everyone else quieted. The silence was actually very awkward.

"Yes," Harry sighed.

"H-Harry, do you realize what that means?" Neville asked, wide-eyed. "You're like the magical version of royalty! The Founders have been idolized and deified almost like Merlin!"

"I'm just Harry, Neville," Harry said, getting up and leaving the table. _"Just Harry,"_ he whispered to himself, ignoring the eyes that followed him out the door. He knew Hermione and Luna had risen to follow him, but he couldn't find it in him to accept or deny their imminent comfort.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 20, Mid-Morning**

Amelia sighed as she sat in her seat, having finally obtained a pensieve from the Department of Mysteries eight days from the day she requested it. The devices weren't exactly rare, but they were highly uncommon and usually, only the simplest ones are found any more. They would usually hold a single memory and allow a simple projection of said memory, not allowing a person to dive into it to watch it from every angle as the one in Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts could do. Similarly, while the ones you could dive into showed everything taken in by the mind, including the area behind the memory's provider, the projection models only showed what was in the immediate line-of-sight of the provider. The things they caught through their own vision and consciously acknowledged, even if only for a brief moment. That was a large part of why pensieve memories weren't foolproof or an absolute truth in trials. To say nothing of the extremely difficult, but absolutely possible chance of being modified.

What was worse, for the past week, she and the Unspeakables had been scouring the entire Ministry for evidence to find out what had happened in the Time Room in the Department of Mysteries. Most of the time-turners had apparently been stolen during the last month during the search for the Founders' heirs. When the Unspeakables had gone back to daily tasks and went to get their assigned devices, only eight of the forty-two standard issue, three of the nine advanced, five of the eight extended and one of the two experimental time-turners remained. Forty-four time-turners were now unaccounted for and could be in the hands of anyone.

Whoever had done it had also managed to get into the archival repository, according to the Head Unspeakable. With the massive theft, the entire Ministry was scoured and it was found that a large section of books from one of the upper-level floors had somehow been knocked off of their shelves in such a way as to suggest whatever had caused it had been covered by books and then disappeared, baffling the man. To say nothing of the massive number of books that were there that didn't seem to belong in that section. General checks showed intense magic-use, but no wand signature, leaving the entire investigative side scratching their heads.

There were only a few devices that allowed anyone to channel magic. Wands, staves, focusing rods and specific devices for specific demands such as portkeys were the only things known to them, however. But a wand would leave a signature, a staff would be far too large to hide and are impossible to shrink and keep usable, focusing rods were temperamental at best and usually only allowed for brute force attacks and those specific creations that they knew of were too few and too specific, oddly enough. They assisted with legilimency or healing and the like, but couldn't do such a wide-spread theft like this.

The Ministry was keeping it quiet, but there was a general, uneasy paranoia amongst those who worked there because they were the only ones who weren't watched or checked when entering the building. That meant this was most likely an inside job, and probably a small group of individuals since no single person could break the enchantments to the archival repository. It was defended by ancient blood magic the likes of which had been outlawed for nearly six and a half hundred years and was, in all honesty, a dead art. No one had records of it anymore as far as anyone knew, and there wasn't a single known person who knew how to break such wards. The goblins could possibly do it, but that was because they generally sacrificed a few of their numbers to make things easier for themselves.

Everyone was suspecting everyone else and work was moving at a snail's pace because people were trying to feel each other out and talk with each other, hoping someone would trip up and admit to something. Turning in a traitor was great for advancement and money, after all.

The head of the DMLE was tired and cranky, but finally allowed herself a moment to relax in the quiet of her office. She no longer had to listen to Fudge bluster on about how it was all impossible and nervously blaming employees for negligence or to the many and varied suspicions of those same employees turning on one another, mostly for past slights, real or imagined. And she was finally able to nurse a bottle of fire whiskey and hope things got better.

One time-turner in the wrong hands would be bad enough. Forty-four could see the wizarding government changed overnight due to deaths or 'mysterious' disappearances. That was why they were regulated and restricted items to begin with and why no family was allowed to keep theirs, officially of course. They could never be sure no one still had them, of course, but there was hoping.

Amelia stashed her booze, not allowing herself more than the equivalent of a single shot's worth, and pulled out the glowing vial of memories Harry Potter had given to her. She was hesitant to look at them, and she couldn't honestly say why. She knew they could possibly verify his claims that Voldemort would be coming back. That wasn't a problem to the woman. She would rather know than not, even if she preferred it to not happen. That was actually why she bothered keeping them in the first place. She also knew he was not likely to lie about this if Susan's letters meant anything. She didn't deal with child abuse often, but enough that it wouldn't be a problem, either, so it wasn't fear of seeing any of that.

So, why was she hesitant? She even found herself hesitant to send her niece a letter, asking about why she never spoke of the strange things happening at Hogwarts. After all, something or someone going around and petrifying students and writing in blood on the wall was a pretty big deal. Plus the troll Potter had mentioned from their first year, while not a big thing apparently, was enough she should have at _least_ received a letter with a mention of it.

Augusta had said much the same. She had never heard word one about this from her grandson, Neville. She didn't know if the Potter lad had been telling the truth or not and other than being held in high regard in the letters she received, both herself and Amelia felt a curious camaraderie with the boy that they couldn't really identify. Merely that he reminded them of someone they respected in the past.

Regardless of the hesitation and feeling like there was no point in looking, Amelia chose to focus on her curiousity, which allowed her to finally tip the vial over and into the stone basin, and entered the pensieve, watching from oldest to newest.

_Harry Potter, age eight, successfully apparating from a group of bullies she didn't know to the top of a muggle building. Unable to explain situation of how he got up there to muggle staff at facility and in trouble, backhanded and kicked for lying, Uncle demands he not do anything 'freakish' again 'or else'._

_Age nine, turning a teacher's hair blue, obliviators show up moments afterwards, have a hard time setting things to rights, must check their credentials. No apparent punishment. Reversal Squad also forced to calm Potter to stop their robes from attacking them. Resultant paranoia and fear due to attempting to talk with teacher about living conditions and a comment of discussion with Potter's relatives and school staff._

_Age ten, setting a boa constrictor loose by vanishing a pane of glass, obese boy from first memory trapped, Harry told he would be locked in a cupboard for two days except chores. Cupboard is apparently bedroom. Signs of Parseltongue. Confirms Heir of Slytherin story briefly mentioned. Prisoners at Azkaban eat better than he did._

_First Hogwarts letter. Addressed to cupboard under the stairs, definitely the boy's bedroom. 'Family' freaked out, obvious attempts to get letters to Potter, find out why no one showed up as standard operating procedure for families with possible magic-hatred. 'Family' eventually chose to run to a small island with a shack on it via rowboat. Must determine origin of idea to go to such a place. Money did not appear to be a problem. Determine how Hagrid found Potter._

_Hagrid gets Potter, fails to provide muggleborn information package or perform lineage test at Gringotts, Hagrid had vault key. Suspicious. Potter made no requests to perform investigation. Hagrid picked up philosopher's stone the day before the break-in if vault number matches my memory. Suspicious. Potter's story beginning to get disturbingly accurate._

_'What the hell is _Fluffy!_'_ Amelia's mental eye twitched as she watched Potter and his two friends chase thief after the stone_. The stone is protected by pathetic challenges. Who in their right mind provides a clue on how to get past a potion selection? Why provide such a passage rather than leave it as a trap checked daily for target? Voldemort did, indeed, possess Quirrell, Potter also killed the body. Dumbledore refused to answer Potter's questions when he came to. Highly suspicious. Also lied to the boy saying no way to not go to the Dursley home. Suspicious interference with child's summer arrangements._

_Crazy house elf is keeping Potter's mail, got him in trouble, will need to remove warning from his record, warning of terrible evil at Hogwarts. Bars on windows and strange device on bottom of door to new room 'relatives' used to feed him. Attempt to keep Potter from getting on Express, Potter fails to stop Weasley from stealing his father's car. No apparent backbone like seen at Wizengamot meeting. _

_Memory of Lockhart and Lucius, unsure of reasons for it. Attempts to smack Lockhart in memory end in failure and frustration. Visit Saint Mungo's, can't miss him there. Altercation between Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy as well. No charges brought up by Malfoy even though Arthur attacked first. Not his modus operandi. Must not want situation brought under scrutiny. Watch this memory again, pay more attention to Malfoy. Also praise Arthur on his right hook._

_Multiple attacks against students, Dumbledore took no apparent actions for safety, Potter blamed for most events, speaks Parseltongue, staff did nothing to stop rumors about him, Potter was an idiot and went to talk to acromantula in their own lair, Faced off against a freaking _basilisk_ that was more than sixty feet long and the lucky S-O-B somehow _won_ and then faced off against another version of Voldemort who gave his given name. Disturbing possibilities due to diary. Not normal memories. Must speak to Croaker, see if Unspeakables know anything. Lockhart, should he get his memory back, will need prosecuting for attempt to memory-wipe children, especially Potter. Potter actually helped crazy elf from before. Something vaguely familiar about diary, unsure of how or why._

_Dementors on train going into third year. Corporeal Patronus! Different explanation than known explanation. Request copy of essay brought up by Minerva._

Amelia came to her senses in her office in the chair, her mind reeling. She immediately sent out a missive to get Head Unspeakable Croaker to her office immediately and then demanded of her secretary to find two bottles of fire whiskey. The conversation to come was going to need it, and there wouldn't be a soul who would interrupt them. Something was very, very disturbing about those memories. She just couldn't quite place what it was.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – November 21, 22:25 – Potter Manor**

Emma Granger sat in a lounge chair in the back of Harry's manor house, gazing up at the cloudless sky and thinking about her life right then. She was unsure of what they were originally meant for, but she had alighted what looked like an open fire pit that was behind her a few feet for the added warmth, unaware that she was sitting in a ritual circle designed for Rites. All she really knew was it was quiet, dark since the fire was a deep red that didn't really cast much light, and she had a clear view of the sky. Harry's tour of the grounds had shown it to her and Hermione had commented on it, though Emma honestly couldn't remember much of the subject matter. Only that it somehow related to the seasons changing and the lunar cycles.

Once a month, she and Dan spent a full day apart from one another, doing whatever struck their fancy, be it shopping, sports, going to the pub, visiting friends or just lounging in the house and doing nothing for the day. In an attempt to maintain a healthy relationship once they began living together, they had agreed that one full day a month was spent apart so they could do the things they wanted to without worrying about dragging the other along. Mostly because Dan enjoyed bowling and Emma had a rather strong weakness for quiet and solitude, away from the city and everyone as fully as possible, something that had been her habit since she could crawl and would hide away in cabinets under sinks or counter tops.

To that end, Harry's offer of the use of his home was perfect. There were absolutely no nearby cities or sources of light that made looking at the sky a truly breathtaking sight to behold. The fact that it was not a full moon and further from earth at the time ensured its light didn't detract from the wonderful view.

Emma cradled a mug of hot chocolate in her hands, something Hermione introduced her to rather than the powdered cocoa the Granger family was used to, to feel closer to her daughter as she reflected.

The elder Granger woman sighed wistfully. She couldn't believe how one person could be introduced to her life indirectly and manage to change so much of it. Harry Potter brought out a spark of life that Emma could honestly say she had never really seen in her daughter before. She ... well, she radiated the sort of energy only a woman in love could create. Whether it was the forever-after kind of love, or a simple school crush that would simply last for however long was yet to be seen, but since Harry had come into the picture, Hermione had simply held more life within her. It was visible in their letters and more recently, in their daughter, herself. This last summer had shown Hermione to have an aura in her that simply radiated happiness and contentment that had easily affected her parents.

Just through acquaintance, Harry had even managed to bring something back between her and Dan in the last few months due to the developing feelings Emma had played witness to, not to mention the ridiculously romantic conversation between Harry and her daughter.

When Emma had met Dan, she was more into women than men. It wasn't really a matter of attraction as it was choice. She grew up with nothing but girls as neighbors and had taken to explorations with her best friend, Emily, when they were six. By the time she was ten, she was comfortable with women and it simply continued on.

Emma hadn't been lying to her daughter, would never dare do so, when she said she had two girlfriends when she was fourteen. Emily was still there, along with a woman named Chérie, who had been from Paris. Where Emma was not strictly focused on women, those two were, and continued to see each other after Emma left when she was sixteen with her family from Oakham to Kensington.

She had remained single until she started college, where she had met Rebecca. Rebecca had been her dorm mate and the two had shared a lot, including their histories. After a few months, they had become closer and took their college frustrations and loneliness out on each other with a passionate romance that was more friends with benefits in nature than love.

Then Emma had met Dan while in classes for dentistry where they were lab partners for the year. The man had been as shy as it was possible to get. From Hermione's letters, she would relate him to a first-year Neville Longbottom, only without the stuttering.

Four months after becoming partners, she and Rebecca had initiated him into their unique relationship. She would probably not tell her daughter this, but it was one reason to watch what you drank after celebrating important tests. All three had woken up with hangovers and lacking all clothing and regrets. The following few years had followed suit until life got in the way and Dan and Emma chose to see each other more seriously. Rebecca had, by that point, just finished her law degree and was working with a private firm where she was gone as often as not. She would come home to Dan and Emma and share their bed and their life until called away again.

Dan and Emma had decided to get married, with Rebecca's blessing since both considered her a part of the relationship even if she felt it was more convenience than love. Neither felt she was being honest, but agreed to her wishes. Hermione came two years later.

Hermione's birth had not been a simple thing. For several hours, nearly a full day, the girl just did _not_ want to come out. After fourteen hours, and no sign of the daughter-to-be, the doctor had finally decided upon a Caesarean section, worrying that Emma wouldn't be able to keep up the work required since the baby just did not want to come and the mother was tiring. Emma had been very weak and her body had been in a delicate state for nearly two months after, which the doctors had not been able to explain.

It hadn't been until Hermione was seven months that either she or Dan had felt comfortable enough to begin getting intimate again. Hermione's first birthday had been the first time they had finally had sex again. They had gone so long without that they had nearly forgotten about it. Or at least, they never brought it up. Emma had honestly been worried by that point that Dan would find her less of a woman, but Hermione's birthday had been the turning point.

Though scared to be with him for some reason she had never really been able to understand, though she always remembered the pain and the weakness from Hermione's birth, and not willing to ever discuss it with anyone, she had finally decided to just do it. So, she tied him up and had her way with him.

He hadn't stopped that infernal grinning for three weeks.

Then came the first miscarriage. Three months after Hermione's first birthday.

Then the second.

Emma's eyes watered, hot tears trailing down her cheeks as she remembered the agonizing despair she had felt during that time. Like she wasn't a woman any longer. That those lost babies were her fault. Dan had been supportive and did his best to comfort her, but she knew what was happening. His job was to start things and hers to nurture the result. She tried to explain this to him, but he refused to accept it. He was always telling her it wasn't her fault and that it only meant those babies weren't meant to be. He was sweet and caring, but she knew he was wrong, no matter what he would tell her or how often he said it.

They had become closer, far more empathetic towards one another and bonded far more than they had ever dared dream possible when they tried to envision their love for one another while dating. But they had, eventually, stopped making love again. Dan would always hold her, and always tell her how much he loved her. He never once tried to push her. But she couldn't stand the idea of those failures anymore. The only way to ensure it didn't happen was to stop what would cause them.

Emma took a deep breath, letting her tears fall as she placed a hand gently onto her tummy, looking into the sky.

Dan had never, not even once, thought to seek the comforts of another woman. She had been miserable and feeling lower than she ever had, but she had even given her blessing. She had even told him that she had been speaking with Rebecca. She was willing to move back to be closer and they could resume their relationship where it had ended when Hermione had been born. While the blonde-haired woman had been around until Hermione was seven, she had stopped having any form of romantic relationship with them out of respect for their marriage, even if the two married Grangers had been willing to keep it as it was.

Dan had vehemently refused the offer. As much as he loved Rebecca, she had been a part of the deal with Emma originally. He was _in_ love with Emma, his wife, and that was how it was going to stay, thank you very much!

Emma had almost been able to overcome her insecurities and fears that day. But not quite.

Instead, she opened their limits to anything but actual intercourse, never denying him anything he chose to try or experiment with. It was never the same, never meaning quite the same thing to two people who were in love, but it was enough, she hoped. He assured her they could be celibate and he would be happy as long as he was with her, but she had always worried.

On her ninth birthday, Hermione wished for a baby brother or sister out loud, something she had always done silently before. She had learned and decided that there was no point keeping her wish to herself when she was five, but felt it was simply tradition. Until she learned about sex and realized her parents were the ones who needed to know, anyway. And it was their own fault for teaching her to read and not locking away various books.

Surprisingly, it worked. Dan once again grinned like a loon, only it was for a full month this time. Even when his car had been stolen a week in, he simply grinned and said stuff happens and he was insured.

From that point on, they were together fully at least twice a month and occasionally once every week, with all the desires and curious exploring that had made her feel like a lovestruck teenager again, although still quite hesitant, much like her younger self with Emily.

Now ... Now, with magic at her grasp, even if it isn't her own, Emma had found that nothing was wrong with her. When they learned of magical doctors, Emma had been curious and desperate, long-ignored fears and questions rising and she had gone to them, paying their obscene fee to find that she had a weak uterus and he gave her a potion to fix it.

One potion. One night of sleep. Problem solved. Throw in one potential boyfriend for her daughter, and the elder Grangers' romance problem was all but gone. The romance Emma saw between the two young teens lit a fire within her that she went to her husband to quench. No less than three times a night, every night, at that.

Grinning in contented happiness, Emma looked to the paper she had brought with her, clicking her pen and began to write.

_My dear, sweet, wonderful daughter Hermione,_

_It took me a while, but I made your birthday wish come true. I'm pregnant..._

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – November 24, Evening**

Ten days after the Daily Prophet's article on Harry's new status came out, leaving the boy somewhat twitchy with the way all the students looked at him, Harry was beginning to think he'd had enough. Hermione had finally been released from the hospital wing without needing to spend the night any longer right before dinner and was finally allowed to use magic on her own and attend classes, which the bushy-haired one was pleased to hear.

He had gone to the library, being followed by too many people to go to the Room of Requirement, and was sitting in a corner towards the back where he had conjured a small couch and warded the aisle in the bookshelves for privacy, which Luna and Hermione had taken advantage of in order to cuddle against him for warmth as they read, not willing to leave him alone.

However, when Hermione got up to get a new book, Harry pulled away a small bit from Luna, making the gray-eyed girl look at him inquisitively. "Er, Luna. I was wondering if I could ask you to stay the night with Hermione tonight."

Luna's brows knit together quickly and then parted slightly, looking immediately hurt. She had been with him each night for almost three weeks and had thought Harry was okay with that. He was a fan of cuddling, after all. And he was always saying to have pleasant dreams and sleep well.

"It isn't that I don't enjoy your company, Luna," Harry hurried to say, not wanting her to feel bad. "But, this will be her first night back in her own dorm and I want to be sure she'll be okay."

Harry was also worried about both how comfortable he was growing with Luna sleeping with him and because he was no closer to coming to an idea on how to fix things and it was beginning to annoy him that he couldn't help his friends. But, he also needed to get back home and copy those books he had stolen if he wanted to keep them. But, he was too nervous to simply tell her that, since he didn't think it would be a good idea to let anyone know. At least not for now.

Luna blinked, her worried expression leaving. Harry had been growing increasingly nervous and frustrated in the past few days since their talk on relationships, particularly at nighttime and mornings when he had less to occupy his mind, and she remembered her talk with her father. She felt positive she understood what he was trying to do. "You don't need to worry, Harry. I understand what you want to do and it's okay."

Harry's eyes went wide. Luna always seemed to know things that didn't seem likely or possible, but this was ridiculous! "Er, you do?"

"Of course," Luna said with a soft smile. "You don't have to hide these things from me. I have been curious about how you managed the past three weeks I've been with you. I mean, I have been with you almost from the moment you wake up to when you fall asleep."

"Oh," Harry said, sounding surprised. He was beginning to wonder if she may be part Seer. It would explain an awful lot. "Well, I've only really felt the need to take care of it since Sunday."

"Oh, when we had our talk about relationships?" Luna asked, filing that away. It seemed some things required triggers. She would have to remember that. Daddy had never told her about that, though he did mention something about some things happening quickly. He mumbled a lot at the time, and didn't really speak to her directly, but at everything else. So it was hard to hear at the time. He just couldn't seem to look her in the eye during that conversation.

Harry blushed and looked down. Both girls took whatever opportunities they could to bring that conversation up again. "Er, yes. Thanks for being so understanding."

"It's okay, Harry. It's perfectly natural."

Harry blinked. "Well, I suppose so. I just know that if I don't do it in time, then I will lose it."

Luna giggled softly before cuddling into his side and squeezing him tight. "But, in the future, if you want to rub one out, you don't need to send me away. Just let me know and I'll give you a little time alone."

Harry suddenly went bright red and his mind blanked, unsure how to respond. "Urk!"

"I thought having a girl next to you might make it easier," Luna pondered aloud, pinching her chin delicately between thumb and forefinger. It would seem her fears of Harry possibly being interested in her weren't as likely as she thought if he wouldn't do that with her there. Though, it could also be because he was so sheltered, she considered. Still, maybe that meant she didn't have to worry about holding back on the cuddles and hugs as much as she had feared. That was certainly a relief. She didn't like not being able to hug him when she felt the desire to. "But, I suppose it could be difficult if you aren't in a relationship with the girl and I have heard boys are supposed to be messy. Not to mention the awkwardness teenagers are said to have about their bodies, not that I ever really understood that."

"Understood what?" Hermione asked, coming back to the couch after losing her tail of a few students, who were hoping to follow her to Harry.

Luna flipped her hand dismissively. "Oh, Harry asked that I stay with you tonight because he wants to rub one out." Hermione went as red as Harry, who was now darting his eyes back and forth between the girls, his mouth working and only gurgling and choking sounds coming out. Grinning evilly, but only on the inside of course, Luna couldn't help but draw attention to what that thought did to Hermione. Either Hermione was intrigued, or ... "Hermione, are you okay? You suddenly look so very cold."

Matchmaker Luna was on the case!

xXxXxXx

Three hours later, Hermione was on her back with Luna sleeping soundly next to her. The brunette was unable to fall asleep, thoughts of what could be happening in the castle at that very moment, in one specific bed, keeping her mind far too active to do much else other than breathe. A lot.

She really wished she had some alone time.

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – November 25, Breakfast**

The next day was Thursday, which Harry was glad to say left him with only two classes: Runes and Arithmancy. Granted, both were double classes, but he was still looking forward to them. They were not only new, which he couldn't say for any other class, though he _did_ admit that giving Ron predictions to later come true regarding Divination was becoming a very amusing pastime, but they were also very fun for him, which he had never expected. Even after two and a half months, it didn't get old.

He only wished he hadn't been forced up most of the night, merging his stolen trove of literature with his grimoire. He had been scared that all of those copied books, since he had done so many at once, wouldn't last as long as normal. Thankfully, they had still been in his room where he had left them to get changed back into his school robes. Stashing the pilfered time-turners had been quick as well, which he was happy about.

Actually, he kind of wished Hermione didn't blush so heavily and refused to look him in the eye. Odd as it seemed, she was even physically closer to him that morning than usual, despite not looking at his face. It wouldn't have been so bad if he had actually _done_ what was making them both so nervous to begin with. But, denying it now would seem a poor attempt to lie even to him, and he _knew_ he was telling the truth.

"I honestly don't know what you're so embarrassed about," Luna said, frustrated that it looked as though her plan was backfiring on her. She _needed_ those two to get together or she would feel like she had somehow stopped it from happening! "Haven't you been practicing occlumency and legilimency against one another? You already know, or should know, you have naughty fantasies about each other. How is this really any different? And you've both seen me naked. I didn't get all awkward about it. And you two haven't even seen anything to be embarrassed about."

Harry _wanted_ to say it was because nothing actually happened, but knew better. They'd never believe him and, to be honest, he didn't want to make them think he was lying about something that was really so trivial.

He still kept his mouth shut, of course.

"You're right," Hermione sighed. "It isn't like it isn't natural. Everyone does it."

Harry's eyes went buggy for a moment as he realized what she was admitting to. He even began to stare off into space for a few seconds until Hermione's hand whacked him upside the back of his head.

"Harry, behave!"

Playful banter while his mind was currently so in the gutter he was practically on the other side of the world, Harry couldn't resist. "You can't expect me to _not_ think about it after what you just said," he admitted.

"I think about the two of you all the time," Luna offered, hoping Hermione would accept her attraction to Harry and be done with it. It wasn't like she didn't think about the two of them dating. She did almost every day and during each of her classes. She had plans to bring to fruition, after all!

But the two third-years looked at her in pink-cheeked shock since dating was different than they were thinking from her suggestive comment.

Harry and Hermione hadn't said much else until towards the end of Ancient Runes where the class was getting some surprising news from Professor Babbling. "Alright class! Now, we've studied and memorized your runes extensively and discussed how to apply them. Who would like to provide a basic synopsis?"

Several hands went into the air, Hermione's most insistent amongst them in hopes of making up for her missed time. "Mister Potter? Would you like the honors?" Harry looked betrayed as he was called upon again after having asked for volunteers. The woman did that more often than not when asking for clarification or something obscure and he had no idea why. Especially when there were people perfectly willing to answer who had raised their hands! "What is different with runes than spells, why use them and give an example to define each."

"Runes are permanent," Harry began, sighing. "They are required to enchant items since spells will wear off or weaken with ambient magics. They are meant to last. Likewise, they are capable of doing the same spells we can do from wands and, while they take longer to etch, they can perform the most complex magics far more easily than with wands and will usually end up requiring far less magic than purely with a wand because the runes contain the power rather than performing everything with pure magic like a wand would demand, which also means they can usually be more efficient."

"Example," Bathsheba demanded simply.

"Enchantments," Harry said simply. "There are two basic methods to enchant an item and imbue it with magic. The first are cheaper and usually obtained in simpler children's toys. You have your item, put minor runes to contain magic and then cast the spell so that the runes act like a container wherein the magic is then replicated on demand, such as a torch. Five runes and the lumos spell, you've got one that is usable by a child, but easy to break."

Professor Babbling raised a thin eyebrow. Those didn't exist, but would be exceptionally easy to make, cheap and children would love them. "Continue."

"The other method would be to use the runes to create the spell effect, requiring two runes for the lumos spell, but then requiring the runes to activate and deactivate the spell, along with the runes to control the power, color of the light and one to control where the power for the spell comes from so it doesn't bleed the same child dry using magic from its core. The second method requires more runes, even for such a simple spell, but will last much longer, even forever if runes to make the device impermeable were used, and would be of far greater quality."

Harry leaned back, deciding to go just a touch further. "If you took the same applications and made protection items, the first version's enchantments would shatter if hit with a single spell, either only making it one-time use, or not blocking enough to be of any good. The second version would not break and only require either recharging, or absorption properties to absorb the spells sent at the wearer to both get stronger or to deflect some of what it needs to protect the wearer from."

Bathsheba smiled brightly as she beamed at Harry before speaking to the rest of the class. "Most of what you find in Diagon Alley is going to be enchanted using the first method Mister Potter described. It's easier, by far, and requires very little in the way of understanding. You simply put the proper runes, which will almost always be the same regardless of what the effect will be, and then charge it, then you are done. The second method requires planning what runes to use that don't interfere with one another, where to place them, what order, how to connect them and then simply activating them, hoping it won't blow up in your face."

Once again, Professor Babbling gestured to the items she had uncovered their first day of class. "Each item you see there does only one primary thing. The waste basket will 'eat' the trash that is placed within it, though it is a simple vanishing charm. The faucet is nothing more than a water-conjuration rune with a variable for both knobs that determines how much power is placed into a fire or ice rune. But they all have one other thing in common. What is it?"

Moments ticked by before Hermione raised her hand, noticing what had caught her attention. "They're all fairly large, aren't they? Even your glowing sphere is a large ball."

"Yes," Babbling said with a nod. "Runes are a beautiful art that can accomplish a great many things. However, their biggest fault, other than difficulty, is size. You must have the room to do whatever it is you are attempting. That is one of the reasons enchanted items are so horribly expensive."

"What about rings, necklaces and things like that?" Harry asked, wondering about his Christmas gifts that were meant to block everything up to a certain level of power. They couldn't stop the unforgivables, but they should stop almost anything requiring the amount of power it took to cast fiendfyre. That was about a mid-level dark spell. But, those charms were rather small.

"Hellishly expensive," Bathsheba confirmed with a nod.

"No, I mean how can you put a lot into them to do like protection charms and such?" Harry asked, frowning. He knew very well how expensive they were, thank you very much!

"Ah. Depends on who makes them."

"Goblins," Harry said without preamble, getting more than just a few raised eyebrows and curious looks.

"Well, their secrets are more well-protected than almost anyone," Professor Babbling said. "They also rarely enchant anything for anyone. But, it's theorized that they somehow make the runes separate from what they are enchanting and then fold it into the metal during some sort of forging process. We have never been able to tell. They never have the runes on the outside of the item that anyone has ever been able to see and they will never enchant anything but metal. And trying to reverse the forging process destroys not only the magic in it, but usually the item and whoever is trying at the same time."

"Now," Bathsheba said with a clap of her hands. "The reason I am bringing this up is because the end of the first term will be coming in a few weeks. Your end-of-year assignment is going to be making something that requires the use of runes. You may work with a partner if you wish, but if you do, it must be complex enough that you _both_ must work on separate functions, meaning it must do multiple things."

Sitting on the desk, Professor Babbling crossed her ankles and began to swing them as she continued. "I am telling you about this now, because you will have a thesis, or an essay that explains what you expect to happen with what you build, by the time you return from your Christmas break. This will give you ample time to come up with a project and then decide on what you will do."

"You will not have to make something new," she continued. "You may find something that is already designed, which I honestly recommend for first-years unless you think up something like the torch Mister Potter mentioned and feel you can make it which I would award bonus points for, or you may make up something that is totally new or recreate something possibly obscure, though I expect research notes to prove you didn't just look up something. I will not allow anyone to use the torch idea, though. We have similar ideas using the glow spheres and Mister Potter came up with it first."

"Parchment and quills out, please. I'll give you your requirements." She waited until everyone was ready. "I will wish to know the following: what is your item made of and how does it affect your results, what functions does it have, what runes will you use and why those; you will also give me an alternative to your original design or explain why there is no such alternative and lastly, you will explain your item's purpose. Not what it does, but why we would want it with multiple examples."

Hermione immediately raised her hand, getting permission to speak. "Professor, if we take something that already exists and find some way to improve upon it, would that be acceptable? For example, Harry mentioned changing the color of the lumos for his torch example. If I would also like to see about making it send out pictures as well, could that be acceptable also? Like if I wanted it to project an underwater scene for a baby's room or those who like aquariums?"

"I would want something better than a static picture, but yes. Making a change like that on a current item would be acceptable." The teacher looked around the class, seeing if anyone else had questions. Finding none, she smiled. "Alright! Now then. If you cannot find something to do, come to me by the end of next week and I will assign you a project. Otherwise, you may take this class to come up with ideas and find a partner who would like to work on a similar idea as well."

Hermione immediately turned to Harry, thinking he would be about to ask, but instead found him pondering quietly. Blinking owlishly, she poked him in the side. "What are you thinking about?"

Harry looked to Hermione before humming to himself in thought. "I've been thinking about something for a while now, but your glow sphere question gave me another thought and I'm trying to decide which I want to do."

Hermione's eyebrows rose and a smirk showed on her face. "What're your ideas? Maybe I can help or, if you choose one, I may take the other. I was planning on thinking up something new for the extra credit."

Harry smiled as he hugged Hermione around her shoulders with one arm. "That's why you're you, Hermione," he said, getting a pink blush from the girl. "I've been having lots of ideas when I decided to take this class, though I doubt most are realistic. But, I was thinking about making a ball you can store a memory in and it would play like when you go inside of a pensieve and it's like you're really inside of the memory, but nothing actually touches you. So, it'd be like a projection to fill up the room."

"That's impressive, but possibly a little difficult for us," Hermione said, thinking of how interesting that could be. It would be a nice way to share the magical world with her parents. "I saw a pensieve in Diagon Alley and really wanted to get it, but it was extremely expensive and it was covered completely in runes."

Harry nodded, thinking about the one in Dumbledore's office. "True. My other idea was to bring magic to muggles and squibs." After all, if he could create special wands that provided shields, her family would be much safer, as would virtually anyone's. And, knowing most adults couldn't cast a Patronus, then those would be crazy popular.

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure that out. "How? They can't use magic. Filch is always complaining about things like that when he's not talking about torturing a student."

Harry grinned. "It's actually pretty easy from what I can tell. It's just not very efficient. I guess you could call it a magical prosthesis. Just don't make any 'prosthetic wand' comments."

"Harry!" Hermione chided with a yelp of surprise and a blush as she caught on and smacked his arm, even though she had a huge grin and barely refrained from laughing loudly. When had Harry begun to make such crude jokes? When did she honestly start finding them funny?

Harry snickered before shaking his head. "Actually, this is a precursor to something I was thinking about making for your parents."

"My ... parents?" Hermione asked quietly, being thrown totally off guard.

"Well, think about it. The wizarding world doesn't really seem to have much in the way of dentists. I mean, have you _seen_ some of the mouths of the magicals in Diagon Alley?"

"Yea," Hermione said with a flinch. "My parents did, first, though. Apparently, all they have in the way of dental hygiene is a potion that acts like mouthwash and one that whitens teeth other than a breath freshening charm. Other than that, they've got a spell that turns your food to mash so you can gum it. That's why they send me here every year with a dozen extra toothbrushes and extra tubes of paste."

Harry simply smiled. "Well, I was thinking of using this same concept for a secret project and magical dental tools," he explained. "If they chose to take up a magical dental clinic, your parents would completely corner the market."

Hermione's eyes had gone glassy as she thought about her parents joining her in this world of magic and she barely noticed as she cuddled into Harry's side as her daydream went off from there.

"Hermione?" Harry asked. "Hermione, you're cutting off circulation ... Er, Hermione, my hand is going numb..."

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – November 25, Lunch**

Harry's hand was still tingling as he entered the Great Hall with Hermione, who was much more chipper than she had been since getting out of the hospital wing that morning. She was apparently very happy with Harry's idea and only upset that he was hoping to figure it out on his own.

Honestly, he was hoping to learn this particular subject well enough that he didn't have to ask Hermione for her help at all. It was the one thing he could try to use and determine if he was really progressing of his own merits, or if he was simply ahead of the rest simply because he had already lived through those particular classes.

Just as the two entered the Great Hall, however, Harry's good mood was completely destroyed by an aristocratic drawl that Harry had come to truly despise. "Oh look," Draco Malfoy spoke to those around him, "the mudblood survived after all! What a pity! I swear, her kind are like cockroaches. You just can't get rid of them!"

The half dozen students around Draco that were laughing suddenly stopped as Harry rushed to Draco and grabbed him by the neck with one hand, subtly using wandless magic to lighten the boy so he could lift him up. "And Death Eaters and their spawn are like the plague," Harry growled, squeezing Draco's throat enough to make the blond boy begin to choke. "You know, Malfoy, not even a hundred years ago, people like you would be taken to the public square and burned at the stake just because you make a mockery of everything about magical culture."

"Harry, stop!" Hermione demanded, unable to believe the Harry she knew was suddenly being so violent. "You'll get in trouble!"

"When my f-father hears a-about this," Draco seethed through gnashed teeth, struggling for every breath he took.

"That's why I will _never_ respect you, Malfoy!" Harry roared, shoving his arm forward and pressing his victim into the wall, causing Draco to squeak as air escaped his constricted throat and his face began to redden. His eyes were beginning to water and turn pink as the blood found it had nowhere to go. The various people around them were suddenly quite confused, most especially the Slytherins.

"Potter! Unhand him right now!" Snape yelled, brandishing his wand, only to be knocked back as a shimmering shield popped into existence around the duo. Only Minerva recognized it as the castle's magic and not Harry's as she sent a message for Dumbledore to get there right away.

Without seeing any of this, Harry continued after lessening his grip enough to make sure Draco was looking at him as the Malfoy scion grabbed weakly at Harry's hands, silently pleading for release. "You're pathetic, Malfoy! Any time something happens in your minimal existence, you rush to Daddy and whine like a weak little _child_ who had his toy taken. Where is your father now!" Harry roared.

Draco looked around, hoping someone, anyone, would come to his defense, but no one did. Most were totally unsure of what they _could_ do, much less how to go about it. All Draco could hear was his heart beating, louder and slower, under Potter's angry assault. Still, Harry continued.

"_I_ am here right now, Malfoy," Harry continued to growl. "_I_ am here, deciding I have had enough of your shite that I'm going to do something about it! Where is your father? Where is his political power now? What are you going to do now that you can't just run to Daddy?"

Harry's lip curled before he let the Malfoy heir drop to the ground in a heap, coughing to clear his abused airways and gulping in air as a headache began to form. "Ever since our first train ride to Hogwarts," Harry began as Draco glared up at him, "you have been a prick who can't keep his prejudice out of everyday conversation or your mouth _shut_ around people who constantly outclass you in every way. This is the end, Malfoy."

Several spines felt a shiver run their lengths as Harry's voice leveled out and became a low tone that promised pain.

"You've worked hard, almost daily for the past two and a half years, to turn me into an enemy, even when me and my friends ignore you like the pest you are. Continue as you have been, and I promise, I'll become the enemy you are making me."

Dumbledore, having arrived just in time to hear Harry's ultimatum couldn't help the feeling of fear and dread that ran down his spine and made all of his beard hairs straighten. "What is going on here?" Albus demanded, speaking loudly into the throng and seeming even louder from the silence that had enveloped everyone.

"Malfoy called Hermione a mudblood who was like a cockroach because you can't get rid of them. I decided to make my displeasure known and warn him off speaking like that again, _sir_," Harry said, still glaring at Malfoy who had turned away almost immediately, feeling not only embarrassed that this had happened in the Great Hall in front of most of the school, but like he actually _was_ the weakling Potter just claimed him to be. It also didn't help that it was a hard reality to face that any time he had a problem, he went to his father or, if it was a relatively minor thing in school, Severus since the man was his godfather.

"Mister Potter, you cannot go about threatening students whenever they say things you do not like," Dumbledore warned. "That will be fifty points from Gryffindor and a week's detentions."

Harry snorted, finally looking away from Draco to the old man who looked at him with what appeared disappointment. "Do you see the counters changing?" He asked rhetorically, since everyone could tell they hadn't budged. "You have allowed Draco and his ilk to spout off all the garbage they want in the Great Hall and the school as a whole and allow them to get away with hexing students, most especially in the dungeons and they tend to get away without a slap on the wrist. Or, in Snape's classes, a Slytherin may botch up one of our cauldrons, and they'll get points while we lose them. Screw that," Harry stated bitterly.

Harry knew he shouldn't be doing or saying these things, but his body was aching from the exercises, he was scared to death over what would happen to Luna and how to handle that situation as a whole, the memories he had of what happened to Hermione that he seemed to recover were playing in his dreams and all the stuff about him and his status in the papers had him frustrated, angry and just as bitter as he sounded. He also couldn't quite place a finger on it, but there was something about Draco that was making him madder at the blond ponce whenever he spouted off that pureblood crap that made him feel like he did before remembering Hermione's torture, and that scared him because he didn't think he could handle another such memory.

"Mister Potter, we do the best we can-," McGonagall began, only to cut off when Harry snorted again.

"You were in here, McGonagall," he bit out, looking angrily at the graying Scotswoman. "You are almost always here when this happens and you don't do a damn thing. The only time I hear you defending us from this crap is in your classroom. Don't think we're idiots just because we're young. We can tell when you don't stand up for us, Professor."

Luna walked in from her Herbology class, having been required to bathe to get the mud that had found its way onto her and her clothes to find the Great Hall silent and everyone looking at Harry or a horrified and ashamed McGonagall. "Well ... This certainly looks awkward," she said into the quiet.

"Just had to make a point, Luna," Harry said as he motioned both her and Hermione to the Gryffindor table as everyone sat in their seats and began talking about what had just happened and how the teachers weren't doing anything else about it, it seemed.

"I think it was bloody brilliant!" Ron said from the table where he had seen all the action. "That slimy git looked like he was about to piss himself! Way to go, Harry!"

"A point?" Hermione asked angrily. "Harry, you just physically assaulted Malfoy and threatened him!"

"Which was the point I had to make," Harry said simply. "Do you not remember that Draco has been a little prick since day one? Or that he tried to get Buckbeak killed because _Draco_ was the one being an idiot? Or that his father is the one who gave Ginny the diary last year that set the basilisk loose on the school?"

Hermione winced with the last few points, but still couldn't let it slide. "Harry, we can't hold Draco responsible for his father's actions. And yes, Draco's been a little weasel, but it hardly constitutes fighting."

"He reminds me more of a ferret for some reason," Luna said with a shrug, grabbing for her dinner.

"Hermione, what did he say that upset me?" Harry asked, wondering if Hermione was serious.

"He called me a mudblood," she said. "He's done it before and it's a hurtful comment, but it isn't much different than any other name."

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "He also said you should have died and it was a shame you didn't. It may not have been those words, but it was certainly the meaning."

"Harry, you just can't go about getting into fights with anyone you dislike-"

"Dislike?" Harry asked. "Hermione, I know you don't like what I did and, to be honest I wasn't too fond of it either, but it had to be done. He needs to realize there are consequences for your actions and, if the staff can't do it, then I will."

"Why you, Harry?" Hermione asked simply. "Why do you have to be the one to do it?" She was thinking of consequences to his own actions as well, but she was also beginning to think he knew what he was doing, even if he _was_ being an idiot about it all.

"Because no one else will," he said after a moment. He sighed, gesturing with his chin to the room at large. "Look around, Hermione. Most of the school was here at the time and several dozen heard what was going on. They don't do anything because they're scared of punishments and retaliation and because it's been going on for decades if not centuries."

Harry shook his head, gesturing to the staff table. "The teachers let it happen. McGonagall is almost always here when the meal hour starts and is never saying or doing anything to put a stop to it. I admit she's said that there is nothing legally wrong about it, but it is still _morally _wrong to say such prejudiced things and they can still stop it when they're around. She never defends us against the bullshit excuses Snape comes up with to take points and give detentions."

"Too right, mate," Ron said as he chewed. "Remember that greasy git taking points from Hermione for 'being an annoying know-it-all'? Or whenever she answers questions correctly and he gets angry and says she answered too much? Or when I breathed too loud, blinked too much, tried to eat the ingredients or the like?"

"I remember every time," Harry said with a nod of his head. He looked back to Hermione who looked less sure of herself and as though beginning to contemplate his view.

"Hermione, let me ask you something. Think of what's going on here like ... I don't know, women's voting rights. Do you remember when women got the right to vote?" He asked, figuring she'd remember from primary school. He knew it was recently, but not exactly when.

"Nineteen eighteen," she answered promptly, looking at him curiously. "At least for women in the U.K., why? What does that have to do with this? They aren't the same thing."

"No, but they're similar in nature," Harry explained. "How behind the times is the wizarding world compared to the muggle?"

"Probably a good two hundred years," she said with a frown. "Less in many areas, but the social norms and mores seem to be about that period."

Ron looked at his two friends with confusion and a bit of disgust. The conversation was boring and about a bunch of stupid topics. And he didn't take too well to being told his society was somehow inferior to the muggles who couldn't even use magic.

"Right," Harry nodded. "Now, women at the time were a somewhat subjugated party, right? Seen as somewhat inferior and needing to be protected and without many rights?"

"Yes," Hermione growled out. She could tell where he was going with this.

"I'm not saying it was right, Hermione," Harry said calmly. "You've more than proven women can be better than men in a good many areas by yourself than just examples from the past. But what I'm saying is, any changes that have had to come in the past, no matter which world you look at, had to come from people standing up and saying 'no more'. They had to fight for what they believed in and for their rights. This isn't any different. The way the school is run now is the same as it was fifty years ago when Voldemort was rising to power, including the bigotry on account of a person's parentage."

"I understand that, Harry," Hermione said with a sigh as she slumped and moved her food around with her fork. "I just don't like the idea of you in trouble or getting into fights. I don't think violence is the answer."

Harry smiled warmly. "I don't either, to be honest," he admitted. "But if we're honest, I'm probably one of the only ones who _can_ right now. And if it doesn't start in school, then where _will_ it start? These are developmental years," he said, paraphrasing something she told him in their fifth year to get him to lead the Defense Association. Hopefully, she actually believed that and this would help her think similarly. "This is when we have to make the changes, or it won't happen."

"If it means you kick Malfoy around some more, I'm all for it, mate," Ron said happily, causing Hermione to glare at him.

Harry, seeing that, shook his head. "It isn't about that, Ron," he said, hoping Hermione was paying attention. "It's necessary."

For some reason, Hermione wanted to ask _why_. _Why_ was it necessary to do these things and what was with his sudden drive to learn, study and the very different personality since the summer. But, she knew that, even if she did ask, he probably would never answer her there. So she waited, biding her time until she felt she could get answers out of him.

Her plotting was interrupted as an owl flew down and held out its leg to her.

"Who'd send you something?" Ron asked, coming across a little more belligerently than he meant for it to. He didn't know anyone in the magical world that would send Hermione anything.

"My parents, Ron," Hermione grumbled. "They do, on occasion, like to talk to their only daughter, whom they only see for about two months a year. I showed them how they can send me mail from the post office in Diagon Alley if they want to send me letters without responding to what I send to them." She took the letter and began reading, hoping to ignore Ron and his eating habits for a little while.

She almost immediately squeaked in shock.

"Is everything okay?" Harry asked, wondering at her wide eyes and gaping mouth.

"My ... my mother's pregnant," Hermione said quietly, continuing to read the short message and then putting it down.

Luna clapped happily and grinned widely. "Congratulations! Do you know if you'll have a brother or sister yet?"

"No, not yet," Hermione said, still shocked. "It's too early to tell yet. "She found out about two weeks ago, but was nervous about how to tell me."

"I wonder how that happened," Harry wondered to himself out loud. He wasn't sure what had happened to make something _that_ huge change, especially in relation to the Grangers. _He_ certainly hadn't been the cause of it!

Hermione blushed, looking at Harry wide-eyed even as Ron laughed at him. "Harry, mate! Really? Even _I_ know that!" Ron chuckled, slapping Harry on the back.

Harry scowled. "Not _that_, Ron! I understand _that_ part."

"Oh yea?" Ron asked, thinking Harry was covering for his lack of knowledge. "Then what sized cauldron do you grow 'em in, huh? And when do you plant them in the cabbage patch?"

Hermione, Luna and Harry, even Neville, looked at Ron like he was crazy.

"What?" The redhead asked, suddenly feeling defensive. "Dad told me all about it! You make the potion in the bed, then plant it like a head of cabbage and it'll grow in nine months. How do you think the Weasleys have so many? We have all sorts of room for planting cabbages."

Luna, Hermione and Neville looked to Harry, who immediately put his hands up and shook his head. "Forget it! I'm not telling him a bloody thing!"

"Not to worry, Harry," one of the twins said, sidling up to Ron's left.

"We'll handle this. It's only right," the other said from Ron's right, finally making the youngest male pale as he was dragged off, complaining about still eating. Neither twin really cared, though. They had a story to tell, and then testing to perform.

Harry watched the youngest male Weasleys leave as Ron tried to escape the twins' clutches, a plan forming in his head. "Heh," Harry laughed once. "Heh heh... Ha! MWA HA HA!"

Hours of practice in front of the mirror _finally_ came into play as he finally managed the perfect evil villain laugh, making a few of the students near him look on in worry as the Great Hall quieted as Harry Potter seemed to snap.

"Harry?" Hermione asked carefully, unsure of Harry's deep belly laughter. It sounded like something from an old Superman cartoon from the cliché and corny villain.

Harry stopped laughing, but maintained a wider-than-sane grin as he looked down to Hermione. "Don't worry. I just got an idea," he told her, stuffing his mouth quickly and then rushing from the Great Hall and to the owlry, after a quick stop to 'borrow' a mail-order catalog from Alicia Spinnet.

"Sorry Hedwig," Harry soothed his familiar as he called a school owl to him. "This is just an order for a prank. I wanted to save you because Hermione's going to be sending an important letter to her parents. Apparently, they're having a baby! Is that okay?"

Hedwig, properly appeased, hooted softly, glancing down at Harry's order only to squawk in shock and then looked up at Harry questioningly.

"Well, it's a prank, you see," Harry said with a grin, causing Hedwig to snuffle in laughter.

_Name: Draco Malfoy_

_Age: Old Enough_

_Delivery Method: Theme (Submissive, 10G)_

_Delivery Location: Hogwarts, Great Hall, 7:30PM - Dinner_

_Catalog: 6252_

_Items:_

_Fuzzy Pink restraints: x4_

_Cat o' Nine-Tails: x1_

_Anal Plugs:_

_Extra Large: x2_

_Large: x1_

_Small: x8_

_Face Mask 8 w/zipper mouth: x1_

_Assless Chaps (leather): x2_

_Choker (w/owner tag: "SNAPE"): x1_

_Enchanted Teaching Tools (Sub; Bond on contact): x2_

"Hoot?" Hedwig asked.

"No, I don't really think it's too much," Harry responded easily, rolling the order form up and tying it to the owl's leg. "He was in the middle of the Great Hall and said Hermione should have died. I think this is a small thing, don't you?" He asked, adding the gold to the order via the pouch included with the form.

Hedwig hissed her agreement, making the other owls shift uncomfortably.

xXxXxXx

"Baby steps, baby steps," she chanted rhythmically to herself, doing her best to move forward on her legs and maintain her balance at the same time.

In the past hour, she'd moved about nine feet.

Hogwarts had been working diligently on her father's idea, hoping to make him proud by being able to move about like a big girl. It was strange, she noticed, to want him to feel a certain emotion for her, specifically, but she liked the feeling. It had been a long time since she had really felt anything but what the students themselves felt. It was nothing like having those emotions playing about inside of her as her own. What she felt from the students and staff was like a poor imitation, an echo, of what she felt right then.

It had actually required a substantial portion of her ability to focus to control her body. She never actually realized just how much work it took to be human. Granted, she _wasn't_ human, not really, but she could create a human body simulacrum and put her awareness into it. That part had, surprisingly enough, been easy. She wouldn't be able to use much magic, though, or the body would lose its ability to form and would fade away, sending her consciousness reeling back into Hogwarts, though. However, _in_ Hogwarts, her real body, she would be perfectly fine.

"Eep!" Hogwarts' new body went tumbling, falling onto the many pillows and rolling, making her giggle. She hadn't been fond of falling until she thought of using pillows around her. Before that, falling hurt. Now, though, the sensation was very interesting. She had _never_ felt that sensation of movement, before. It was _exhilarating_! And she couldn't get over wriggling her fingers and toes! They were so ... _wriggly_!

She giggled, thinking it would be fun to go falling with her father and whichever girl was probably her mother. And if she couldn't figure it out, then she'd just ask if both would adopt her, thus taking the problem away. She wasn't really biological, so there was no way she could think of to test her heritage. And she took magic from so many sources and even the earth itself that she knew her magic would feel different from anyone else's. It would even be a little different tomorrow than it was that day. It always fluctuated.

Grinning like Luna was prone to, the girl decided she would work a little on crawling again. It was surprisingly tiring to keep falling and getting back up. She had no idea how the humans could do it so often.

She withdrew much more of her attention from the school itself, leaving only enough to keep her defenses active and monitored, along with monitoring her father in case she needed to shield him again. It meant she couldn't enjoy the random conversations anymore, since she couldn't hear in the halls anymore, or the classrooms, which had been amongst the first places she withdrew her attentions since there was staff there, but hopefully, she would learn to walk, and soon even run!

Hogwarts immediately gulped in breaths and coughed. "Ah! I forgot to breathe again!"

Taking the time to remember to breathe _and_ keep her balance this time, Hogwarts began anew. For only six days of practice, she felt she was doing pretty well.

"Honestly, how could there _not_ be books about this in the library! This is far more difficult than some of those spells!" Grinning, she began moving forward carefully, continuing to talk to herself after realizing early on that it helped her remember to breathe, meaning she did a lot of it, usually faster the more excited she became. "After I learn to walk, I'll decide on how I want my body to look! Father will be so pleased with me!"

xXxXxXx

"Me? What about you?" Harry asked sitting in a chair by the fireplace in the common room while Hermione lounged on the couch early the next morning. "She went to bed in your dorm last night. Why didn't you notice her getting up?"

"I've not been sleeping well," Hermione huffed. "I've been tired. You, however, have always been a very light sleeper. Why didn't you notice her crawling into bed? She _was_ naked again." Hermione wondered if maybe he _had_ noticed, and just didn't care, or if maybe he enjoyed it. She knew Luna probably got dressed first, again. That was what she usually did, but for some reason, she didn't always.

"She's sneaky," Harry said with a shrug, looking curiously smug.

"Harry, I've seen you wake up just from people moving around you," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "No one is _that_ sneaky when it comes to you."

"Exhibit 'A'," Harry said, pointing to Hermione's lap. "Look down."

Hermione did so, confusedly, only to barely withhold a shriek as she found Luna snuggled up and sleeping in her lap. "Wha-How? We left her in your bed!"

"She's like a sleepy little ninja," Harry said with an affectionate smirk.

Hermione looked up, letting her hands rest on Luna's shoulders and lightly stroking the girl's hair out of habit. "Okay. I retract my earlier accusations and apologize for thinking there was any way you would wake up from this."

Harry chuckled. "Well, look at the bright side. She dressed before going to sleep this time. But I'll want to find out why she didn't have clothes on to begin with again. I thought it was just Cho and her group that was doing that."

"Mm, just one of the students' dung bombs had gone off in our dorm," Luna said groggily, fisting her eyes while yawning. "Peeves took them in and I didn't have anything that was clean after a quick shower except my cloak."

"Sorry to wake you, Luna," Hermione apologized.

"It's not a problem. I didn't mean to fall asleep again. I've been having some bad dreams about what Cho did to you, so I just wanted to stay close." While Luna cuddled into the embrace Hermione provided, Harry pondered as he realized that he hadn't really been having many nightmares since coming back. He had been reliving what he thought were reclaimed memories, at least the one of Hermione where Bellatrix had a hold of her, but nothing overly serious beyond that. And during the summer, he couldn't really remember getting many. That had never really happened to him before unless he was sleeping with Hermione and sharing their body heat. He wondered why that was happening.

It was nearly an hour later when they were nearing the Great Hall for breakfast that they spoke again.

"Er, Harry?" Hermione asked after a few minutes of companionable silence.

"Hm?"

"I've been working on my mental defenses since you last tested them. I was wondering if you wanted to try them again."

Harry blushed, thinking about that last time and the things he had inadvertently learned and seen. "I don't mind if you don't, but are you sure you're okay with me possibly finding another memory like before?"

Hermione also blushed, but less so than Harry. She wouldn't tell him, but she had been thinking about purposefully sending him into a memory like that, just to see his response to it. There may have also been a little hope he'd return the favor again, though, too. "I trust you Harry, and it isn't like you haven't already seen things that are a little embarrassing."

Harry nodded after a moment. "Alright. What about you, Luna? You mentioned you know about these things. Do you want to test your shields also? Just to see how strong they are? I don't really know much about legilimency, but my book said it was good to be tested every now and then."

Luna considered that for a moment, wondering at what he may find in her mind, but decided it was highly unlikely he could break her defenses. Her father was exceptional at the mind arts, even if a trifle odd, and he couldn't get past them anymore. "It would probably be a good idea," she agreed after a second from his question. "If you don't mind, I'd also like both of you to try. A mind can build an immunity to a single probe if it is done often enough."

"You mean it's good to practice defending yourself from multiple people?" Hermione asked. "Or just one single probe regardless?"

"Not at once if at all possible, but yes," Luna agreed with a bob of her head. "Different minds think differently, so they will attack differently, using different methods. Learning to defend your mind from multiple minds is good for finding holes in your defenses. So, if you don't mind, I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

Hermione blushed as Harry nodded, being unfamiliar with that particular phrase as he agreed immediately. "Er, what do you model your mindscape after, Luna?" The brunette asked.

The doe-eyed girl looked to Hermione quizzically. "Mindscape? I'm afraid I don't have one."

"Then how do you defend your mind?" Hermione asked.

"With my walnut," Luna explained simply, shrugging as though it were obvious.

Hermione spluttered a response for several seconds, unsure of what to say.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – November 27, After breakfast **

That Saturday, the twenty-seventh, found Harry actually stalking Argus Filch for the first time he could ever remember, rather than the creepy old man stalking a student. He had just recently finished breakfast and had a large amount to do that day, so chose to get this meeting out of the way as early as possible. "Mister Filch?"

The scraggly man spun on his heel and regarded Harry with a venomous gaze. "Wha' d'ya want?" Filch snapped, suspicious of the boy. "You here t'ah prank old' Filch! You won't succeed! I'm on t'ah you troublemakers!" His eyes darted about, looking for anything that could suggest the boy had an accomplice hiding somewhere. He may not be able to perform magic, but he could see it and he knew how to look for disillusioned people, but he didn't see any of the tell-tell distortions in the air.

"No pranks," Harry said, somehow feeling guilty that the first place Filch would go would be thinking Harry was there to do something to him. He had never realized it before, but the man really didn't have any sort of defense against literally every single person in the school. He was the only one incapable of using magic and he really even had cause to fear the first years using magic. He silently resolved not to cause the grouchy man any more grief than necessary. Harry never went out of his way to do anything, but he didn't exactly bother to help the man out, either, when dealing with the mess left in his wake.

"Then what 're you here for?" Filch wheezed suspiciously, narrowing his eyes at Harry.

"I am taking two classes, Runes and Arithmancy. I'm going to be combining my projects for both classes into one substantial project. Basically, I'm going to make pre-loaded wands," Harry explained. "My hope is to make them so that even a muggle could use them. My problem, though, is that I'll need someone who _isn't_ magical to demonstrate them. I was hoping you'd be willing to do so if I made some specifically for you; ones preloaded with cleaning, vanishing and lighting spells, including one for shields and probably a warming charm."

Filch was a bastard, but not an idiot. "You'll be wantin' me to test these then?" The idea of using magic, even if it was with a crutch like what Potter was on about, was too great to pass up for a man who had, since his birth, been ostracized, ridiculed and tormented for his lack of magical ability. Even if this was some horrific trick by the lad, even if it meant he'd get his heart crushed later, he couldn't really say no to the chance. To the _possibility_ of it all.

"I'll be doing the testing myself," Harry said. "I'll not risk hurting someone if they fail or blow up or something. But once I _do_ test them, I'll need to be sure someone can use them without casting through it or powering it through their own magic. That's where you'll come in. Then I'll double-check my findings by asking some muggles I know who are aware of magic. If you accept, I'll make preset wands for you to help in your job here that you can keep."

Filch was silent and stared at Harry for a good few minutes. He wanted to believe, he dreamed of the day, but never would he suspect that any of the hellions at Hogwarts could ever provide, nor would he have ever thought that they _would_. They hated him and he hated them. That level of hatred had been growing in the past sixty-some years and he believed it always would. But this ... he could be _normal_ for once! Or as close to it as he could ever be. "Would you also be givin' me a set t'eh defend meself from the bastards who're always goin' about an' hexin' me?"

Harry pondered for a moment before reluctantly shaking his head. "You're constantly talking about torturing students and how you'd like to string us up and the like. I won't give you anything to help you with something like that, but I _will_ make something for you that you can prove it happened that you can bring to me any time something happens. If a student really does hex you when you're defenseless, or even if you've got the shield wand and just can't fight back, I'll ensure they suffer for it. And if it's bad enough, I may let you decide their punishments, but you won't be able to torture anyone. Perhaps they'll have to be your magic and do all your cleaning for however long or something."

Filch growled, feeling it wasn't very fair at all. But, he could admit the boy was smarter than he had taken him for. Argus had been alone for a very long, long time, in wanting things to go back to the good old days. Suddenly gaining the power to do those things probably wasn't for the best anyway. Not unless he wanted the Potter brat after his hide. Besides, there were all sorts of ways he had envisioned using magic in roundabout ways through the years. Something along the lines of, 'if I only had that spell at my disposal' where he could think of all the different ways to use it. "No harm in a tripping jinx one, eh?"

"We'll see," Harry said diplomatically, though in the same tone of voice a parent would use to their child meaning 'not bloody likely'.

"Fine," Argus grumbled. "I'll help yeh out. But don't go expectin' me to go easy on yeh if'n I ever see you breaking the rules!"

"Fair enough," Harry said, turning and walking away with a grin.

Harry had been serious when he told Hermione he wanted to see if he could make magical variations to dental tools for her parents, but that, and this, were both stepping stones into what he was hoping to do. He wanted to find a way to create a wand that would basically break any ward that he came across. Not a single thing he had read thus far said it was possible, but none said that it _wasn't_ possible, either. His hope was to set up wards of his own from simple silencing ones up to whatever he could do and see how things reacted.

Simple baby steps.

xXxXxXx

**23:59 – Saturday – November 27 – Hogwarts: Chamber of Secrets**

Later that night, after Harry made a very public and long Defense Association meeting and going to the restroom on the sixth floor that he had prearranged to get a particular item, he was alone, standing in the center of the Chamber of Secrets, waiting for the little wind-up clock he had placed there that morning to do its thing. As the second hand ticked away, he closed his eyes and spun the little hourglass in his hand twelve times and took a deep breath. He could feel his body beginning to produce obscene amounts of adrenaline and his magic rise up.

The little clock struck midnight and the alarm began ringing loudly in the stone chamber, causing Harry to expel all his breath in an instant and release the hourglass, turning backwards in time.

**Midnight – Now Sunday, Nov, 28 Hogwarts: Chamber of Secrets**

xXxXxXx

**13:00 – Saturday, November 27 – Hogwarts: Great Hall**

"I just don't really think a whole day of this really makes sense," Ron grumbled as a large portion of the student body remained in the Great Hall after lunch.

"It actually makes a fair bit of sense," Hermione admitted. "We just ate and have all that energy. As long as we're not doing a lot of physical moving around, then why not use it to help us with spellwork?"

"You're just sayin' that because he promised you could be a teaching assistant," Ron snorted. "I'd rather be taking a nap right now, or maybe playing some chess. But there's no way I'm lettin' some Slytherins get ahead of me."

Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry took the teachers' dais. "Alright everyone! I'm personally ahead on my homework and have most of the day free, so I am going to be here all day helping anyone who needs it on any charms they've got while trying to teach you a more advanced form of the shields you've learned so far. What you've learned are things you have to hide behind. You can't run and keep a simple 'Protego' active. They don't work that way. What I'm going to teach you now is a shield that can move with you. This is what you may use when you're covering for someone to get out of harm's way or to get to them to help them."

"What are the wand movements?" Terry Boot asked from Ravenclaw.

"No wand movements," Harry said simply. "No incantation, either."

"What!" Multiple voices cried out. The rabble died down rather quickly when Harry held up his hands before he smirked. "Hermione, if you would?"

"Obscura converti! (Invert Sight)" A white light dashed towards Harry who held out his wand and a U-shaped case of what looked like glowing ice-blue glass or a crystal macaroni showed up, only for one end to take the spell and send it out the other like a funnel out of the Great Hall windows and into the midday sky.

"As you can see, this wasn't the simple dome shape. I can actually make this shield whatever shape I want by imagining it. I could have launched the enemy's spell right back at them or use it to block myself while sending cover fire for an ally all at once. The only problem with this shield is not that it is complicated, but that you have to also imagine it not moving, or the impact of any spells can knock it back into you or just shatter it."

"How do you do it?" Boot asked.

"This is something you command your magic to do. There are no spells or wand movements because this is you controlling your magic, not simply letting the spell do it all for you. It's not as easy, but you get a lot more flexibility out of it. I've got a few people I've been teaching this to in the last few weeks, and they'll walk around and help everyone. But first, just point your wand out, and imagine the magic coming out in whatever shape you want," Harry explained, beginning to teach everyone the foundation to what would later be wandless magic, though he didn't want them to know that yet. After all, that was going to be something he would share only with those he wanted to join him later after he felt he could garner their trust.

xXxXxXx

**14:00 – Saturday, November 27 – Potter Manor: Head's Study**

Harry looked at his hands as he controlled his breathing, barely remembering to keep calm. For the first time he could remember, his outfit had changed on him. As he shifted back to his home, a skill he could honestly say he had nearly forgotten about being able to use in Hogwarts, he found his outfit shifting into some sort of inky blackness that had scared him until he remembered Lora telling him something about it. War Wizard robes, or something or other. From the top of his neck down, there wasn't a single portion of his body that was visible as it was all covered in what appeared to be black metal that felt and looked like silk. The only differences in the inky blackness were red runes that were such a dark red they may as well have been black themselves. It was tight, formfitting and he had a dark red cloak that, like the runes, was so dark it may as well have been black as well. There really was very little difference between the colors. And Harry knew, though not totally sure how, that if he brought up the cowl to the cloak, it would mask his face and voice. And he knew, beyond a doubt, that the entire thing contained runes not to assist in his own magic, but to contain his magic within him, making him invisible from any form of divining or magical gaze. Wards would not see him, as long as he had his cowl up, and they would not affect him.

On his shins and forearms, he could tell were some sort of magical weapons, but he hadn't the foggiest idea of how to use them, except the one under his right wrist. It was a little red T-shaped protuberance that hooked onto his left glove like the head of a nail and a hammer. If he pulled his arms apart, he would have a garroting wire, he knew. He tried it, seeing how it fit. That was how he figured out what this outfit was meant for, and why he knew he couldn't go back on his actions now. He could not, no matter what he would later wish, go back on his plans. These were robes of assassins, as far as he could tell.

Shadows would stretch to cover him, hiding him in their dark embrace. Magic wards would drift around him like the waters parting before a rock, only to meld back together after passing him. He could not make noise directly. Everything he touched was quiet unless it made noise due to touching something else. He didn't even make signs in the dust or leave wet marks when the suit got wet from his drink. The water would not adhere to his armor, at all.

Harry placed his Flamebrand daggers in their sheaths and attached them to his back, under the cloak, and placed a few vials of potions, no larger than his thumb, into the belt at his waist. The Sword of Gryffindor, feeling need, would not allow itself to be placed down. It stayed at his waist, but shrunken and also hidden in the belt.

"I is ready, Master," the house elf said somberly, knowing what was about to happen and trusting in his master that it needed to be done. For this day, there would be no names. There could be nothing that hinted at who was responsible. They were 'Elf' and 'Master'. Dobby, bless his understanding soul, was also dressed in head-to-toe black, numerous pockets all over himself, each stuffed to the brim with only he knew what.

"Show me," Harry ordered.

"This is the map of Enemy One, and this is Enemy Two," Elf said, laying out carefully drawn maps in front of Master, discussing the wards, defenses and resistance to follow.

xXxXxXx

**16:45 Saturday, November 27 – Hogwarts: Great Hall**

"You're all doing pretty good," Harry praised, surprised despite himself. Despite what he thought before, the trend he saw with the study group seemed to continue. "You younger years seem to be getting the hang of this a little faster than most of the older years, but that's probably because you haven't become totally accustomed to using a wand yet and it's easier. Whatever the case, you're doing very well. We've got fifteen minutes until dinner starts. Let's clear out of here and enjoy dinner, then I'll be ready to continue on from seven until a half hour before curfew."

Harry hopped down from the dais and walked up to his friends. "You guys did really great."

"Well, you _have_ been showing us how to do this for few weeks now," Hermione said simply.

"Yea, but you've only practiced when the group gets together," Harry refuted. "So, it sometimes takes you half the lesson to get back to where you ended on the previous one. You began getting it almost immediately this time."

Hermione blushed as Luna simply grinned back at Harry, having been practicing on her own as well. Usually in small ways though, such as sending a blast of her magic at Draco the other day. Plus, she was rather fond of trying to make it take the shapes of different animals. Ron, on the other hand, puffed up his chest. "Too right, mate! I've been practicing it every night."

Hermione's eyes narrowed. "Is that why no one has been able to reach the chicken off the plate closest to you every dinner?"

Ron paled. _'Bloody hell that girl is scary smart!'_

"You did real well, too, Neville! Good on you, mate!" Harry said, clapping Neville on the back.

"He did, didn't he?" Susan asked with a beaming smile, standing uncomfortably close to the nervous Longbottom scion.

"It-It's nothing," Neville said with a blush. "You've b-been teaching us, right?"

"Yea," Harry agreed with a nod, "but doing it is all you. You think you're close to being ready for the next stage?"

"He's more than ready," Susan harrumphed, turning her nose up at Harry. "He could take anything you can throw at him!"

Neville's eyes widened. "Er, let's not be too hasty, now!"

Susan rolled her eyes as Hannah giggled. Instead of responding, Susan grabbed Neville by the arm and dragged him to her best friend while Neville looked to Harry for help that wasn't coming since Harry couldn't stop grinning like a loon.

xXxXxXx

**18:25 Saturday, November 27 – South Yorkshire, Leicester, Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, off Hades Ln(1)**

Harry arrived at the home of Delores Umbridge, disillusioned and within her wards with the help of Dobby, who popped them over. Harry remained silent as he wandered through the woman's home and had to really wonder if she was actually a fan of kittens and pink, as her home was worse than Madam Puddifoot's, or if she was just seriously overcompensating for the darkness in her heart. Whatever wasn't pink in her home was either red or some shade in between and even the couches and chairs had lace doily-like cloth on them.

Harry made a very quick sweep of the house, ensuring there would be no surprises, and waited until six forty-five for the vile woman to come through her floo, just as had been her daily habit for the past few days. As soon as she came through, she was immediately stunned wandlessly and veritaserum shoved down her throat, five drops instead of the usual three, and then bound on the floor before being revived. Once awake, Harry made sure she was under before the interrogation began.

"Are you expecting anyone to arrive here tonight?" He asked, his voice still cloaked by his cowl. He would not remove it until he was gone for the night and back at Hogwarts.

"_No,"_ Umbridge answered in a monotone voice, devoid of any sign of free thought or personality.

"Are you expected to be anywhere or to contact anyone tonight?"

"_No."_

"What is your full name?"

"_Delores Jane Umbridge."_

"Do you have any hidden magical books in your home?"

"_Yes."_

Harry nodded to himself, deciding to continue his questioning before he took everything he wanted to keep from the woman. "Are you a Death Eater?"

"_No."_

"Why are you not a Death Eater?" Harry asked, having wondered that himself. He couldn't recall ever having seen the Dark Mark on the woman, but she had helped with nearly anything and everything Voldemort would have wanted.

"_It was safer that I remain unmarked during the previous war and my lord has not been here to grace me with his brand."_

Harry rolled his eyes, figuring as much, just because she was a horrible person. He grabbed a large roll of parchment and a fresh dicta-quill before activating them. "What are the names of every Death Eater you are aware of that has the mark?"

Harry's quill wouldn't stop moving for nearly a half hour, and then another half hour before she finished the unmarked ones.

xXxXxXx

**19:30 Saturday, November 27 – Hogwarts: Great Hall**

"Harry, are you okay? You seem kind of nervous," Hermione asked, placing her hand on his upper arm and squeezing gently as several students meandered into the large room for Harry's next lesson.

"Yea," Harry said quietly. "I'm fine. I just decided some of those things I was telling you and Luna about the other day. It's just ... a matter of _doing_ them now."

"Do you need any help?" Hermione asked simply, hoping to ease his discomfort somehow. "You know we'll help you with anything."

Harry smiled warmly, wishing that were the case. "I ... not with this," he said looking down. "But I may ask for help later," he finished quietly.

Hermione's brow knitted together in worry, but she nodded, not asking for clarification or more information. She had been trying to be less bossy and demanding for him since the summer, and she was making progress, no matter how much she wished she weren't. "Anything, Harry. Anytime. You only need to ask."

"Thanks," Harry said, smiling at Hermione and hugging her far more tightly than normal. He was not really looking forward to what he would have to do later. But he knew it had to happen. And he was the only one who could make the decisions, and who could know about them.

xXxXxXx

**20:48 Saturday, November 27 – Residence of D. J. Umbridge**

Harry checked one last time to ensure he had grabbed all of the books, potion ingredients, prepared potions, magical items that could be worth keeping and had them all placed in his mokeskin pouch where he could take off with it all without worrying about losing whatever knowledge may have been in those tomes. The scary thing is that the woman had close to fifteen hundred books on magic, and by her own admittance, most of them were stolen or purchased from someone who stole them. She apparently had a nasty habit of employing Fenrir Greyback to end various magical families in order to 'acquire' their magical knowledge from those such as the Lupins, who a previous law would not allow them to officially, which meant legally, maintain their own magical libraries once the only heir was a half-breed with no chance of a 'proper' heir. Nearly two hundred books were from that family, alone.

Harry waited while Umbridge finished her floo call before continuing. He had placed the woman under an imperius to speak with Lucius Malfoy about rather mundane things, but ensured the conversation lasted closer to a half hour. Harry knew they could track floo activity, but nothing for sure about length of time or if they could check what was said, but he planned to say that they _could_ determine the length of time the floo was open, but not what was said. However, if they _did_ see what was discussed, then it would be a bonus, since Umbridge was under orders to stress various key words to implicate Lucius Malfoy while talking about things that could be of a dubious nature. The fact that they had something already set up to talk about was simply to be expected.

Once everything was finished, Harry planted evidence about a plot with Lucius Malfoy to eliminate Narcissa and Draco and run away with her while it was, according to this false evidence, her place to acquire money from various people, mostly through blackmail and extortion. He then walked with Umbridge to her room, making her get dressed in her nightclothes, while standing outside of the room until she was finished and under the blankets. He then pulled out the Flamebrand daggers and told her to close her eyes.

He made cuts at her shoulders, ankles and belly, staying only long enough to watch the cuts begin to smoke and smolder before eating away at her body before he made one final slit under her chin and turned around, walking out of the door and out of the house even as he heard her begin to scream as the pain overrode his imperius and she realized she was already dead. When she looked for her wand, it was gone, already in Harry's sack of stolen items.

"Master, I is being ready to take you to Target Two, now," Dobby said, looking forward to this next one. '_Master Harry Potter Sir is such a great wizard for getting rid of bad witches and wizards before they could be hurting people!'_

xXxXxXx

**20:49 Saturday, November 27 – Hogwarts, Great Hall**

"Alright everyone! You did really well today! If you have any questions, remember I'm always available and we should be ready again next Friday since Saturday is the Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff match!" The two Houses in question roared at the very public declaration of their game.

"There's about ten or fifteen minutes to curfew, so try not to be late heading to your common rooms! No one wants to risk a detention before the game." Harry got down from the dais as Professor Flitwick approached him, practically hopping on his feet.

"Oh, good show, Mister Potter! Where on earth did you ever learn to cast shields like that?"

"Er, honestly, it was when I fought Quirrell," Harry admitted with a wince, which was mirrored by the diminutive man and Hermione who was standing close enough to walk with Harry to their common room. "When I fought him, I didn't really have much I could do, and my magic just kind of came out and acted like fire. Like, when it gets hot and is white because of it."

"I'm so sorry you had to face that, Mister Potter," Flitwick said, sounding sincere.

"Eh, it's not a problem, Professor. He was the first person I've had to kill at Hogwarts, but he wasn't the last." Harry winced when he realized that sounded rather ... _bad_. "Er, well, I guess you can count that thing from last year. It was part of a soul, it said."

Flitwick paled, knowledge coming to mind about that little slip. "Er, well, hopefully you won't be forced to do so again, Mister Potter."

Harry shrugged. It was too late, by this point. But he wasn't going to tell his teacher that. "It's been something each year up to this point, Professor. And if you ask Dumbledore, you'll learn I'm not done yet." Without much else, Harry walked with Hermione to their common room, catching up with Ron at the door and Luna sidling up to them after they left the room. He didn't really say anything else until he asked to be left behind while he visited the loo, checking his watch as he entered.

**20:56 Saturday, November 27 – Hogwarts: Sixth Floor Bathroom**

xXxXxXx

**20:55 Saturday, November 27 – Kingswood in Maidstone, off Lenham Rd**

Dobby immediately took out the two naked elves that attempted to kill him and Master Harry Potter Sir, knocking both out. It was actually not very difficult at all since their treatment by Lucius Malfoy had them weaker by far than they should have been. Once those two were unconscious and their magics temporarily bound, along with their bodies, Dobby conjured them simple blankets and covered them before rushing forward as Harry walked carefully through the building of Malfoy Manor.

Harry first found Narcissa, asleep in her own room which was oddly separate from her husband's. Harry placed a hand onto her and sent a quick stunner into her body before throwing her over a shoulder and meeting with Dobby in the library, which was strangely absent of any books. Dobby already had his previous master unconscious and had apparently dropped the man on his head a few times.

"There is being no one else in the house, Master," Dobby stated confidently.

"Very good, Elf," Harry said, binding both Malfoys to their chairs after ensuring their wands were not upon them anywhere. "Bind their magic, just in case, and make sure there's nothing in this room that can record what happens or alert anyone to anything."

"It is already done, Master," Dobby said, not bothering to explain he had already looked for that when robbing Lucius of everything the elf felt belonged to his master.

Harry administered the potions first to Narcissa, then to Lucius, finding out both were loyal to themselves first and no one second. Lucius, it seemed followed Voldemort because his political skills allowed him great benefits from his dark lord, which would continue even after Voldemort took over. He also felt it amusing that the dark lord would eliminate his enemies for him rather than doing the dirty deeds himself, though he still enjoyed doing so on occasion, it would seem. Narcissa loved her son, truly, but would forever look for the betterment of her family by whatever means necessary while Lucius wanted to rule everything, but not as a figurehead that was at risk of assassination, but from the shadows where it was safer and there was always a patsy to blame things on.

When Harry questioned for anything he could take, he found out someone had been robbing the Death Eater, which was where Dobby admitted to being the one to do it and having finished the day before.

Harry took a handful of hair from both Malfoys before hesitating only a moment before he killed them both with the Flamebrand daggers. This time, however, he waited for the bodies to become the lump of melted flesh and char he could remember Ron being in one of his memories before he was able to vanish the bodies like regular rubbish.

Then he fell to his knees and hurled, throwing up everything he had eaten that day. For ten long minutes, he heaved, and then dry heaved, before finally magicking the mess clean and checking the time on a clock on the wall over the desk.

xXxXxXx

**23:41 – Saturday, November 27 – Potter Manor**

Harry gave Dobby his orders before shifting to Hogwarts, into the bathroom he was in hours earlier, and turned back time three hours and waited for his younger self, who would leave from the loo to the Chamber of Secrets. The only difference was that he would leave his time-turner for his younger self to find and his altered clothes would, by the time he exited the bathroom, he would be back to normal. Then young Harry would go to Potter Manor where he would exchange the time-turner for the same one later on so as not to create a paradox.

xXxXxXx

**20:56 Saturday – November 27 Hogwarts: 6th floor Bathroom**

Harry entered the Gryffindor common room just as curfew had passed and went to the couch where Hermione and Luna were sitting while Ron was attempting to win at chess while Dean and Seamus teamed up against him. He sat next to Hermione and simply stared into the fire, listening to the many people in the room talk animatedly while he stared into the fire for what felt like only an instant before he heard someone's voice.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, gently nudging the boy.

Harry jumped slightly in surprise, noting that nearly everyone else had already gone to bed and Hermione and Luna were simply waiting for Lavender and Parvati to fall asleep before heading up. "Sorry, I must have zoned out. What's up?"

"We've been trying to get your attention for the last hour, off and on," Luna said. "You've basically ignored everyone who said goodnight and just stared into the fire."

Harry looked at his watch, noting that it was almost midnight, when his younger self would leave. Harry had been awake for an additional twelve hours, now, and was unable to get over knowing what he had done that night. He had just made Draco an orphan, killed three people...

"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione asked, grabbing his hand in hers. "We're here if you need us, you know that, right?" She asked quietly.

Harry swallowed as he looked into the fire, unable to say anything. He didn't really know _what_ to say. What he did was horrible, even if it _was_ necessary. But, he couldn't tell them about any of it. Really, it _was_ illegal. The fact that it wasn't officially a time of war yet didn't really mean much. They had to die. They couldn't be allowed to make things happen like they had. They wouldn't be the last ones, either.

"Is there anything you need, Harry?" Luna asked, wondering why Harry suddenly looked so vulnerable that night.

"Can you stay with me tonight?" Harry asked after a moment. "Please," he asked again, looking to both girls' shocked faces. What shocked them even more than asking to spend the night with him was when a tear rolled down his cheek, showing how badly he really needed some sort of comfort, even though neither girl really knew why.

"Not in your dorm," Hermione finally agreed after a few seconds. "Let's get your map and go to the Room of Requirement."

xXxXxXx

**00:13 Sunday, Nov 28 – Hogwarts: Room of Requirement**

Harry held both girls to him tightly as they snuggled up to his sides in the overly large bed. He really didn't care which of them would have stayed with him, but he needed someone, anyone, to provide him with some form of stability and comfort after what he did that day. He didn't feel ashamed of his tears, even if he did his best not to sob heavily.

Hermione and Luna looked at each other over Harry's chest as he stilled for the night, both wondering what had brought this on. Neither could ever remember him really crying. Luna had never really seen him cry at all, even a little, and Hermione had seen him sad many times, but never anything like this. Silently, they agreed to keep an eye on him and be there to try and figure out what was going on. Hermione had explained how Harry had a tendency to shut out everyone when he went into a funk like this, but this was, again, beyond her experience.

Both girls held him tightly as they fell asleep, enjoying the comfort for what it was and deciding to be there when he chose to open up to them.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – December 1, Start of breakfast**

_'Open up my arse,'_ Hermione grumbled mentally as Wednesday rolled around and she found herself in the company of Luna and Ron once again without Harry anywhere around. There was something truly and disturbingly wrong with him. She woke up that morning with Luna as was normal, but when it came time to go to breakfast, Harry wasn't in the tower. Nor was he in the Great Hall when she and the other two arrived. Sunday, he had pulled away from everyone, and Monday and Tuesday he hadn't spent more than a few minutes in the Great Hall at all and barely ate. He had begun to speak less in general and usually, when he was around herself or Luna, he was cuddly as hell, but then was somehow just _gone_.

Hermione was really unsure of what was going on. And Luna wasn't any surer, either. She just knew he was hurting greatly, which Hermione could already tell, thank you very much!

"Good morning, Harry," Luna said quietly as she looked at Harry, almost pitifully, like a beaten puppy wondering what it had done wrong when all it wanted was love and affection. Hermione refused to think that her face may look the same.

"Morning," Harry said simply, sitting and pulling a few items of food to his plate. He wasn't really hungry and the only reason he was there was hoping no one would get worried about him. He played with his food more than ate it.

"Harry, please talk with us," Hermione pled, hoping to get him to talk. "Why are you pulling away like this?"

Harry didn't answer and simply stared at his eggs, pushing them around with his fork.

Hermione sighed as the owls brought the newspapers and daily mail, paying the knut for her copy and opening it up, only to gasp in shock.

_**Murder Most Foul!**_

_By: Allowin Lyez_

_It was discovered yesterday that a prominent and powerful member of the Ministry had been murdered in her own home. Delores Jane Umbridge, 48, did not show up for work on Monday and all attempts to contact her via floo and owl were non-responsive. When the same happened on Tuesday, a concerned clerk visited her home to check her health, only to find her dead in her own bedroom, apparently a victim of some kind of heat or fire curse._

"_It's terribly sad to see such a wonderful woman the victim of some heinous act of violence," Minister Fudge is quoted as saying. "It shows there are always going to be criminal elements in our society and that is why our Aurors are some of the best trained in their fields. We'll be performing a full investigation and track down whoever's done this and make sure that justice has been fulfilled!"_

_When asked if Miss Umbridge had any enemies, the Minister admitted to being late for an important meeting and was unable to offer a comment. But one must wonder exactly who could get past Ministry-level defensive wards without alerting them._

_Investigation into the matter shows no forcible entry and the Aurors say they found no wand signatures other than Umbridge's own, suggesting that she may have actually possibly done this to herself. At the same time, however, there appeared to be some kind of situation in regards to paperwork found in her office as that area, rather than the crime scene itself, is where most activity was taking place._

_Also, it was found that the last floo activity except for Ministry attempts to contact her, was to the Malfoy residence from eight thirty to nine. Attempts to get into contact with the Malfoy family have been impossible. There has been no contact and owls addressed refuse to take flight. Even the house elves have not answered the floo._

"Whoa, you think Malfoy's parents did it?" Ron asked from beside Harry, making Hermione glare at him.

"Ron, really! If it _was_ them, then they wouldn't have gone about it very well, would they?" Hermione noticed Harry flinch, but couldn't understand why.

"Well, they're evil!" Again, Hermione noticed Harry flinch. "Only an evil person kills another person! And look at the paper! They can't get a hold of them, so they probably escaped the country or something!"

Hermione was really wondering why Harry was flinching. Taking the facts she got from the paper, she realized it was when they were having their meeting, or the morning after when she and Luna were with Harry. The woman died at the same time, roughly, that the Malfoys have been missing. Other than that? She couldn't figure out how it all fit. Still, she couldn't let Ron's comments slide.

"Ron, aurors kill people. Are they evil?"

"No, but that's their job! They don't get their jollies from it!"

"And there's nothing to prove they did it, either!" Hermione verbalized frustratedly. Why, oh _why_, couldn't Ron have matured like Harry over the summer? It would be _infinitely_ easier to talk to him. She had a hard time holding a conversation for more than five minutes with him at this point. She was sure of it! She timed it!

"Their whole family is Slytherin. What do you expect? They're the house of the cunning!" Ron stage-whispered while pointing to his own head. "It's how they think! Of course they won't get caught!"

Hermione considered responding, but decided to scoff in disgust and shake her head instead. It was much easier and, hopefully, he wouldn't keep arguing about it. That seemed to work about half the time.

Luna, however, had been watching Harry from the moment the paper had arrived. She had seen many guilty consciences in her years of being able to people watch. She didn't know what, or how, but Harry was feeling guilty about everything in that article. Still, whatever it was, he was Harry. If he was related to anything happening in that for any reason, then they were good reasons, she was sure. She would wait and see if he needed to talk to her or Hermione, or if they would have to go to him, first. But, there was nothing that said a little push in the right direction didn't hurt.

"Harry," Luna said quietly, getting Hermione's attention since the girl wanted to ignore Ron. "You can speak with us about anything. Even if you think you can't, we will honor your wishes and we trust you. Even if we don't understand your actions sometimes."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Harry as his shoulders slumped in his 'relieved' pose, making her think Luna figured something out and she was missing it, but Harry was still thankful for it. _'But what the hell is _'it_'?'_

"Thanks, Luna," Harry said just as quietly, not really being able to be heard over the rumble of the Great Hall. But both girls were growing more competent in reading Harry's lips. It was a growing need when he began to mumble to himself during homework more often.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – Next chapter: Christmas! The relationship is official! Manipulation!

(1) Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, off Hades Ln – This is a real address, or at least, a real road name in that area. I felt it was definitely worth using and elected not to use a house number since it IS a real address and I don't see a magical of Umbridge's persuasion using muggle addressing. I did not give a house address for two reasons. 1) I didn't want to use someone's real address and somehow manage to find out that person actually reads this and 2) I figure she would live in that general area, perhaps, but would not actually have a muggle home, thus, she is warded so as not to be found by muggles, but is in a roughly muggle area since you can't exactly hide from them entirely.


	17. Trinity

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter16** – Trinity

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Character Death, Murder, Darker Events, Suggestive Language, Brief Nudity

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Some of the history during fifth year and after is altered slightly, mainly to more justify Harry's actions against Umbridge and the Malfoys.

If you review and want a reply, you should remember that you can't have private messaging turned off, nor can you review as anonymous and expect one. I do not generally respond to reviews in-chapter, and only do so if I think it is required for the majority.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Potter and the Temporal Beacon" by willyolioleo (H/Hr, anything else is subject to change – Think of this as time-travel using a save point as in an RPG game.)

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Thursday – December 2, 09:30 – Ministry of Magic: DMLE**

Amelia greeted her secretary, an efficient, loyal thing that had a backbone made of the same steel as her own, and opened her door, almost immediately snapping her wand out of its holster and holding steady on a shorter man with pale brown hair and a rather intimidating gaze. "Croaker," Amelia huffed, putting her wand away and closing the door. "How the hell did you get past Emily?"

"It's my job, Amelia," Croaker said with a small smile, his almost scary gaze turning impressively genial and warm. Like a cloak, the hard-ass, scary, Unspeakable side of him was put aside and the grandfatherly friend Amelia knew best was there before her.

"Can I safely assume you've got something for me?" Amelia asked, sitting behind her desk and double-checking her security wards, ensuring there was no active foreign magics at work other than her own and the ones she recognized as Croaker's work. Their complexity was far beyond her understanding, but she and this man had been through too much to doubt each other, and he had even bounced her on his knee when she was a baby. This man had been like a father or uncle to her and loyalty ran strong between them. So, she trusted his work, especially since he always took them down with him as he left.

"Theories, mostly," Croaker grunted, sitting in the chair across from her. "As you know, we didn't have a single wand signature in the repository. We did find a large amount of magic used, but it turns out it's all the same. It was a single person who was down there."

"Powerful or a device, do you think?" She asked with a frown. "Whoever it was had to move fast as hell. He was never seen, heard or any alarms tripped."

"No way of telling for sure, but we suspect device. They didn't actually have to be very fast since that fool Fudge had all of us working like your average filing clerk looking for who those bloody Founders' heirs were. The fact he says he knew it all along is a might suspicious, too. But, the way the books were set up, there were a few hollowed sections in the book pile that caved in when they were moved. We suspect it was a form of targeted area portkey or something similar."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, it was obvious some of those books were missing," Croaker said with a shrug. "In the whole pile, some left and others didn't. We think they were all piled up and some of the books had markers on 'em to be activated and teleport a small around around it away, so they were tryin' to get all the books they could in a single go."

"What use would something like that be?" Amelia mused to herself.

"Well, it worked well enough for books, didn't it?" Croaker asked rhetorically. "And if you put those buggers in a pile of gold in Gringotts, then you could really make off with a lot, 'specially if they can be marked without any obvious signs and you give a bunch of galleons time to get across in various people's vaults."

"Could it not have just been the way the books had been moved and set there?" Amelia asked. "From what I understand, it wasn't a neat pile, so it could have just been the way they fell."

"Not likely since some of the books seem to keep disappearing."

"What do you mean?" Amelia growled out.

"Just that. Some of the books randomly seem to disappear. No rhyme or reason. Started the other day. They just kind off faded away. One of my men saw it and said it was like it just faded. Not like a normal portkey or anything. Seems to be a new magic at play and we checked the books. There were no signs of active magic or tags of any sort. Just some magic residue on each, and it's fading."

"Just what we need," the Director sighed. "New magic and someone who can get past blood wards that have stood up to nearly a full thousand years of use. What about the time-turner theft? Please tell me you've got some new news," she almost begged.

"Not that you'll like," he led, getting a sharp look from the younger girl. "Same magical signature as in the repository."

"I thought you said there wasn't a signature."

"Not a wand signature, but raw magical identity. We wouldn't have been able to tell even that much except that the amount of power used was so great. We've nothin' to compare it to and since there was no specific signature, it's more like a smell or flavor rather than a definitive shape, so we've no way to compare it to anything except itself. And it'd be different any time we tried even if we found the right person since this version is weakening all the time. Like a smell fading in the wind."

"Damn."

"The Potter boy also seems to have made friends with the Minister as well," Croaker hedged. "A few of my men are concerned with what he may lead the boy or that he may attempt to manipulate him."

Amelia frowned for a moment before shaking her head. "Odd as it seems, I don't think we have to worry about that. Potter's got a good head on his shoulders. From what I understand, he's managed to actually manipulate Fudge, not the other way around. He's damn-near obsessed with protecting his friends. And it isn't an act, surprisingly enough," she said.

"A threat?" Algernon Croaker asked gruffly, his brown eyes narrowing as the hard-ass Unspeakable came to the fore.

"Not to us," Amelia assured. "He talked Fudge into providing an exemption order as you read in the papers so they could protect themselves with impunity."

"They already could," Croaker said slowly, tilting his head. "Why would he go through the trouble for something that is already provided?"

"You know as well as I do that the Ministry in general has adopted a no-tolerance policy in that regard for muggleborns and most half-bloods," Amelia admonished. "They've been telling students for the past few decades that they can't use magic for any reason and those that defend themselves with it have a tendency to be denied a real chance to defend themselves if there isn't an of-age magical to defend them."

"I was under the impression that was being taken care of," he grumbled. Croaker was unable to keep watch in every aspect and, if he were honest with himself, this was one of those places that he willingly paid less attention to and didn't see as important as other things simply because it wasn't. One child here or there using magic to defend themselves wasn't so bad since it rarely happened compared to the potential risk of the corruption or evil that could happen at the Ministry at any time if there were not diligent watchers.

"Most kids know not to carry their wands to be tempted, so it isn't as big of a deal these days," Amelia sighed, "but it still happens. And since it isn't my specific detail, but the obliviators', I can't really control it."

"We're getting off track," Croaker sighed. "I looked at those memories you gave me from the boy. You were right. There was something very sinister about that book."

"What?" Amelia asked, intrigued. It was rare you got to learn about something so forbidden that even the Master Unspeakable was hesitant to so much as bring it up.

"First, you saw who gave the book to the girl?" He asked.

"Malfoy," she grunted. "I thought Potter was just showing me Lockhart, but I couldn't figure out about the fight with Malfoy and Arthur. After seeing the memory where the house elf was given the diary, I realized that Malfoy was the one to put it in her cauldron at the store."

"Right in one. So, for the sake of clarity, it came from the Death Eater bastard. It was, as stated, a possession of the man we knew to become the Dark Lord of our time. What you saw taking the girl's life wasn't a memory or charm, but a portion of the bastard's soul."

"What!" Amelia gasped, causing Algernon to nod sadly.

"Potter's right, Amelia. The dark tosser isn't dead. He really did fight him in his first year, a version of him from second and who knows what else he may not have shown you. Those devices ... they bind a person to this world, keeping them from crossing over."

"Are you telling me that twisted mind is going to be coming back?" Amelia asked, pale and near trembling.

"He obviously tried two years ago and last year. One of his minions has escaped Azkaban for Merlin knows what," Croaker shrugged. "I don't know how many he's made, but if that diary wasn't the only one, then it's going to be damn hard to find and kill the bastard."

"Fuck me," Amelia groaned, holding her head in her hands.

Croaker bit back the obvious retort and sighed. "I'd recommend accepting Potter's offer for that thing you were talking about. If Voldemort _does_ come back, you'll need a method of escape he can't shut down. You'd be a prime target if he goes by his previous methods or gets worse."

"You realize with that memory, if we can find Lucius, we can drag his sorry ass in here and pump him full of veritaserum?" Amelia grinned darkly.

"Want me to send a scouting party to see what can be found in their manor?"

"Not yet," Amelia warned him off. "If he _is_ there, we'd still have to break down the wards to find out. Narcissa would never leave her son, so we'll watch and follow him come the Christmas holidays. I've already had Dumbledore put tracking charms on everything Draco owns, including his wand and even a few on his toes so his shoes will hide any attempts to find the telltale glow."

"He actually did it?" Croaker asked, aghast. "He _never_ accepted anything like that before. He'd go on about having faith in the little bastard."

Amelia shrugged. "Benefit of being seen talking to Harry Potter in the Wizengamot chambers, I suspect. Either that, or all those tracking charms are on something and he's pulled the wool over our eyes. We'll know in a month or so."

xXxXxXx

**Thursday – December 2, 11:00 – Ministry of Magic**

Harry sighed as he entered the Atrium of the Ministry the day after the article in the Daily Prophet. Getting away from Luna and Hermione had been a little more difficult than normal considering they didn't believe him at first that he was actually leaving and were obviously worried he was going to go and brood somewhere for a reason they couldn't fully understand since, in their eyes, this was in response to his heritage coming out and a few angry mutterings from the school populace in general about his ability to get around the underage laws for not only himself, but others as well. It also didn't help that Hermione felt Luna was aware of something that she, herself, had missed when she was still the better of the two at reading Harry. Had she been willing to ask, Luna would have explained what she had seen and what she thought it meant since she saw not only Harry, but the world around him as well whereas Hermione knew simply how to understand him. But, she wanted to figure Harry out on her own. To do otherwise was unacceptable to the bushy-haired brunette.

Harry was ... disappointed in his reaction to killing three people. He had done it before. First year, he'd killed Quirrell and didn't so much as bat an eyelash. At least until he realized later in the summer what he had actually done. And in truth, there were a few people he was fairly sure he had killed in the later skirmishes with Death Eaters, but none of those had been so ... methodical or brutal. They weren't cold and calculated. They had sought him out, not him looking for them. That, apparently, made a huge difference. The three he had killed had been defenseless, even if they _were_ angry, murdering, thieving, rapists who took joy in torturing innocent people simply because they could.

In truth, Narcissa Malfoy was really the only one he had felt somewhat bad about having to kill rather than the methods he had used. She was a bad person, but even though she didn't have the mark and never tried to kill him, she admitted, under veritaserum, to being willing to do so if her husband or the dark lord ordered her to. And worse, with Lucius dead, it would have fallen to _her_ shoulders to continue greasing palms and paying off people since many would be able to turn on the family, getting them all thrown into Azkaban. And she was one of the ones aware of Voldemort's eventual resurrection. She had been privy to the details of exactly what the diary had been since Lucius had found it quite the honor to keep the item safe and had bragged to her.

She had even been the one to suggest Ginny as the target as anything other than a pureblood was out of the question or, failing in finding an opportune moment, Pansy Parkinson, thus making the Dark Lord the Dark Lady who was magically bound to marry Draco since that same contract made the female of the relationship subservient to the male. That would mean their darling son would have actually ruled over the eventual ruler of the wizarding world. Ambitious and cunning a plan if ever there had been one. With Draco in power, he could even ensure their own safety from the obvious betrayal.

So, while she _hadn't_ killed or done anything serious, she was _going_ to. She already knew what her plans would have been in many 'worst-case' scenarios, expecting one of Lucius' many shady dealings to go south and leave her a widow in a precarious position with a son and a large number of evil associates who would turn all the evil-doing of her husband into blackmail to get what they wanted. So, she had plans in case anything like that ever came about. Narcissa kept her beauty and youthful appearance using several potions, many of which were illegal and generally required young sacrifices of one sort or the other and acted like a proper lady while doing small things to entice, but never appear promiscuous or out-of-the-ordinary for their society so she could have a steady list of possible suiters. She would take on a husband or two who were wealthy, gain their holdings and then mysteriously become a widow, all while crying about fearing of being cursed, which many would believe considering the family she was in. Once she could acquire no more suitable men, or until the dark lord returned, she would then become an asset to whoever she needed to serve, her lord or her son.

The only exception would be if she found a match suitable to her social standing as Lucius had been. He was evil, yes, but in her eyes, he kept her in a station of comfort she felt entitled to and deserving of while not expecting her to bed him any more than necessary. Narcissa enjoyed sex, but highly preferred to be the one in charge and able to lay back and enjoy rather than do any work towards the end goal just as Lucius did. For a woman who fully believed in the pureblood dogma, she was quite fond of controlling muggle men to do her bidding.

While Narcissa went into the muggle world to establishments of glistening crystals and twinkling accents to pick up her men, she and Lucius allowed each other to keep a stable of their prizes when they found one they wished to keep. Narcissa had proven to be one smarter than Lucius, however, in that she made those wealthy men pull out all their money and valuables and she would later get it converted to wizarding currencies and hidden away from her husband in case she ever had cause to flee.

In the end, Narcissa had eight different contingency plans in the case of various situations should something happen to Lucius and each one more brutal and colder than the last.

Harry simply couldn't allow her to live on. She was much like Bellatrix in her devotion and beliefs. Only Narcissa was more subtle, circumspect and cunning. She was a true Slytherin in every way. It ran in her family and, to be honest, her plans began even before her birth.

Why else would a dying family have five children when most pureblood homes had no more than two, and usually only one? Only the Weasleys were the obvious exception to that rule. Even when she was still Narcissa Black, her family had been putting plans into motion to resurrect their flailing family.

Powerful fertility potions were used to ensure conception in hopes of daughters, though potions specifically for that had been used after the second son. It was decided that the Black family would use their remaining wealth and heritage to place their daughters into wealthy families, then those daughters would have a single son to inherit, also using potions to ensure such a thing. From there, they were a mere single accident away from those daughters then keeping the family name, but giving everything they acquired back to the Black family, keeping those pureblood names simply for the political clout they will have hopefully married into. That was why the Black family had so many children when they were nearing status as paupers.

It was an ingenious plan, but one that fell apart when their Head of House, Arcturus Black, was killed and thus, unable to bring them back into the family as Blacks. Since Regulus' loyalty to his family was so strong, he had worked to stop Voldemort from coming to power and died for his act of devotion, so he was unable to take up the Lordship and Sirius was disowned by their mother, even though it had never been official. Of course, since he was in prison, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. And he wasn't aware of the plan to begin with, being a bloody Gryffindor. He simply couldn't be trusted.

Sadly, the plan didn't stop falling apart there, but continued with Andromeda, the oldest, falling in love with a muggleborn and taking a potion to ensure a female, just to snub their parents after being disowned herself, so they couldn't use any sons as potential heirs to whatever they gained in their life together. Of course, a subtle muggle poison to their father ensured he wouldn't be around to pursue her new husband's death.

And Bellatrix was simply far too crazy to predict. Her fanatical devotion to the Black family had shifted to Voldemort, thus making her abandon the Black Family plan and putting her entire being into _his_ plans instead, which also meant no children as far as Narcissa was aware. She was also a complete and total submissive to the strongest power she could find. That had, growing up, been her father. She would do anything and everything he desired if he but hinted. When Voldemort rose to power, it attracted her like a niffler to precious metal. It was mere luck on behalf of the Blacks that Bellatrix had never seen Dumbledore use his full power before Voldemort came along or she would have been the weapon of the Light that her family would have been ashamed to have bred and trained.

So, Narcissa chose to continue the plan, amassing all the wealth and power that she could. Extra plans were made, money was stockpiled, rare and powerful artifacts were hidden away while magical tomes were copied and all of it hidden from Lucius in fear that he may take it for his own gains rather than allow it to go to the Black family as it was meant to. She had few worries about getting back into the Black family until she was visited late in the night by Harry Potter. Her son was the closest Black by blood and had equal chance to gain the lordship once Sirius passed away as Harry himself, as Sirius' godson. But, with Sirius in prison, that right could easily be contested and, with enough money, Draco could obtain it, thus taking Narcissa back into the fold and bringing the family back to glory while maintaining the Malfoy name himself for the political power that came with it. And if the Potter boy had an accident before Sirius' death, all the better. Since Sirius was never officially disowned, he technically held the Lordship, but once she felt she had enough money, she could arrange another simple accident. Well, until the bastard escaped. That had made it a waiting game.

There was no way Harry could think of to explain all of this without coming clean with what he did and what his victims said, even though he found that he really _did_ want to. This was a burden he didn't think he could keep to himself. He _wanted_ to hear someone else say he had chosen the right path. He knew Dumbledore wouldn't. The man wanted to redeem everyone. He would not have only not approved, but would probably magically ensure Harry couldn't go out on his own again.

That was one reason he had elected to send a letter to Moody, despite the truth in needing actual instruction. The man would know what needed to be done and would agree with him, even if Harry didn't have to come out and say what he had done.

Harry entered the lift after registering at the wand counter and getting his ticket and rode up the Minister's office.

He had actually cried over the deaths, something he hadn't felt he would ever do. Not after lovingly dreaming and fantasizing about them for so long, at least for Lucius and Umbridge. But, that was also probably why he had done it, he felt. He hoped, anyway. He had thought so long and hard about the ways to kill those two, or for them to die, and the way he did it was just so ... brutal, and drawn out.

He had made multiple cuts to make the bodies burn faster instead of the slow, festering burn it would have otherwise been. However, each cut had made him want to heave. It had almost crushed Harry and caused him to give up until he remembered Hermione under the knife and Bella laughing and taking actual enjoyment out of it. Harry had compared that to himself and came out with a grudging acceptance. He was not a monster. While he was happy they were gone, he had not taken pleasure out of performing the deeds. Nor did he make it slow and torturous. What he had done had been necessary, even if there had been faster options available. The method of execution was simply using tools available to him that were less likely to be tracked, he hoped. He didn't use magic, leave prints or anything that could tie things to him. When he hurled, he had magically cleaned it, using wandless magic so as to not leave a registered trace. And Dobby had even promised to remove Harry's magic from the spot, so if anyone looked, it would actually be a void where no magic would register, even the ambient, unless given a week.

"I'm here to see Minister Fudge," Harry said, looking at the rather attractive receptionist in front of the Minister's office. She was closer to twenty than twenty-five with dark black hair and a pale complexion with naturally dark red lips, sparkling bright, blue eyes and long lashes. Her body was something reminiscent of Fleur Delacour, albeit with about twice the bust, while her voice and attitude was more in line with Percy Weasley, leaving Harry to believe Fudge kept the girl on for reasons other than her secretarial skills.

"Do you have an appointment?" The young girl asked, not looking up from her desk where she was lazily reading a Teen Witch Weekly, focusing on glamors to 'enhance' one's assets with mild compulsions to appreciate. Harry still couldn't figure out how the magazine was allowed to print those things in something meant for teens of all ages. How could all those old bitties _not_ have problems with it? Molly Weasley even allowed Ginny to read it, now that he thought about it. And that woman was extremely conservative.

"No, but Minister Fudge said I didn't require one if I ever wanted to visit with him," Harry said, raising an eyebrow as the girl huffed and looked up at his with a nasty expression on her face.

"_Everyone_ requires an appointment if – Oh!" The girl squeaked and hopped in her seat even as her eyes widened comically as she realized who she was speaking with. "Harry Potter!"

"And you are?" Harry drawled out, deciding against getting annoyed that his fame was working _for_ him this time.

"I-I'm Angelica Kravitz," she said with a bright blush and small smile that had ensnared Corny, as she had taken to calling the Minister in private. She drew her shoulders back and pushed her chest forward a little while wrapping her arms under her breasts, pushing them up a little and shook just enough to get a jiggle. _'Bless male hormones,'_ she thought giddily.

_'Oh, come on! I'm _thirteen_ bloody years old!'_ Harry bit back his initial retort and simply smiled, making very sure to keep his eyes on her own since the sight provided didn't interest him in the slightest. "Could you at least ask if Cornelius would take a visitor?"

"O-Of course! One moment, sir," she said, getting up slowly and walking to the door, swaying far more than she should. Harry couldn't be sure, but he was almost positive she was in the middle of transfiguring her shirt to be tighter and to drop the neckline as she moved.

_'I wonder what her face would look like if I told her I was gay...'_ he wondered, ultimately deciding the last thing he needed was for that kind of story to get around.

"He'll see you now," Angelica said, motioning for Harry to enter the office.

As Harry entered, Fudge met him at the door and shook his hand with a bright smile. "Ah, good to see you, Harry my boy! Angelica, please close the door and make sure I haven't any bothers while meeting with Lord Potter."

"Of course, Minister," Angelica said, giving Harry one last smile before doing as ordered while lamenting the fact that the office was warded against eavesdropping.

"Take a seat, Harry!" Fudge offered loudly. He was thrilled that Harry had come to visit him and, with his favorite mistress manning the desk, he was sure it would be around the Ministry that he was entertaining the Boy-Who-Lived within minutes. Well, unless she planned on trying to seduce him when he left so none of the other women try first ... Maybe he would watch her at the end of the conversation. "How can I help you?"

"I read in the paper yesterday about Umbridge and the Malfoys. I knew you were close to Lucius and Delores and I thought I would come and make sure you were handling things okay," Harry said, taking a subtle deep breath as he began his plan.

"Well, not _that_ close," Fudge said, hoping Harry didn't think he had been willing to sully himself with the woman. He was Minister, for crying out loud! He had the power to be picky about who he slept with! "But, yes. It was a sad thing. I'm afraid I can't really discuss an ongoing investigation though, I'm sorry," he said, twisting a quill in his hand.

"I'm actually here to provide you some information," Harry said, getting Fudge's attention. This was where things could begin to go terribly wrong if he wasn't careful. Harry could actually feel his heart beating through his chest.

"Oh? What would you know about this heinous crime?"

"Well, nothing specific," Harry explained. "But, when I first entered the magical world when I turned eleven, I found out I was famous and why. In fact, as soon as I entered the Leaky Cauldron, I was swarmed with people who crowded in and wanted to shake my hand. There were so many I was actually almost buried in the pile of bodies and some of them even kept going back to the end of the line to shake my hand again."

"Well, you _are_ the Boy-Who-Lived," Fudge said a little grumpily, wondering why he never got that kind of a reaction for walking into a room. He could admit, only to himself of course, that he was a little jealous.

"Yes, but I didn't know that at the time. I actually don't enjoy my fame. When I grow up, I want to either be an auror, or maybe a hit wizard, something fun and interesting, you know?" Harry said, hinting that there would be a way to control him in the future or use him as a poster boy for the Ministry.

"Yes, yes. You mentioned something like that when we last saw each other and I ... er, showed you around," Fudge blustered, looking decidedly nervous. "You mentioned curse breaking if I recall correctly."

"Yes!" Harry beamed. "Anyway, when I found out that there were still many Death Eaters out there who may come after me, I decided to do something the muggles do and hire people to pass on information when they hear it about me. In fact, I learned my second day back that Lucius Malfoy wanted to get me."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Harry," Fudge said, looking a little green. "Lucius is a wonderful man and a paragon of-"

"I have proof that he was a Death Eater and bribed his way out of going to jail," Harry said simply, shutting the small, portly man up quickly. "I also have proof that he had been doing a lot of bad things. One of those, actually, is a plan that I'm here to warn you about."

"Wha-what?" Fudge asked in a high-pitched voice. His eyes had gone rather wide, too, but Harry fought valiantly to keep a grin off his face.

"Minister Fudge, the person who contacted me said that he was hired on Friday to kill me and Delores Umbridge. But, he didn't want to, but said Lucius isn't the kind of man you tell 'no' to and expect to walk away from." Harry noted Fudge's face paled a little and he nodded slightly unconsciously. "Anyway, he agreed and took the money, but then sent me a message saying he wouldn't be contacting me again because he was taking his family and running."

"Who was this man?" Fudge asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I know he went by 'Finney' and he wanted me to call him 'Fin'."

"A common nickname for Phineas," Fudge said with a nod. "Did he have light brown hair that was about half gray, light brown eyes and a scar on his left cheek?"

"He may have," Harry said, wondering if he had just possibly gotten someone into trouble. Even if he did, however, there was nothing he could do. This had to happen. He briefly considered how he would once do anything in his power to make sure no one suffered for this, what Hermione called his 'saving people thing', but something like that, while noble, couldn't exist during a war. At least not for him. It had nearly broken him on far too many occasions, though he couldn't quite recall what most of them were as they had happened in different lives and it was more subconscious feelings that directed him now with a very rudimentary understanding. "It looked more like dirty blond hair to me, though and I never really noticed any scar."

"Hm. There's a man named Phineas who frequents Knockturn Alley that is a known informant. His information is always good, but he rarely leaves the alley and I don't recall him ever settling down, so I suppose that could have been a slight misdirection."

"Er, we met at Fortescue's. I was told never to go into Knockturn Alley when I first entered this world by Hagrid. He said it was too dangerous, so I've never actually been in there," Harry said, hoping this didn't make his story crash down around him and doing his best to stay away from any hints that he had ever entered that alley. There had been many witnesses, but with polyjuice and glamors, you can never be sure of what you see in this world. "But, the point is, the plan was to apparently get you out of the way, permanently, and for Lucius to run for office while bribing his way to the top. He's apparently been bribing people in the Wizengamot and others in order to make them comfortable going his way. When I heard about Umbridge and then the Malfoys disappearing, I figured I would like to help you. I try to look out for those I can call friend," Harry said, sliding a ring towards the very pale Minister.

"Wh-what's this?" Fudge asked.

"A portkey I made," Harry said. "It will shatter any standard anti-apparition wards if the person trying to go through them is not authorized except for ones either myself or the one using it are authorized to go through. So, if you try it from your home and have those, then you can still go through without harming your wards, but it would shatter any that someone may put up to stop you. It will take you to the same place my own emergency one will go to."

"Where's that?"

"The Chamber of Secrets where I saved Ginny Weasley and killed the basilisk that was attacking people last year."

"What!" Fudge squawked. "_You_ were the one who opened the chamber?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "But I found out who did. Ginny Weasley was being possessed by a dark object that Lucius Malfoy, believe it or not, gave to her. She just didn't know better because she was a child. Hagrid never opened the Chamber and didn't know anything about it."

"Tha-that's not possible," Fudge mumbled, feeling sick.

"I'm willing to offer you a magical oath, right here and now if you'll let me borrow your wand, that says I _know_ it was Lucius. I'll swear it only on my magic so that, if I can still use it, you'll know I'm telling the truth and, if not, you will have me at your mercy to do with whatever you will."

Fudge hesitated only a moment before agreeing. The temptation of having the Boy-Who-Lived at his mercy was too great compared to the risk of giving away his wand, which never actually entered the man's mind. The fact that he needed some sort of proof to confirm that Lucius was the culprit of that situation, when the man had been the one giving Cornelius all of his advice in who to go after, was simply a plus to Harry.

"I, Harry James Potter, swear on my magic that I know Lucius Malfoy gave Ginevra Weasley the cursed diary which controlled her and caused her to set loose the basilisk onto the school. As I have sworn, so mote it be." A quick flash of light and Fudge was hurling into his wastebasket. Once finished, Harry proved he could still use magic by performing a breath-freshening charm for the Minister. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Minister."

"It's quite alright, my boy. It's just a little hard to take in." Fudge pulled out a hidden stash of rum and drank straight from the bottle, ignoring the cups from the drawer. He was conveniently accepting that proof for the Chamber issue turned into proof for this apparent plan to kill him. That one oath from Harry validated everything else to the Minister, leaving Harry relieved.

"Minister, from what I understand, he sees you as a threat and the fact that you gave me a way to protect myself and my friends really upset him. I think he was hoping to do something big, but you somehow stopped it I guess. I mean, as long as you were the one issuing his orders, _you_ were the one who took the fall when things went bad. That's why he gave you so much money."

"I-I-I don't know-" Fudge spluttered, looking even more green.

"Please don't lie to me, Minister," Harry said calmly, with his voice as firm as he could make it. This was going to be the hard part. "I don't care if you get paid extra to pass laws as long as you don't make people suffer for it. What does it matter if people want to register pets and you get some gold to make it happen? Or to protect the people in some way? I've been given proof, but I don't really care. I'm a kid. All I really care about is having fun, flying, doing cool magic and girls. But you helped me out before and I'd like to help you out now. Here's the activation phrase," Harry said sliding a paper to the Minister.

_Emergency Portkey, Activate!_

"Use that if you get into trouble. I check the chamber every couple of days and the ring will let me know once it's been used. That way, I can come quickly to make sure you're okay and, if not, you have access to the hospital wing which is probably closer help than anywhere else you go unless it's straight to Saint Mungo's." Harry had, until that moment, forgotten about his hidden horcrux and all the pilfered items from the Room of Requirement. _'Crap. I need to move all of that to Potter Manor before tonight.'_

"I ... Yes, okay," Fudge said, immediately placing the ring onto his finger and sighing in gratitude as the band tightened comfortably and turn invisible with a built-in disillusionment charm. "You really think Lucius would come for me?"

"I don't know," Harry said with a shrug. "All I know is what I was told. So far, Umbridge was one of his targets. She's gone now and Lucius goes missing at the same time. I don't want to think I'm paranoid, but can you explain it in any other way?"

"No, no I can't," Cornelius said. "And I think you may still be right. We found evidence at Delores' home suggesting almost all of that as well, along with some things from others. Apparently, Lucius had threatened to curse the families of the Board of Governors last year to get Albus sacked. We've looked into that lead and it's shown to be valid."

"No!" Harry exclaimed, sounding aghast. "Did he really?" Harry struggled to keep the grin from his face. He hadn't paid much attention to when Malfoy and Dumbledore argued after the Chamber incident before he freed Dobby, but his Inner Hermione had reminded him of it when making up the plan and decided it would validate more than Harry could account for. "He isn't as subtle as he should be! I bet you've been on to him for a while now!"

"Oh yes," Fudge said, feeling it safe to confide in the boy and not above puffing up his own ego a bit. "It also suggested they had, er, _adult_ interests in one another. Lucius was apparently meant to survive his wife and then he and Delores were going to run away together. Not sure what was to happen to his boy, Draco, I think."

"Draco has become an embarrassment to Lucius," Harry said solemnly. "Lucius is a firm believer in blood status and Draco does very poorly at school. And, if Lucius was going to run away with Delores, then he may have planned on making a, er, _clean break_. The muggles have crime stories where that type of thing happens a lot. I grew up on those kinds of stories, that's probably what interested me in becoming an Auror. So, it could be different, but I don't know. Right now, if anything happens, then Draco gets everything if inheritances work the same in the wizarding world with the eldest child getting everything."

Fudge nodded, agreeing. "Yes, they do. And that's very fine thinking. You may already be Auror material, Harry!"

Harry actually blushed, embarrassed not at the praise, but that Fudge was so easy to manipulate. Hermione was right in first year. Wizards have absolutely no common sense. "Just promise never to take the ring off, even for bathing or sleeping. Those are times when a person is most vulnerable."

"I promise. No point in having the protection if you can't use it, right?"

Harry blinked, finding that surprisingly intelligent. "Right. Um, one other thing. I know this is probably something you should tell the DMLE, but since I don't want people to know I've got people looking out for my safety, would you keep this secret? I just don't know how to prove these things outside of a letter to me, which doesn't really _mean_ anything is proven to an investigator. Fin said he was leaving the country and, if anyone learns about you getting that portkey, they may figure out how to stop it in a way I just don't know about or something. I'm still learning a lot, so I may have missed something."

"No, of course not," Fudge chuckled. "You're protecting the Minister of Magic, himself! No need to drag you or your sources into the muck!" Actually, Fudge was terrified that, if asked questions, Harry would let slip his proof of bribery. The boy was highly suggesting he was okay with such things, but the legal world was _not_, unless they were the ones _getting_ the bribes, of course.

"Well, they aren't really sources," Harry said with a shrug. "Just, if they hear anything, they get paid if it turns out to be valid and were the first to provide the information. And I tend to pay very well, so they're likely to do the work and get paid for it."

"That's what sources are, my boy. But no worry, I'll keep your secret, as long as you're willing to keep secret I took you on a tour of the Department of Mysteries. Technically, you shouldn't have seen that since you don't work here, but you are a friend of mine, of course, so of course I'd show you the interesting things. Well, I need to see what I can do about the search for Lucius," Fudge said, hoping Harry wouldn't tell people what he had seen now in hopes it wouldn't get back to anyone. "If you need me, I'm here any time you want to talk." Now, all Fudge had to do was figure out how to get extra security for his home when all the Aurors and security personnel were busy scouring the Ministry for information. Perhaps he would have to ask Angelica if she was willing to work another late night. He desperately needed her talent to let off some steam and it never hurt to have an extra wand around.

"Thank you for your time, Minister," Harry said, allowing Fudge to take him to the door where they put on a show for the very attentive Angelica.

Once the door closed and Fudge was secretly writing hasty memos to certain people, Harry turned to Angelica and smiled, bowing his head and earning himself a large smile and deep blush worthy of Ginny Weasley. "Thank you for your assistance earlier, Miss Angelica," Harry said, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles while keeping his eyes on hers still, rather than the blouse which had almost lost all of its top half from the girl's transfigurations. He felt sure if she bounced in her seat or took a deep breath, he'd get his second glimpse of the female form.

"N-no problem, Lord Potter," Angelica said happily. "If you need _anything_ that I can _possibly_ help you with, this is my private floo address. I'd be _happy_ to give you _any assistance_ with _any_ problems that may be _stressful_ for you or deliver a message to Minister Fudge since I see him daily. I'm always at your _service_." The dark-haired woman was rather distressed that this boy, who should have been so hormonal he couldn't tell you what she looked like from the neck up, wasn't paying attention to her obvious _charms_ that she was being quite a bit less subtle than she would normally be. After all, it only took a smile at Fudge to earn a position earning nearly eight times her entry-level position from nearly two months previous. Granted, she earned it mostly on her knees or back, but the job was extremely easy, well-paying and a new friendship with Missus Fudge meant she could nearly control Cornelius' 'overtime' at the Ministry. This boy just would _not_ pay attention to what she was obviously trying to tell him! _'I think I could get him alone and rape him next time. He would enjoy that, I have no doubt.'_ She was honestly beginning to think that was what it would take.

Harry simply nodded once and walked away, letting his face contort into disgust once he was facing away from the girl. She was pretty, but he had seen her real personality as soon as she spoke. He may use her to get unwitting help with his Ministry Project, but there was no way in Hell he would take her up on her obvious offers.

Besides, he didn't like black hair any longer.

xXxXxXx

"Dobby?" Harry called out after arriving home at Potter Manor. He put all of the things from the Chamber of Secrets in the ball room where there was plenty of room in case the sack he transfigured out of his list failed for some reason. It was also the one place where nothing could be damaged that he actually cared about or may need in the future. Balls may have been a big deal to the upper class or for social events, but he really didn't care at all.

"Yes Master Harry Potter Sir?" Dobby asked, popping in front of Harry and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"How are the elves from Malfoy Manor doing?"

Dobby's ears drooped and his bouncing stopped. "They is doing better, but is still very weak. They was being hurt a lot so they is needing time to get better. They is not being awake for at least a week so they is not hurting themselves for what happened or going to their only remaining master and telling him what is happening. Dobby is already making them forget what happened and who was being involved, so Master Harry is being safe, as is Dobby."

"That's good to hear," Harry said with a heavy sigh. "Now, what did you mean last night when you said that you had taken most of what I would want from the Malfoys?"

Dobby looked both sorry and proud of himself in a strange expression on his face. "Master Harry is beating Bad Master Lucius' old master when he was being a baby. Magic says when you beat them, you is having everything from the loser and Bad Master was giving everything of his to his master. Dobby decided since Master Harry beat the loser, Master Harry is owning everything that was his, including Bad Master's things. So, Dobby go to every place Bad Master hides things and takes it all."

"So, you took everything Lucius was hiding?" Harry asked, causing Dobby to nod quickly enough to make his ears slap his face loudly. "Dobby, you're awesome! Can any of it be tracked back to us?"

"No. Dobby is finding nothing with tracking charms. He searched every piece and is finding none at all!"

"Do you think the law enforcement will be looking for any of it? I mean, Lucius was sure to tell them of the thefts..."

"Not at all! Bad Master is having almost all dark thingies! If Bad Master was to say anything was stolen, they would ask from where it was stolen and if they ask that, then they would want to know what else was stolen, and if they ask that, then they is finding out Bad Master is having many bad thingies that would get him into trouble!"

Harry ... _thought_ he understood that. "So, he didn't want questions asked?"

"Exactly! Oh, I knew Master Harry Potter Sir was smart!" Dobby cried out gleefully, never minding that was exactly what he had told Harry. But, since it wasn't exactly what he said, it was obvious his master knew better than Dobby thought he did!

That poor elf's logic was about as linear and clear as a nest of Devil's Snare. Or Hermione's hair.

"Hm. Did you get any polyjuice potions? Or do you know where I can get some?"

"Dobby is getting some from Bad Master," Dobby said with a fast nod. "Bad Master is having many potions that Dobby has taken! Dobby put them in the medicine room!"

"That moves my plans up then, Dobby," Harry said. "I need you to scout out Fudge's house like you did for Umbridge and Malfoy, and find out Fudge's daily routine for the next couple of days, okay?"

"Dobby can be doing that!" And the elf popped away to do just that.

"That is one crazy elf," Harry muttered with a fond smile. He decided he would go ahead and buy the little guy his Christmas socks now so he didn't forget.

xXxXxXx

_Albus,_

_I had plans of being at the Hog's Head the weekend after Christmas. I'd like you to join me._

_Moody_

Albus chuckled to himself after he decoded his dear friend Moody's letter. The man was paranoid to an extreme and it had taken him half an hour to decode the short missive. Still, they hadn't spoken to one another in almost three years outside of the occasional letter or very brief pleasantries when Albus would ask for his assistance in some matter. It would be nice to catch up.

With a warm heart, Dumbledore responded in the affirmative, hoping his younger brother would be willing to talk to him for once since their sister's early demise. Each year, Albus would send him something, but he never once received anything back. Nor would Aberforth say a word to him unless legally obligated to. It was never anything but a glare.

_'There is always a chance he has had a change of heart,'_ Albus thought to himself. _'Perhaps he will give me a second chance to apologize. To prove that I have changed.'_

xXxXxXx

"You can't kill him, you know," Blaise stated simply, once again in Daphne's room in the Slytherins' dungeon. The girl's silky black hair whipped around as she snapped her head over to glare at the boy, actually growling in defiance.

"Of course I can! It may be illegal, but I'm perfectly capable of it!" Growling again, Daphne once again began pacing the length of her room like a caged tiger. This had been just about all she did during her free time since she had received that _thrice-be-damned_ letter from her father, telling her he would be proud of her if she could seduce and capture the young Lord Potter's heart, explaining how it would be a wonderful boon for the family and a powerful husband for his eldest daughter. He didn't come right out and tell her to do this, of course. He truly wanted his daughter happy. However, he more than strongly suggested it as a worthy course of action, stating striving for a perfect match is worth any embarrassment and, success or failure should she try to follow her heart, suggesting as well that she was already infatuated with Lord Potter, would be met with a week's stay at Stoven's Spa. It was a lush resort and spa that quite literally catered to your every legal desire. In the wizarding world, there was quite a bit that was legal, and nearly every possible vice, pleasure or sin could be obtained there. Every facet was designed for opulence and aesthetic pleasure.

Long story short, it was an outright bribe.

"What about you?" Daphne continued, glaring at the slightly shorter boy. "Didn't _you_ get a rather similar letter?"

Blaise blushed, shifting uncomfortably. "It would appear as though Mother hopes to cover any potential areas the majority of the public may ignore and asked that I simply make an inquiry to-"

"She wants you to shag the bastard," Daphne interrupted, smirking in amusement. It was wonderful to take what enjoyment she could from her friend's discomfort.

Blaise made a face that conveyed his opinions on the matter, and they weren't good. "I am to _inquire_ subtly about his ... persuasion," Blaise corrected delicately. "If that leaning is to one side, I am to ... persuade him to meet my younger sister."

"And if it's the other?" Daphne asked in a sing-song voice.

Blaise glared at Daphne before snarkily retorting, "your father wants you to seduce Potter."

"Stay out of this!" Daphne roared, beginning to pace again, much to Blaise's amusement.

"Just ignore it," Blaise suggested with a shrug. "That's what I shall be doing."

"If I fail to _persuade_ him, as you so delicately put it, then Astoria is supposed to try," Daphne said with a sneer. "Just in case he likes younger girls. She is supposed to outright make the attempt to the point of coming right out and making the offer."

"A common plan amongst pureblood mating rituals," Blaise referenced. "It's the very reason I am to work at introducing him to Leonora. It's been done for generations and one my own mother has grown quite accustomed to."

"It's my little _sister_, Zabini!" Daphne hissed, looking to the boy who was quickly becoming the enemy. "She's shy and far less self-assured of herself than I am. She puts on a show in public like she's been taught, but that's also why she doesn't stay out much. She can't keep it up. She'll get nervous and then she'll bend and if she's forced to accept Potter's advances, she _won't_ be able to keep up with him! Not the way he's been this year! Last year's Potter, _maybe_! He was practically worse than Longbottom. _This_ Potter, however, would sense the weakness and ..." Daphne stopped speaking, shaking in rage at the things she was envisioning at that moment. The things that she knew would await either of them if their husbands were to be chosen for them or if they showed weakness in the commons.

"I could see that," Blaise considered, pinching his chin in thought and getting a dirty look from the raging girl. "If it were anyone other than Potter, anyway."

"Elucidate," Daphne ordered, narrowed eyes watching her closest friend very, very carefully.

"Potter's not the type," he admitted with a shrug. "Weasley? Yes, I could see him taking anything he thought he could get away with. Thomas, Finnegan ... well, most of them, really. But, Potter, Longbottom, the Weasley twins and a few others, no. They're ... _good_ guys. Simply put, Potter's too honorable to do something like that. If he weren't, then he would accept the many offers that have gone his way. He's too noble to take something when he knows he shouldn't and I don't see him entertaining such liberties with someone at Astoria's age."

"What offers?" Daphne said with a snort. "He's a scrawny, shy, bumbling oaf-"

"Even when that _was_ true," Blaise interrupted, "he was still the 'Boy-Who-Lived'. His fame and the public knowledge of his wealth provided more than enough incentive. And don't think that I don't know the beaten puppy look didn't work on many girls," Blaise chided with a look that said he wasn't blind. "I believe you, yourself, had-"

"One more word, and you're going to be confessing your love to Malfoy," Daphne threatened, spinning her wand expertly in her fingers. "But, I suppose you're right. He isn't like Malfoy or his cronies. And the way he seems interested in Granger or even _Lovegood_, of all people, makes me think he's already got plans in that regard. I suppose you're right. Just continue on business as normal and maybe have a little talk with Astoria before she does anything."

"Speaking of Malfoy," Blaise began with a smug smirk. "What do you think of the effects of Potter's little stunt in the Great Hall?"

Daphne grinned beautifully, practically lighting up the room. "I honestly couldn't believe it when I saw it," she admitted. "I don't think I really believed him when he said he didn't hate all Slytherins, but I'd come to believe it. After seeing what he did in the Hall, I'm rather glad he isn't out to get us. He would be an incredibly powerful ally or our most dangerous enemy."

"I agree," Blaise said. "The fact that he pointed out that Malfoy has never been anything but hot air has had him nearly ostracized and almost totally isolated from everyone else save Crabbe and Goyle."

"I wish there was more information about his parents," Daphne admitted after a moment. "He'd probably be put in his place rather than mostly ignored now if we could find his father wasn't on the move and working at something. Everyone is too worried that Malfoy Senior is up to something and doesn't want to risk his ire." She allowed herself to fall onto her bed as she pondered on the nature of the current power struggle in Slytherin and how best to take advantage of it.

"You don't think he is?" Blaise asked carefully, looking highly intrigued. They didn't tend to talk about the activities of others' families since it was always a risky proposition, but he would admit that there was a high level of curiousity involved in this particular instance, even if the danger was, in effect, higher.

"No," Daphne stated. "Lucius Malfoy has _always_ been one of those people who makes a plan where someone _else_ would take the fall if things went bad while he tried to manipulate from the shadows. The idea that _he_ was the one to go in and kill Umbridge, while I believe him capable, seems _off_ somehow. At least without burning down the house, too. Father said Lucius Malfoy was definitely a Death Eater, but was political rather than muscle and they would never do things on their own. This just seems ... _inelegant_, I suppose."

Blaise nodded. "It is also highly suspect that there are things pointing towards him as the culprit, as well. A floo call and then his sudden disappearance."

"But if it _is_ the elder Malfoy suddenly taking action, there could be something very problematic on the horizon. Something that required him to lose his good-guy status or innocent act and be seen as the bastard he is. This just seems _too big_ for eliminating a loose end." Daphne mused aloud.

"No one else has acted differently or made comment of any other serious movements, so either all children are out of the loop-"

"Smart, considering the children," Daphne interjected with an eye roll.

"-Or they aren't, suggesting a lone act," Blaise finished, ignoring the interruption.

"Which is even more troublesome since it doesn't fit the elder Malfoy at all."

"So then, all evidence, conjecture and theories at best, suggest?" Blaise pushed, wondering if she came to the same conclusion he did.

"That Malfoy has been set up and is taking the fall, for once."

"Or already has, most likely," Blaise agreed with a nod.

"And Draco is out there in the commons, telling people his father is up to something big and how he's a lead role in it, probably due to Potter's actions so he seems more important-"

"-And just as likely going to get a blade slipped between his ribs while he sleeps," Blaise finished. There was always the chance of a dislocation spell to pop each of the spinal vertebrae apart from one another, as it was much cleaner, silent and quick, but left a trace. Still, Blaise had decided long ago that it was likely to be his spell of choice with an unregistered wand, of course.

"Think we should anonymously circulate that his parents left him?" Daphne asked with a hopeful look in her suddenly large, strikingly vulnerable eyes that almost made Blaise succumb for some heretofore unfathomable reason. It was like some emotional or mental pulling that seemed to say 'give me what I want'. That look scared him.

"If I'm right and his parents _did_ end up as fall guys, then it won't matter," Blaise said, swallowing thickly as he fought valiantly against the power those eyes held over him. _'How did her eyes get so large and wet all of a sudden!'_

"Oh yea," Daphne grumbled. "Good point. How long before that stuff usually gets sent out? I never liked reading up on funeral traditions." Unsaid was he had been to his mother's last three suiters' Last Testaments due to those 'inexplicable demises' all of them seemed to fall prey to, giving him a unique familiarity with the practices.

"If they followed tradition, seven days from the time they died. If not," Blaise shrugged. "Whenever it's discovered that they are dead."

"Draco Malfoy with his father's political power and money," Daphne sighed. "Somehow, I don't see him being half as intelligent as Potter about it."

"He _has_ been trained since he was young to handle such things," Blaise rebutted. "Potter came into this world a couple of years ago totally ignorant of our culture and laws."

"Yes, but Draco's also been trained on how to comport himself and that was an obvious failure."

"Touché."

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 3, 06:55 – Outside the Room of Requirement **

"Master?" Snarf asked, waddling over to Harry who was coming back from his workout that Friday morning.

"Hello Snarf," Harry said with a smile, picking up the little guy and grinning as he held onto Harry's ear to remain steady on his shoulder where he now sat. Of all the Thundercats, Snarf was the number one cuddliest in the pack. "What's up?"

"I know I was supposed to stay with the whiskered one until later, but he had a conversation with Snape last night about using potions on you, Miss Moon, Miss Hermione and a couple of others."

Harry growled and his eyes flashed for a moment. "Tell me what was said," Harry demanded, waiting at the middle of the hall where he could see if anyone came from either direction. One end was a dead end, in theory, but that was never truly the case in a castle where doors changed places.

[Flashback: Previous Night]

"_Ah, Severus! Thank you for coming. Lemon drop?" Albus asked, offering the delicious treats to his friend._

"_No. Thank you," Snape hissed gently, recoiling from the tainted candies. They were Albus' favorite and were made so by the potions Snape had laced them with since the older man couldn't get that same zing from the ones he found. While it kept Albus his toy, it also meant anyone who took him up on his offer would come back for more and become Snape's minion as well. A great passive method to get people under his thumb, but horrible since the old man was compulsed to offer them to everyone who came into his office unless he disliked them enough or was in a state of mind to override the, admittedly, weak compulsion._

"_Very well," Albus said, popping one of the delightful treats into his mouth and then beaming at the man across from him before putting all the portraits into a stasis where they would hear and see nothing of the following conversation. "I have called you here for a favor, my friend."_

"_A favor?" Severus asked simply, intrigued._

"_Yes. I have need of a compound potion. A mixture of love, lust, fertility, loyalty and stamina," Albus said, sighing heavily and looking absolutely pathetic. Snape would have enjoyed the sight if he weren't thinking of the ridiculous concoction._

"_Albus, compound potions can very rarely go as high as three within a single one," he stated simply, thinking of the best way to work this to his advantage. "Who are the targets?"_

"_Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Lavender Brown and Ginny Weasley. Harry requires an heir, but with the way he is acting this year, I am worried he will not last much longer. Each of these girls must come to him and offer themselves to him so that his legacy will continue. But, I believe Harry will not last much longer in this world on his own and he refuses help. I had considered Miss Bones as well, but fear her aunt's critical eye for detail and likely drive to determine her niece's abnormal behavior could negatively affect my plans."_

_The corner of Snape's mouth twitched, the only sign that he was ecstatic about the situation. _'If the brat has this in his system when my potion is complete, they will force him to eliminate each girl long before the sluts are even showing. Yes ... I think this can work. And if I use some of the milder potions for everything but the love and loyalty, they shouldn't interfere with my own.'

"_Headmaster," Snape began. "I will, of course, do my best to provide potions to you as I always do," he mentally smiled at his own joke. "But as I said, compound potions are tricky things. While I believe I could brew something up, I could never be sure of any side-effects. There is no telling what that could do to him and you would have to suffer the standard ramifications with messing with a person so heavy-handed a manner. Two effects in one potion is difficult enough if the results don't mix well, such as love and lust, but adding in the others could be problematic."_

'Thank you, you simpering fool! You even provide me a patsy! I believe I shall actually get you a true present this Christmas, old man. An early death, away from all this pain and suffering you are soon to feel. After I see about becoming your sole beneficiary, of course.'_ Snape's heart beat faster and he felt a glimmer of happiness that his dark soul hadn't felt since the summer had ended and he was forced to leave his toys at home to die._

"_I am aware, Severus. But as long as these girls are filled with his progeny, then it will be worth it in the end. Whatever happens, Harry's destiny must be met. And if not by himself, then by those of his own creation ... By his own hand," Dumbledore said, his gaze appearing to go to some point in time Snape couldn't readily identify before he shook his head. "We also cannot allow his wealth to fall into the wrong hands, nor can all his political power follow it. We _must_ do this for the 'Greater Good'."_

_Snape watched Dumbledore in silence for the next twenty seconds, counting off in his head to ensure it appeared he was thinking before he nodded once curtly and strode to the door where he paused. "I will brew your potion. But I leave the consequences of such a potion at your feet," he said as he left the room._

[End Flashback]

Harry's rage would have seen a portion of the castle destroyed if he hadn't smacked his hands to the castle and simply channeled everything he had into the wall. The cold, gray stone began to turn white as what looked like a magical frost stretched out from Harry's hands and grew larger until the wall and hallway appeared frozen.

Harry panted as the castle hummed to his senses in a way it never had before. He ignored the curious feeling he had that guided him into that action, as well as the appearance of the hall, and simply looked at the wide-eyed Snarf still on his shoulder. He took a deep breath and then held for a moment before releasing. "Sorry, Snarf. But I can't let that happen."

The fur-person nodded his head so rapidly that even Dobby would have been impressed. While his master didn't see what he had done, Snarf could tell in some primal part of his mind that what he saw covering the walls was crystallized magic. It would be absorbed by the castle at some point when she noticed it, but for now, it was there and wouldn't go away.

Snarf swallowed as he watched his master breathe heavily, almost panting. It was certainly more in rage than exertion, he could tell. "Master? What will you do?"

"I don't know," Harry said after a moment, beginning to walk to his common room again.

Snarf didn't know what to do to help his master. He was really only a few months old. And his knowledge about feelings wasn't a whole lot better than his master's, either. But, he had learned a little. He sat on Harry's shoulder and hugged his arms around Harry's neck, purring as he tried to ease his master's rage before it turned to actual happiness as he got scratched behind the ears.

"Thanks Snarf," Harry said quietly as the portrait hole opened for him.

"It's why I'm here, Master," he said, raising his chin so the questing finger could find its way under. After a moment, he hopped down and then disappeared, back to his watch station.

Harry sighed and then looked up, only to find Hermione and Luna there waiting on him. "Er, g'morning girls."

"Good morning, Harry," Hermione said, patting the couch next to her. It was, not coincidentally, between her and Luna, the latter of which had her bottom lip pushed out and her eyes appeared larger than normal. He didn't know why, but Harry felt guilty just for looking at them.

As soon as Harry sat, Luna was cuddled into his side, holding his arm almost like her life depended on it. Harry remembered her acting like this in his future memories, but that had only been after a horrible prank. _'Is that what happened? Hermione's going to tell me someone pranked Luna? I'm not in the mood for this crap. I'll just scare the hell out of them and be done with it. She shouldn't be hurt.'_ Regardless of what he thought, Harry leaned back and pulled both girls into hugs, sensing that neither was very happy. "What's wrong? You both seem upset."

"You've been ignoring us," Luna mumbled into his shoulder, keeping her face pushed into his body. He could tell she wasn't crying, but felt it was probably because she didn't want to be.

"What?" He asked, confused. "No I haven't, I-"

"You have, Harry," Hermione said with a sigh, taking comfort in his hug and curling up as close to a ball as she could into him. "Ever since that night in the Room, you've spent less and less time with us and more time alone. Sometimes, you're just gone and we don't even realize when you left."

Harry sighed deeply, letting the air in his lungs out slowly as he tilted his head back. He squeezed both girls tightly, getting responsive hugs back. He mentally looked back on the past week and realized they were right. He had been wanting some time alone to try to come to a decision on how to help Luna, but he had no real idea. It also didn't help that all the alone time he could get was either doing something meant to be left to adults, exercising or practicing his dueling against his evil twin in the Room and other random targets. He hadn't wanted to think much since he'd killed and since he'd found out about what fate awaited Luna. _'There has to be something I can do! There is no way fate controls our destinies that thoroughly! Otherwise, what's the point of free will and choosing for ourselves?'_

"I'm sorry," he finally said after a few minutes in which the girls had given him to think, which he was grateful for. "You're right, and I'm sorry. It's just ... I can't begin to describe how important my decision is on something, something literally life or death, and I don't know what to do. I only just realized how important the answer truly was, too," he confessed, thinking of his revelation that he truly did care for Luna as more than a simple friend. Even if he didn't, it would be difficult, but now he understood that he had to willingly give up something that, in truth, he didn't want to. He didn't want to lose either girl for any reason or in any sense of the words. That was why he hadn't pushed his pursuit of Hermione since the summer, even though he hadn't understood that at the time. A part of him was being greedy and wouldn't let go. _Couldn't_ let go.

"Then let us _help you_, Harry," Hermione pled, looking at her best friend. He looked down at her and she wanted to cry at how much pain she saw in his eyes right then. How much suffering. But she didn't know _why_ he was suffering, and that hurt even more. "Why are you shutting us out when we've already admitted that opening up makes things easier?"

"Do you hate us?" Luna asked quietly, sounding vulnerable and already assured of the answer.

"No," Harry whispered, feeling absolutely wretched. He couldn't stop himself as he kissed both girls on their foreheads, first to Luna who was blinking at him almost in tears and then Hermione, who was sure Harry was distancing himself to his own detriment. "No. I do not, have never, and _could never_ hate you," he said fiercely but quietly, trying to stress his honesty while doing his best not to scare either girl by making his denials louder.

"Then why?" Luna asked, wrapping her arms around his upper torso and Hermione's, grabbing both in a hug with Harry stuck in the middle. "Why do you keep leaving us?"

Harry was quiet for a few moments, doing his best to organize his thoughts and feelings in a way he could speak and be understood. "You are both ... _important_ to me," he said at last, his eyes closed and his voice quiet. He spoke as though telling some horrible secret, letting out his most vulnerable side for them to either protect or destroy. "I know it seems a little odd, but I need you both in my life. I can already feel it. I _can't survive_ without both of you. I can't do what I need to do; going forward and facing my future without you both there. But as much as I can't hurt either of you, I worry that I would."

The girls hugged harder, both feeling identical. "You're our best friend, Harry," Hermione said, laying the side of her head on Harry's shoulder as Luna did the same. "We will always help you with anything we can."

"Even if I've only really known you for about three months, you're both the most important parts of my life here," Luna agreed. "I understand what the future may hold. I've heard of what happened in your first year. I know what happened last year. And I'm fully aware of what's going on this year. I understand he will come back eventually. And I would rather stay by your side, even if it means getting hurt." Luna looked up and let her fingers trail along Harry's jawline as she smiled. "You told me ... in the broom closet that friends are always there for each other when they need them. We're friends and that will never cease to be true. And you will always need us, so we will always be there."

Hermione frowned mentally at the idea of both being in the broom closet until she remembered what Luna was referring to. At least now she was sure she wasn't becoming so blind to Harry that both could elope to a broom closet and she'd miss it. "She's right, you know," Hermione stated, looking up at Harry and smirking. "You're stuck with us, whether you like it or not, Potter."

Harry smirked back. "I wouldn't have it any other way," he said, looking into Hermione's eyes in a way that felt like he was falling, but wasn't Legilimency. It was broken as he realized it, however, and he shook his head, turning to Luna and missing Hermione's gulp and rapid blinking as she had felt the same thing. For a brief moment, Hermione could have sworn she felt ... Well, if it had lasted a second longer, she was pretty sure Luna would have needed to hit them with a water or freezing charm.

"Now," he began, hoping to change the subject at least a little until he could decide how to continue it in a safer venue. "You mentioned a few days ago you wanted to practice Legilimency again. Have you both rested up well last night?"

"Yes," both girls replied together.

"Alright. How do you want to do this?" He asked.

"I think you should both enter my mind first," Hermione offered immediately. A part of her was scared at the idea of the two of them in her head at once, since the last time Harry all but had free reign and movement inside of her, but she had used her time-turner to get extra sleep for the last week so any time she was up, she would be awake enough if Harry came to discuss his problems, so she had been getting ten hours. Of course, she was also hoping Harry would view one of her _other_ memories or fantasies so he would, hopefully, reciprocate. Not that she was _planning_ for it to happen, of course, but _if it did_, then who was she to deny fair play if he offered?

"Are you sure?" Luna asked. "It's much different to defend against two probes instead of one. You have to learn to defend against both methods of probing at once or one of them will have an easier time of it."

"It'll still give me a better idea than just one of you," Hermione stated. "And I took a page from Harry's book, so there are a lot of automated defenses as well and I got some ideas from you, too. I've changed it a _lot_ since he was last in my head. Just promise that anything we find in each others' heads, we don't hold against anyone?"

"Of course not," Luna chirped. "That's just silly. There's really only one thing that I could find that would ruin my friendship with either of you, and that's only if I found it was all some elaborate joke, but neither of you are anything like that. You're really good friends, so you'd never hurt me like that."

Harry felt like crying while also feeling like a heel, a bastard and anything else he could think of. If he had to stop being friends with her, then that is exactly how she would feel, that he had been tricking her the entire time and it would literally crush her spirit.

"We'll always be your friends, Luna," Hermione said with a smile. "We won't ever hurt you just like you'd never hurt us." Hermione grunted lightly as Luna bear-hugged the two of them, her chest mashed up against Harry as the surprisingly petite blonde reached from across him to wrap them both up hard enough to pop their joints. It was frighteningly comfortable except for the fact that Harry hadn't showered yet.

"Ready?" Harry asked, trying to throw his discomfort at their talks aside to focus.

Hermione pulled back and moved the table in front of the couch to manhandle a chair there instead before flopping down and wriggling to get comfortable. "Do me," she said, looking positively defiant.

Two wands came up and pointed to Hermione's focused eyes. "Legilimens," the two incanted.

"_Eep! Eep, eep, eep!" Luna began hoping from one foot to the other as she appeared in Hermione's mindscape in her normal day clothes and barefoot as she had been in the common room. She rubbed at her arms furiously and held her eyes tightly shut, trying to keep them from stinging with the high winds blowing ice around and into her eyes._

_Harry appeared right next to her, only handling the weather a little better since he suspected it would be there. He immediately grabbed Luna and picked her up bridal style, taking off towards the gleaming, monolithic building that shone brightly against the white and gray backdrop._

_Five feet of running, Harry slid to a halt as his eyes widened and his jaw dropped in both awe and horror. Rising from the ground were acromantula, skeletons with axes and swords and large, blocky golems made of what looked like ice numbering several dozen to halt him from going any further. _'That really shouldn't surprise me, but damn!'_ Harry thought, watching the glistening bodies start moving forward and fully ignoring the cold that was slowly sapping his strength away and distracting him._

_Harry growled as Luna whimpered, her eyes ignoring the flying snow to stare wide-eyed around her. He tossed the shocked blonde girl over his left shoulder and raised his right hand that now had full range of movement. He took a stance so his right side was facing the oncoming horde and Luna was furthest away from his coming attack, but didn't consider it'd allow the girl to turn enough to look and squeak in shock, grabbing Harry's shirt in fear._

_A gout of flame erupted from a foot in front of Harry's hand, shooting forward like a flamethrower. The high winds of the environment and the extreme cold actually weakened the flame to less than half its usual effect, but Harry pumped more power into it and held it for ten seconds before stopping, only to twitch as he realized that either the ice wasn't going to melt, or it wasn't ice they were made of since they had now covered half the distance to him._

"_Harry...," Luna mumbled, unsure of how to defend against this kind of onslaught. She could defend against the usual form of occlumency, which was more of a duel against the mind of the defender, but this was ridiculous. She now understood what Hermione meant by mindscape._

"_It'll be fine, Luna," Harry said, patting the girl to try and comfort her. Sadly, the only available spot was her bottom, causing her to blush fiercely even under the current circumstance. Thankfully, he didn't notice, or he probably wouldn't have reacted in time to stop them from being caught._

_Harry put his hand back in the same position from seconds before and pulled back slowly, concentrating heavily. His movements were becoming slower and hard to control as the biting winds attacked him. He was now barely able to feel anything on the outside of his body and he was shivering just as violently as Luna._

_As he pulled his hand back, the wind seemed to settle and the snow in the air rushed to his open palm, coalescing into a ball that couldn't be larger than a grape before it all suddenly stopped and there was an unnatural stillness in the air._

_The advancing horde was three feet away when Harry threw his arm forward and a concussive blast of magic radiated outwards, shattering the creatures to shards that were carried away in the wind. _'Thank you Snape,'_ Harry thought, not taking time to watch what happened and instead run forward as quickly as his near-frozen body would allow, deciding to blast his way into the building again. He idly took note that the door was widely visible and appeared to be some sort of riddle or puzzle written in runes._

"_Hell," Harry bitched, seeing the building was now made of some sort of gleaming metal. Rather than decide it was impossible, he threw everything he had at it and managed to scratch the wall. Looking aghast, he tried again, throwing as much power as he could to it and caused another scratch, only to slump as he saw the wall seem to actually _heal_ the damage as he watched._

"_B-b-b-oth of us-s-s," Luna chattered, glad Harry was keeping her feet from the snowy ground. She still couldn't feel them, but at least she wasn't feeling that sensation that felt like slicing when walking in snow for too long and he had shoes on. "Three, two, one," she counted, both sending out as strong of an attack as possible, only to see the building adapt right before they hit, turning into some sort of reflective surface that was made of thousands upon thousands of tetrahedral disks that deflected the assaults over a wider area and back outwards. Thankfully, it didn't hit the two trying to gain entry, but the shapes began to grow and cover the rest of the building._

_The wind died down suddenly and the door a few dozen feet away opened as Hermione's voice seemed to project from everywhere and nowhere at once. "You're both about to catch your death out there. You couldn't break through the wall, so we can assume that's good. Come inside to test my other defenses, or do you think it's good enough?"_

_Harry really didn't want to admit defeat, but he also didn't want to stay stuck out there freezing to death. His hesitation, however, seemed to amuse Hermione._

"_I've got hot chocolate in there for you...," she said in a sing-song voice, causing Luna to smack Harry's bottom in retaliation for earlier._

"_M-m-mush!" The blonde girl demanded._

_Harry entered the monolith warily, placing Luna down next to a stand of hot chocolate that was quite out of place. There were three seats, cups and a large jug of thick, chocolaty goodness that Hermione was already sipping from her cup._

"_G-gimme," Luna demanded, taking her only half-full cup and chugging it, thankful it wasn't filled more or she'd have spilled it with her shuddering._

"_I decided to give you a brief respite," Hermione's mental avatar mentioned, looking curiously at both of her friends as she did so. "I want to make sure that you're as fresh as possible so I can test them under the best possible defenses."_

"_Makes sense," Harry said, channeling his magic into small pillars of flame to rest between each chair and back a touch to warm them while they drank._

"_So this is a mindscape?" Luna asked, putting her cup down and licking her lips, missing her new mustache as she glanced about. "I had always heard they are ridiculously difficult to maintain because of how complex they are. This is actually the first time I've come across one, and I've practiced Occlumency with many of Daddy's friends to test my defenses as I grew up."_

"_Long story short," Hermione began, "is that we assign a small portion of our subconscious to keep an eye on it. I got the idea from Harry who did it without even realizing it. It means that a part of us is always monitoring the mindscape and controlling it, making sure to keep those who break in playing by our rules. It also means we've got at least some sort of defense while unconscious, too."_

"_Wait," Harry mumbled, feeling more like his old self. "You mean the Hermione in my head is my own subconscious?"_

_Hermione smirked at him. "You didn't honestly think you could have a part of me in your head when we're separate beings, did you?"_

_Harry's blush seemed to say otherwise. "Are we talking to Hermione or her subconscious?" Harry asked._

"_Hermione," she confirmed. "I'm the real me. Mine will work differently than yours because of how I set it up. I'm actually not actively doing anything except to let you in here because I want to see how my automated defenses will fare now that I've set them up after seeing yours."_

"_Nice touch with the things outside," Luna said, holding her tummy where she _just may_ have had too much chocolate to try and warm up. _'How can you drink too much of something that doesn't really exist?'_ She wondered, hiccuping once._

"_I realized it was foolish of me to think only the cold and wind would stop someone," Hermione admitted. "If they have to face off against those, then they can't fare much better against the weather since they have to divert their attention. I made them out of what was meant to be diamond, so people would think they were ice and waste fire attacks, but it seems you figured out how to get around that," Hermione grumbled. "I'll fix that later."_

"_Are you ready?" Luna asked, looking at Harry and getting a nod. "Thank you for the yummy hot chocolate, Hermione. With your permission, we'll do our best to invade your mind and find your deepest and darkest secrets and desires now."_

_Hermione's face couldn't seem to decide on whether it wanted to pale or blush, but it kept going through the motions as if trying to. "Er, yea... Okay, I guess."_

_Harry chuckled. He always found a flustered Hermione cute, even in his past life when he didn't think of her romantically. He looked around quickly, noting the air was still very cold, but the stone beneath their feet was extremely warm, which he suspected was warmer than he thought since Luna seemed adverse to keeping her feet on the ground for longer than a few seconds, so there was still a very thick, cloud-like fog roiling along the ground, always moving as though there were creepy-crawlies moving about. "Luna, try to make shoes, please," he asked, thinking it may help her as they moved along._

_Luna looked at Harry curiously before looking at her feet and concentrating. It was curious to watch her expressions since her face was at first serene, even with a chocolate mustache, then she was narrowing her eyes. Then she glared. Then she shoved her bottom lip out and pouted, jerking in surprise when bright yellow sneakers appeared on her feet, causing her to look up with a blinding grin. "Begging works!"_

"_Actually, I made them for you," Hermione said looking sheepish. She couldn't help it... Luna gave off an aura of sadness when she pouted that Hermione couldn't help but to try and help her. She hated seeing Luna sad. She pulled off that beaten puppy look far too well, probably because every time she did it, she was sincere._

"_Oh," Luna said, admiring her new shoes, appreciating the brightness. "Thank you, then. Perhaps I should try this method. I couldn't figure out how to make them in your mind. In my own, it's much easier."_

"_Part of my defense, though I don't know if it was necessary," Hermione said as she stood. "I didn't want anyone to think up some sort of tool or weapon to use. You can't even show up here with a wand. I know people show up here looking like mental representations of themselves and their abilities, but I made their access to magic look different so it was something I understood and not them, hoping it would keep them from using their magic as easily. It's just my luck you appear to not need wands here."_

"_Of course not, Silly," Luna said with a small laugh and hugging to take any bite out of her words. "This is all mental. Most people will understand that. But, it may help keep them from being their full potential while here. So it isn't a bad idea, just not a cure all."_

"_Well, something to look at later," Hermione said with a shrug. "For now, you guys haven't managed to get any further than past the first defense on your own and they'd have grown into larger numbers from each individual piece they broke in to, so at the moment, I believe I'm winning even against two probes," she finished with a hop to her step and a cheeky grin._

_Naturally, Harry wouldn't allow that to go unchallenged. "Hermione, for the sake of testing this, I'm going to try to find a certain type of memory and do everything I can to view it. If I can't, then you win. That way, we can really test your defenses, okay? I'll let you do the exact same thing with any sort of memory you want in mine, too."_

"_What type of memory?" Hermione asked carefully._

"_Whatever you try the hardest to hide from me," he said, ignoring her pale badly enough to match the white fog along the ground. This was really necessary since anyone who tried to break into her mind would very possibly try to do the exact same._

"_I'll be attempting to find those conversations you mentioned you had with your mother," Luna said, thinking an adult woman's perspective on what they discussed with Harry at the breakfast table a while ago, and a mother's at that, would help her understand more, including where Hermione was coming from during that conversation about life partners. "It would probably be best that we split up, Harry. Is there anything that can really hurt us, Hermione?" Luna asked, looking longingly at the remaining warm drink._

"_E-Er, no," Hermione said, swallowing heavily. "You won't get hurt, at least not permanently. Like in Harry's mind, the things that I designed to try and severely hurt anyone breaking into my mind won't go after you. But, there will be some that are meant to forcibly expel your minds from mine and they will hurt a bit, I think. At least, I designed them to give a massive migraine when doing it or making that person relive my memory of what Cho's spell did to try and make them retreat, so I hope they work."_

"_Keep them active," Harry said. "Not ones that'll do lasting harm, but anything that'll just cause pain. At least in regards to me. I'd rather be sure they work than find out when you need them that they don't."_

"_Likewise," Luna agreed. "You felt that pain to protect me, so at the very least, I'll have a better understanding if I experience it and Harry's right. You need to know your defenses will work and there is really no other way to be sure."_

_Hermione didn't like it, but she had come to the same conclusion, so she reactivated those particular defenses. "Agreed. But if you have or develop something similar, then you can't go easy on me, either. Agreed?" Getting two affirmatives, she faded away and their comfortable seats followed._

"_Are you sure you want to split up?" Harry asked Luna. "If one of us is in trouble, the other would be there to help out."_

"_Scared, Harry?" Luna teased, looking at him with a mischievous glint in her eye._

"_Little bit, yea," he confirmed, gesturing around them. "She's devious, you know."_

_Luna chuckled. "See you on the other side, Silly." And with that, she walked on, only to immediately have to deal with a ghostly form that ran into her and tried to push her backwards and towards the exit where they came in. The blonde growled and slashed her arm, sending the glowing green spook into the wall hard where it was destroyed with a splat of glowing ectoplasm that dripped down. "Yuck! It slimed me!"_

_Harry chuckled back. "Good luck Luna." He went the other way, only to suddenly worry as he felt the ground give a few inches where he stood, which caused the fog to rush away from his foot enough to show the ground had turned into one and a half foot large squares, which his foot had just pressed one of down, activating a trap. "Oh crap," he muttered as he jumped backwards, dodging red beams of light that shot out of the walls that looked like either lasers or concentrated stunning spells._

_Harry fell to his butt on the floor, his arms behind him and holding him up as he watched a series of those red beams start firing throughout the entire hallway in a random sequence, forcing him to follow Luna's path until the next split. "Bloody hell..."_

xXxXxXx

_Luna took one step forward, held, and then slowly eased her weight onto the floor, hoping to learn from Harry's mistake after she had learned what happened to him. Not the red beams of light, of course. She hadn't seen that. But the second trap he triggered that dropped the floor out from under them to a very deep, black pit that had some sort of beastly snarls coming from deep below. The two had barely managed to run forward fast enough to outrun the falling floor, only to hear Hermione making a note to make the entire floor cave in at once rather than to give that moment to act as she thought a real falling floor would likely respond to such a trap._

_Harry hadn't said very nice things at that point. They had split up at the next fork in the halls and spent the next dozen or so minutes roaming about. Then Luna had come across her first memory, clapping and hopping in place and rushing to it. Then she learned Hermione had protected the memory with a troll statue that turned into a real troll and it was apparently just as magically resistant. Luna had run, thankful it wouldn't chase her far from the memory globe. Once she found the next, it was apparently guarded by the same thing. But, Luna had run around it, since it was apparently only as smart as their real counterparts, and just as slow. She had grabbed the orb, thus dispelling the troll into a stone-like state again and witnessed the memory, pouting when she found it was merely a standard memory of her reading at the fireplace in the common room._

_When she had found the third memory, Luna learned it was guarded by hippogriff. As it turns out, they were either just like their real counterparts as well, since bowing had allowed her to approach, or it was because she was allowed. Whichever the case, Luna had been allowed to approach the glowing globe and found it was a memory from the summer before where her and Harry had been alone at his house and she came across him exercising. _

_It wasn't much longer before Luna realized the more important the memory to Hermione, the stronger the beast that guarded it. And then she had found herself at the first memory she had viewed and stood confused, wondering how she had gotten turned around. She had been paying very close attention to her movements. So, she determined one of two possibilities; either Hermione's mazes changed shape and form, or there was some kind of puzzle to moving around._

'How do I break the puzzle?'_ Luna wondered to herself._

xXxXxXx

"_They've all been blue again," Harry mumbled as he passed yet another memory globe. He had, in the past hour or so, discovered a curiosity amongst the memory spheres as he viewed more of them. Basically, he could feel the sort of emotion attached to them if he focused his attention on them. He had tested his theory with the last eight he had come across, save the last-most two, including this one. Basically, if it was a bland, empty feeling, then it was an every day memory that held no real significance to Hermione. Things like studying in the library, sitting in History of Magic and keeping her time alone in the common room all felt relatively empty, but generally content. His bushy-haired friend truly did enjoy learning for the sake of learning and she felt accomplishment with each new nugget of knowledge she squirreled away in her head._

_Others he had come across thus far, ones that had him teasing with her or joking around, had a more contented happiness and a sensation of belonging with them. The same held true for some she had regarding Luna as well, though mostly to a lesser degree, which he actually kind of felt ... accomplishment towards. She enjoyed her time with him. That had been what he had wanted since coming back and deciding he could really enjoy life with Hermione by his side. He also couldn't expect she would feel as strongly about Luna simply because, as they'd mentioned, they only knew each other for about three months. They had come so close due to the large number of slumber parties they had, at least in the words of Luna._

'But where would you hide from me if you didn't want me to find a certain memory,'_ Harry mused to himself, deciding on a different tactic. He closed his eyes and simply imagined himself as everywhere as he could possibly envision. He tried his hardest to imagine himself currently without form and not held by the restrictions of this world, doing his best to fight it as he would command his own world to bypass his own rules._

_He could feel resistance to his attempts, something trying to hold him in this form, but it wasn't the world itself. It wasn't Hermione's doing. Whatever it was, it was his own attempts at changing that was causing it. Frowning, he pushed harder. He was _not_ a human boy. He was _not_ held to this building on his feet or by the apparent physical structure. He was a _mind_; constantly changing, adapting and only as weak as he was willing to allow himself to be. The very nature of Harry and Hermione began to compete, trying to determine exactly how they were competing for dominance._

'If you are your mind, then I am my mind,'_ Harry heard a voice that was more than speech, telling him he was not changing what he was fighting against. He was trying to change his nature, what he was, within a mind built of law and order. The two subconscious minds battled beyond conscious understanding in instinct and a primordial base of nature and reality, trying to determine the rules of which they worked and how they could function and commune with one another._

'You are your mind, and I am mine. But I am all-encompassing. I change. I adapt,'_ he said, knowing he was more flexible and open. He was not as rigid as Hermione's nature._

'As do I,'_ came the voice, sounding sure and firm, unyielding. _'I am stronger. You cannot break me.'_ The voice sounded more like the Hermione Harry knew and defiant, not willing to submit._

'I do not wish to break you,'_ Harry voiced. _'But I am not you, nor do I follow your rules. I can accept with belief and faith while you require empirical evidence to accept. Something that cannot be argued and proven.'

'But you cannot be that which you are not,'_ the voice stated, sounding less sure, more frantic as it realized Harry was changing and the representation of who and what he was was becoming different. He was no longer boy or man. He was ... _more.

'And yet, you know I am changing, that I am adapting.'

_The voice was silent as Harry finally succeeded in no longer being confined to his mental avatar. He was _aware_ of that which was around him. He was aware of Hermione's stray thoughts, which seemed focused on his avatar and not realizing what he had just gone through any more than he did. He could feel Hermione's memory spheres and the nature of what they were. He could feel the nature of Hermione's monolithic building and even sensed Luna, somehow twelve floors below him even though he couldn't remember going up or down, nor could he sense any sort of connection between the floors themselves._

_It was actually almost mind boggling just how massive the whole place was and being consciously aware of it all at once as he was sure Hermione was. He could feel her attention everywhere at once with no problems in tracking them or watching what they were doing. The power of her mind was so great she didn't even feel a strain to do so while Harry was nearly overwhelmed, only remaining able to handle the overload by not focusing on everything at once and instead, trying to keep himself in a relative bubble of about an eighth of the total mindscape._

'I don't think you'll ever cease to amaze me, Hermione,'_ Harry thought lovingly, smiling to himself, which widened when he heard Hermione wondering just what he was grinning like a loon for._

_Harry decided to focus, looking for memories Hermione was focusing the most on and that had the strongest emotions attached. Slowly, so as not to lose himself, he scanned the various floors before he found glistening golden orbs one floor up from the lower-most floor deep underground. Wincing, he looked at the ground beneath him and then shrugged before simply falling downward._

xXxXxXx

'What the hell! No!'_ Hermione screeched in her head, trying to figure out what Harry was doing to go through her inner barrier. He just punched straight through and kept going deeper and deeper. She tried to put pressure on him, but it didn't seem to deter him in the slightest. He hadn't stopped until he bottomed out, entering her core._

xXxXxXx

'What _is_ this?_' Harry wondered, finding himself in an absolutely humongous room that had to be at least eight hundred yards across with huge arched doorways along the entire wall and spaced about five feet apart while each door was probably eight or ten feet across and probably closer to fifteen feet tall. Perhaps five hundred yards into the room, beyond the twenty-foot floor that ran along the length of the room, was nothing. Simply nothing. He could see some points of light that made it look like he was looking _down_ to see the nighttime sky, but in the center of that void, there was something floating._

_It was a large gazebo-like structure, fifty feet across with a very large, writhing mass of blue strands that vibrated and hummed. The energy coming from them felt like the very embodiment of what Hermione was and, if Harry wasn't mistaken, he would swear that was her magical core as much as it appeared to be thousands of memory strands._

_Harry didn't understand what the words or symbols above the arched doorways meant, but he knew that where he was should have been the most protected place within Hermione's mindscape. _'Let's not mess with anything here,'_ he considered, putting his awareness out again and realizing he had gone too far down. He allowed himself to float upwards, hearing Hermione's worry and fear about where he was._

_Instead, he went up to the glowing group of spheres on the next level which, as far as he could tell, had no entrance or exit._

xXxXxXx

"_How very strange, Mister Hippogriff," Luna said aloud from the creature's back as it flew her around above the maze. "It's like there is only the one floor anywhere in this black void, but we don't see Harry or Hermione anywhere, nor do we see any other floors that we know must be here. Why, as large as this floor is, there are no more than twenty memory spheres."_

_The hippogriff snorted its apparently agreement. The creature wasn't sure why it was flying this girl around, but she respected it and bowed, then asked rather than demanded to fly about for a look. The hippogriff really didn't have anything else to do but guard a memory sphere, but she had already seen it and there was no one else about, so there certainly wasn't any harm in it._

"_Well, I haven't looked at that sphere," Luna said, pointing to a corner with another troll guarding the sphere. "Would you be kind enough to take me there so I can see what it has?"_

_Well, that wasn't the hippogriff's sphere, so it had no reason to stop her from looking at it as far as it was concerned. It dove down carefully in the way it had found the girl appreciated as she squealed in glee and hugged him, scratching in a place it somehow found to enjoy before landing._

_Luna ignored the troll that shattered its stone shell and lumbered towards her too slow to stop her from touching the sphere, making it turn to stone again while she drifted as she began to relive this particular memory. The hippogriff, wondering what the big deal was, as it _was_ created from the mind of an inquisitive girl, leaned forward and touched its beak to the globe, getting drawn in, too._

Luna looked around, taking only a moment to wave at the hippogriff as it appeared beside her and looked around curiously. Luna looked and saw a much younger Hermione laying on a blanket on the floor with a cup of juice and a bowl of popcorn and stared at a box before pushing a button on a little device in her hands.

Luna's attention was drawn to the box as it began to show pictures and sounds like a pensieve, only through a window, and she saw it was some sort of ... _something_ called 'Beauty and the Beast'.

The Ravenclaw was almost immediately drawn into the story as she sat on the couch with the very confused hippogriff laying on its belly next to it, deciding to watch what had this girl so fascinated.

xXxXxXx

_Harry came out of the first golden sphere with a fierce blush, his senses reaching out enough to hear Hermione chanting 'no, no, no' in her head. This had apparently been after the last time they had played in his pool during the summer and she had apparently been _very_ excited when she returned to an empty home and knew she had plenty of time before her parents returned, so she didn't have to be quiet, or even in her bed. She had, instead, decided it'd be more interesting to stay on the kitchen table where Harry had shared lunch that day with her._

_Hermione had realized that their method of protecting their memories was different than the usual. It protected better, but if someone got past those defenses, then touching the memory was like learning it all at once, but allowing you to watch and witness it. So, even though Harry had pulled out of the memory seconds after seeing what Hermione had begun to do, loudly and with gusto, on her kitchen table, he had immediately retreated, but still _knew_ what had happened as if it were his own memory. _

_He had felt he would be safe! The first memory had been when he saved her from the troll in first year! It had felt ... wonderful, really. He felt great affection, happiness and the loss of misery from it. He had been drawn to it like a moth to flame._

_The second memory, however, was ... heated. It felt like need, greater affection, joy, happiness, desire and even somehow felt like raw need. He hadn't realized how strongly Hermione felt that burning desire and need in that memory was so powerful as to practically make him feel he actually felt like he _needed_ to view the memory. Once he was close and sensed it, he couldn't _not_ view it._

_He blushed harder when he realized several of the spheres around him felt the same, though perhaps not quite as strong. He was pretty sure the only real reason she had reacted so strongly was because she had noticed his own discomfort when he got out of the pool after wrestling about in the water. He had honestly thought he had been discrete enough._

'Obviously not,'_ he thought, feeling Hermione's mortification and ... he wasn't really sure what it was, but she also seemed oddly pleased about something. _'Maybe Luna's having a rougher time of it than I am,'_ he thought._

_Harry sighed, before trying to decide if he should view another one or not. After several seconds of trying to determine the feelings from them, he gave it up as a bad idea. Hermione would obviously be upset if he continued to get peeks at her while she was enjoying her alone time, even if she _was_ yelling his name in that one._

_In a way, he didn't feel bad for seeing it. She had seen several of his own fantasies which included the two of them. But, he did feel bad in another way, simply because she hadn't seen anything real as he had, twice now, of their real bodies. But, he wouldn't dare approach that. He'd let her do so if she wanted._

_Sighing, Harry pushed his awareness out and then located Luna, who was next to a ... hippogriff? _'I swear, that girl can make friends with a cannibal.'

_Harry allowed himself to go upwards and met with his blonde-haired friend who was gazing into the memory orb with a small grin, though he ignored the hippogriff that had half its head in it as well. He pulled her backwards and out of the memory, causing her to pout._

"_Aw! Is it time to go back yet? There was only one petal left!" Luna grumped._

"_Huh?" Harry asked._

"_Never mind. Did you find anything worth watching?" Luna asked, walking away and making Harry follow, even though she had no idea where she could go. She _knew_ what happened with the rest of the movie, but hadn't had the pleasure of reliving the memory in what seemed, subjectively, like real time, so wasn't overly displeased._

"_Er, yea, kinda," Harry said, blushing lightly and grinning a little as his memory replayed his newest memory even as he felt Hermione grumble._

"_How did you leave this floor?" Luna asked. "The hippogriff gave me a ride up, but all I saw was one floor and no doors or stairs. Was there a hidden door?"_

"_Well, I sort of went through the floor and ceiling," he said, coming out of his memories._

_Luna looked up, not really seeing a ceiling and not knowing Hermione purposefully changed that since Harry's last visit, and then down, stomping the floor with a brightly-colored foot. "Hm. How odd. Ready to go back?"_

"_Yea," Harry said, watching Luna fade away first and then left himself, once he was sure she was gone._

xXxXxXx

When Harry blinked to let his dry eyes moisten, he saw Hermione looking down with a face as red as the couch he sat on, but he could just barely see the small grin. He knew, right then and there, that whatever he thought he understood about the girl was just plain wrong. But, he also knew that she had sufficiently developed her shields for what he needed. Tomorrow was the day he came clean, and hoped she didn't hate him.

"**Oh honestly! She would never hate you!"**

Harry jumped a moment, looking around. He recognized that voice from somewhere. He realized he was more ... _aware_ of the things around him, just like he was in Hermione's mind. He could feel the three of them were the only ones in the common room other than Crookshanks, who was hiding stealthily in a nook and watching the entire common room, on the lookout for something. There were also eight upper years up, but the rest were still sleeping. _'How odd..._'

"You did wonderful, Hermione!" Luna decreed gaily. "Do you think we may ever be able to meet one summer so I can watch that thing you watched?"

"Of course, Luna," Hermione said, smiling at the blonde girl. "We'll look into getting together this summer. How does that sound?"

"Brilliant," Luna said happily. "What did you think?" She asked, looking over to Harry.

"I'll be honest," he began. "I'm not sure what I did to ... do what I did," he mumbled in confusion. "But, I think I changed the way I think or something and it let me ignore the rules of her mindscape."

Hermione blinked guilelessly. "You _changed_ the way you_ think_?" She asked simply. She kind of wondered if that was why it was harder to see him when she saw him smiling before he went to see her naughtier memories. He had become a bit more opaque and practically see-through. She was just glad he hadn't accessed the other spheres since her actual fantasies would have probably given him the wrong idea.

"That's how it felt," Harry said. "Anyway, are you girls ready to rummage around in my head?"

"What do you want us to look for?" Luna asked.

"Whatever you want," Harry responded, smiling at them both. "I've added some non-lethal things to stop you in places where I normally wouldn't want anyone and, anywhere else, you have full access. So, you get to see anything you can get to.

"Anything, huh?" Hermione asked, almost as if hearing a challenge.

"If you can find it, yes," Harry said with a grin. "No holds barred."

"You _do_ realize my alternate in there gave me a brief understanding of how your memories were stored, right?" She asked, raising a brown eyebrow and smirking evilly.

"Then let's hope you find the juicy ones before I evict you from my mind," Harry said, waggling his own eyebrows in acceptance of the challenge he read from her body language, causing her blush to reappear, but her grin only widened.

"I think I'll try to find the memory of when you made the Thundercats," Luna said, placing her chin in her palm and taking a thinking pose. _'And if I can find out why you're upset during that, then maybe I can help.'_

"I'm going for the juicy ones," Hermione said, while thinking, _'and the juicier, the better.'_ She twirled her wand, looking forward to the challenge.

"When you're ready, ladies," Harry said, leaning back and stowing his wand in the holster on his arm.

Wands raised. "Legilimens!"

xXxXxXx

"_Where did he go?" Luna asked as Harry seemed to disappear. "Harry James Potter! Get back here and let me discover your deepest, darkest secrets!"_

_Hermione laughed easily and shook her head. "We're in his mindscape, Luna. He made it look like Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade and a little bit of other stuff I'm not sure of."_

"_Oh," Luna said, looking around with appreciation. "He's got an eye for detail."_

"_Well, a lot of things are built from his memories," Hermione explained, getting up with Luna and taking her to look out the window where it was a near-perfect replica of Hogwarts, save for a much larger and heavily fortified wall and a huge host of different species acting as guards. "Apparently, his subconscious makes the details and such for him and builds on and repairs while he's not in here."_

"_That's a wonderful set-up," Luna said, looking around again. "Is it as large as the school truly is?"_

"_Um, I don't know," Hermione acknowledged with a frown. "I've actually not been everywhere. I know the headmaster's office is his control center, he stores his naughty dreams and fantasies about people in their dorm rooms, and I've been in the halls from the Astronomy Tower to the Headmaster's office and from there to here. That's actually it."_

_Luna looked at Hermione curiously. "So, the only place you've actually viewed memories is where there are naughty ones?"_

_Hermione blushed and tried to stammer out a denial until she realized, that was actually the case. "Er..."_

"_Do we want to stick together or split up?" Luna asked, giving Hermione a simple out. She didn't want to risk Hermione denying anything between her and Harry right now when it could affect how she actually deals with him._

"_Er, stick together, I think," Hermione admitted. "I know the general layout of the memories, but haven't actually tried them yet because Harry didn't want to risk the defenses against me since he designed them to disable or kill and he didn't know what they would actually do."_

"_Very well, where would you like to look?" _

_Hermione pondered on that. She really did want to look at more of Harry's naughty orbs, but she didn't think Luna would be able to get up there and, even if she could, it would be kind of rude. She was kind of curious if he had any about Luna, though, too, but still. Kind of rude. "I've always been kind of curious about the memory from when he fought the basilisk," Hermione admitted after a few moments of thought._

"_Lead on," Luna said, looking around still and having no idea where things would be, chose to let Hermione lead. As she followed her, however, she found something extremely curious in the halls. "Hermione, do you see four of me and an extra you walking towards us?"_

"_Heh, yes. Harry has groups of people he trusts walking around as patrols. There are also groups of the twins," Hermione said, stopping in front of her counterpart and smiling while the group stopped to observe their real counterparts._

"_Are you really supposed to be me?" The real Luna asked her older versions._

"_Only as close as Harry was able to make us act," one said. "We try to respond as the real one would and our strategies are based on those perceived personalities as well."_

_Hermione blinked. "Well, you certainly talk more like her than Harry."_

"_Well, women _do_ tend to be more intelligent," another Luna stated, all of them looking at Hermione and smiling the same Luna smile. _

_At least until their heads snapped to the real Luna who was currently undoing clothing. _

"_What are you doing?" Hermione asked, wide-eyed._

"_Observational, comparison study?" The real Luna asked, looking at Hermione and not stopping her hands even as the Luna she was attempting to undress helped her for some ungodly reason in Hermione's eyes. It was only seconds before the Luna was standing there as naked as it was possible to get and looking as though it were an every day occurrence._

'Being a boy's head, I can't completely discount that possibility,'_ Hermione grumbled in the confines of her own mind. "What are you wanting to compare?" She asked aloud, honestly curious as Luna circled her older doppleganger with a critical eye. The only thing she allowed the older version of her to keep on were the bright yellow socks since the color was her favorite. It was such a happy color._

"_Everything," Luna said with a shrug. "Notice, the nipples are the same color as my own. Considering Harry has seen me naked a few times, that is not too much of a stretch. However, this Luna's breasts are larger than my own by a fair degree, but not nearly as large as one would suspect a teenaged male would put onto a life-like doll he created in his head. Plus, while they are fun and perky," she said, bouncing her own clone's breasts much to _both_ Hermione's shocked spluttering, 'the nipples themselves are slightly above the curvature of my heaving bosom."_

_Hermione's left eyebrow twitched. "What does that have to do with stripping your clone?"_

"_It's a strange place to put it. Why not where they normally go? Also, my clone's bottom is vastly different from my own. Round and bouncy-"_

_SMACK!_

"_Oh, come on!" Hermione cried out._

"_Basically, while my clone is very attractive, there are still minor deformities that shouldn't be there unless someone wanted them there. The dimple on the left cheek, for example. The curious trim of the pubic hair. Why is it like this?"_

"_We were designed by how Harry remembers us," the naked clone explained, playing with her own body as her personality was altered to add this real version's thoughts and actions, thus making it a stronger part of its mind. Moments later, nearly every Luna clone wondered at their bodies and were just as amazed as the original at how much fun the various parts were to play with. Unfortunately, since the real Luna was younger, and didn't really have those bits, it was a new experience for her. And the novelty was now something that would affect their personalities until either the real Luna no longer cared, or Harry somehow got them to stop poking themselves or bouncing things._

"_What do you mean remembers you?" Hermione asked._

_The clone's mouth worked, but no sound came out until suddenly, the clone Hermione was laughing and trying to cover for the Luna clone's slip, something Harry felt the real Luna would have done since the girl wasn't a liar and was usually brutally honest. "Oh, don't mind her! She's just thinking about the various thoughts Harry has had of the future."_

_Hermione's eyes narrowed, wondering if she was really that bad of a liar. But, her train of thought was viciously derailed as her clone's squawk of shock cut through her thoughts as she fended off the younger Luna's lightning fast hands. "Luna, what are you doing now?"_

"_Aren't you curious what he thinks of your body in the future?" Luna asked, not stopping her attempts to removing the older clone's clothes. Well, not until the older clones of herself decided to help out and had the clone Hermione to her knickers before Hermione finally shrieked out a 'stop!'._

_Hermione was about to tell Luna off for trying to forcibly disrobe her, even if it wasn't _really_ her before she saw the clone's lacy knickers. Her thoughts suddenly stopped as she positioned her blushing counterpart in a pose to see the overall effect of them and nodded satisfactorily. She idly noted some of her clone's imperfections, curious about what she was seeing. Her trimming was different than she currently used, but she had to admit she rather liked the tiny triangle, her breasts were slightly smaller than Luna's, but fuller and her bottom, as she had thought in the past when she first saw her clone, was definitely the better of the two, along with the legs._

"_What the hell?" Harry asked, causing all the girls to look at him, two Hermione's in shock and horror before the younger Hermione had her hands on the older's chest._

"_HARRY! DON'T LOOK!"_

_Harry's gaze snapped to the younger Hermione, looking at her like she was crazy before he spun. "Get their clothes back on them!" He yelled indignantly. A minute later, and with a few protests from the Luna's, he was told it was okay to turn around, seeing five serene Luna's and two embarrassed Hermiones. This really wasn't their day!_

"_I was in the command center and talking with what is apparently my subconscious when I was told I need to get to this hall in a hurry and when I show up, you're _stripping my patrols!_ What the hell?'_

"_I was curious about the differences between myself and my older version, then I, me, me, me and me started stripping Hermione because we were curious about her as well," Luna admitted._

_Harry sighed, deciding to try and change the subject quickly so he didn't have to try and answer that. "You five, return to your patrols, please. You two, stop molesting my defenders and try to find some memories?" He nearly pled._

"_Oh, all right," Luna mumbled, looking longingly at her retreating clones and then linking arms with Hermione and walking away. "Hermione, are there any Harry patrols?"_

"_Oh come on!" Harry yelled out after them._

"_Not to strip," Luna promised. "I'm just curious about how you make your older self look." The two women left the muttering boy behind and continued on to the trophy room, which looked different than they remembered. Instead of school awards for people no one really remembered, it was achievements Harry felt he had in his life, including each encounter with Voldemort._

"_All of them are here," Hermione whispered slightly in awe. Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, drinking a unicorn's blood, the end of first year and the end of second year. All that was missing was the memory of his very first encounter, but didn't know that he was only through about half of his life and working backwards. It would be there eventually, in full glory._

"_All of them?" Luna asked, somewhat eager to do so. No one but Harry himself knew as much as was in these memories._

"_I can agree with that," Hermione said, both girls reaching for the first sphere and following the sequence._

xXxXxXx

"Ow," Hermione and Luna both grumbled, holding their heads as Harry snorted in amusement.

"He told you not to try and go past," he scolded lightly. The girls, after seeing his encounters with Voldemort, had tried to go to one of his forbidden areas that held information of the future. They were warned going forward would have them forcibly ejected with a massive headache which would be caused by a memory of one of his Voldemort-induced ones before being tossed out. The pain would make their own mental probes weak just long enough to push out, but the pain would remain for a few seconds as they remembered it, but not really be there.

"We thought we could take him," Luna said, pinching the bridge of her noise and trying to not let the light hit her eyes. "We were wrong... Owie."

Harry could tell only one more person was up and getting ready, so they hadn't been gone long. "Are you up to your attempt, Luna?" He asked.

"Yes," she nodded.

"Legilimens!" Harry and Hermione said as one.

xXxXxXx

_Harry opened his eyes to see Hermione standing on a grassy meadow with a tree behind her. But, where there would normally be leaves, there was instead a giant walnut about the size of a house. "That's ... different."_

_Hermione, however, was staring in abject horror behind Harry and quite high up. Hearing him speak was only just enough motivation to make her whimper and point behind him and up, withdrawing in on herself and made him frown, turn, and then look up. _

"_Oh, shi-"_

"_CHITTER!" A forty-story tall squirrel chattered angrily at the two interlopers and spun as Harry was looking up, only for its large, bushy tail to hit both with the power of a freight train._

xXxXxXx

"AH!" Both Harry and Hermione launched at each other and held tightly, looking around for the giant squirrel of doom, shaking violently as their hearts hammered in their chests.

"Did you see Chi-Chi!" Luna asked happily, bouncing in her seat. "I got the idea of using that to defend with instead of myself from your minds! Isn't she great?"

Harry and Hermione hugged each other even tighter.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 4, 11:20 – Heading into lunch after studying**

Harry took a moment to breathe while Luna was using the loo. He checked his watch and noted the time before looking at Hermione while both waited for her to finish and head to breakfast. "Hermione," he called out solemnly.

"Hm? What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Do you have your time-turner on you right now?" He asked, causing Hermione to look at Harry in shock, paling as her eyes darted around.

"Harry!" She hissed. "How do you know about that!"

"I'll explain everything in a few minutes. I've got mine. Go back four hours. I've noted the time and have my invisibility cloak. I need to talk to you."

"What do you mean you have yours?" Hermione asked. "And we can't just go back in the middle of the hall, we have no idea who was here then!"

"Then come on!" Harry said, dragging Hermione down the hall carefully, making sure not to hurt her and that she was moving under her own power. "We'll be ready to be back in time for Luna to get out of there with our older selves. I noted the time."

Minutes later, the two were in front of the Room of Requirement and now under Harry's invisibility cloak. "Harry, Professor McGonagall told me not to use this except to get to classes," Hermione warned nervously. While she also used it for added sleep, she felt it was necessary.

"Then do you just want to use mine?" Harry asked.

"How did you even _get_ one?" Hermione asked.

"I've got around forty or so of them, some of them larger than this," he said, making her eyes bulge comically. "Did Professor McGonagall ever tell you you couldn't use use a _different_ time-turner outside of class time?"

"No, but I don't think she honestly expected it to come up," Hermione grumbled. She blushed lightly as he moved close and pressed his body up against her own, putting their cheeks together to clasp the short chain around them both. She hugged him tight as he moved the dial and they disappeared in silence, the hall darkening around them to go back to very early morning.

She waited while Harry unclasped the time-turner and then put it back around his neck and allowed him to make the room, following him in. "How did you know about my time-turner? And don't you _dare_ tell me if it'll cause a paradox!"

"This is going to be a very long story, Hermione," Harry warned. "That's why I wanted the four hours. It's also very complex, it does deal with time, but will not result in a paradox, which I have on the highest authority possible, I promise."

"Dumbledore knows about this?" Hermione asked, shocked. She was even more shocked when Harry erupted into riotous laughter.

"No! God no! If Dumbledore knew what I did, he'd obliviate me so bad I may as well be as bad off as that fool Lockhart and who knows what he'd try then."

"What?" Hermione asked, somehow being thrown for a loop.

Harry sighed and sat on the couch, motioning for Hermione to take the seat next to him. He watched her until she sat in the seat, looking unsure of how they got there. "Okay, starting from the beginning. I was sent back in time from when I was seventeen years old to my twelve-year old self."

"You what?" Hermione asked, wondering if she could really believe that.

"When you woke up after being petrified, did I seem different from what you remember?" Harry asked. "This summer, this year?"

"I suppose so," Hermione admitted. "I mean, you're more interested in your school work, you're more open to physical affection and you _do_ have a better understanding of your work. And then there's the whole patronus thing. Plus you have been much more confident than you used to be," she ended with a blush. She tried to look him in the eye, but kept darting it off to the side before coming back to him.

"You mean flirting with you over the summer and letting you see how I think about you?" He asked, making her blush even harder and nod even while he blushed lightly himself. Flirting offered a form of anonymity that simply blurting out what he was doing no longer did. But at least there would be no misunderstandings from then on.

"Yea, that along with the way you carry yourself," Hermione said quietly.

"Well, that was from spending time in a war after Voldemort came back and leading an underground dueling club," Harry said before shaking his head. "Look, this may be easier if I start at the beginning of coming back and what led up to coming back."

"First, this year isn't as bad as any others," Harry began. "Sirius is actually innocent of everything he was accused of except escaping Azkaban. He was never given a trial and just chucked into prison. I originally learned about your time-turner at the end of this year when we used it to save Sirius' life."

"Oh. Wow," Hermione said, wondering at yet another adventure. "And I actually went back with you and helped you?"

"Yea," Harry smiled warmly. "It was also the first time I cast a corporeal patronus to save yours, mine and Sirius' life from about a hundred dementors. Apparently, we went back in time and our future selves saved our younger, though I thought it was my dad at first. Turns out, Professor Lupin is a werewolf and changed that same night. Sirius was fighting him to keep us safe and Snape tried to get Sirius killed and got Remus fired."

"That's why you called him Moony!" Hermione said, connecting the dots.

"Yea, he was my father's friend, along with Sirius. Ron's rat is actually Peter Pettigrew. He was the real secret keeper for my parents and traitor. They're all animagus. That's why Crookshanks doesn't like Scabbers. He's a murderer, traitor and hiding out in animal form."

Hermione scowled. "I never did like that rat."

Harry blinked curiously. "You're taking this fairly well and don't seem to need much proof," he said.

"I don't think you'd lie to me," Hermione stated. "You may tease me, but this is a little serious. I'm still holding out on a decision though until I hear you out. I'm rather curious about how going back in time and going through all this isn't going to cause a paradox."

"Long story short, I died, wasn't supposed to and those in the afterlife sent me back, paradox-free. Here, let me show you my memories," Harry said, gesturing at the pensieve.

"I would like that, thank you," Hermione said, looking excited.

"First warning," Harry said. "The powers that be will _not_ accept you deciding to discuss this with anyone else, do you understand? You _will not_ go to Dumbledore, McGonagall or even Merlin himself if he returned. This is basically an order from the people who decide our fates when we die."

Hermione shivered at the intended threat risk. "I understand."

Harry took the next hour and a half to show Hermione each memory with Lora. Their first meeting in which he woke up in that waiting room and then learned the horrible truth, that he died several times, on the train, at his home after their shopping trip and the final time right before the Wizengamot meeting, which Hermione realized as when he really began to act differently.

**[For these scenes, please refer to Ch-1, Ch-4 & Ch-13 – I shall not force you to reread these here.]**

"Okay, hang on," Hermione said, taking out some parchment and quill, taking several notes over the major things she heard to bring up. After five minutes or so of writing, she read over it and then nodded, happy with it. "Okay. So, you were seventeen and went back in time to when you were twelve. You and I died because we didn't know warding well enough, which is part of why you're so interested in it right now, I'm assuming?"

"Yea," Harry said sadly. "I didn't remember what happened at first until reminded about at least a part of it. I was really angry that we went out that way."

"And so, the Lora girl you mentioned is your Angel of Death?" Hermione asked, rather glad it wasn't some romantic interest he hadn't mentioned.

"Yea."

"And you and I are soulmates, and apparently, so are you and Luna," Hermione asked in a way that sounded as statement and maybe a little accusing or perhaps petulant.

"Er, yea," Harry said, scratching his head and looking to the side, away from Hermione. "When I came back, I thought about what she said and I couldn't figure out why I never thought about you that way. I mean, like I said at the store, I think you're pretty and there really isn't any reason _against_ it. I even realized I ... _liked_ the idea," he said with a blush.

"Well, Lora said you were under love potions from Molly and Ginny ... Was that serious, do you think?" She asked, kind of hoping Harry had discovered that was wrong. She didn't really expect the controllers of the afterlife to be wrong, but she could hope.

"I'm pretty sure it was likely," Harry sighed. "I don't know if you know it this time around, but Molly had gloated about how she had used a love potion on Arthur to get him and it's one of Ginny's favorite stories. And in my sixth year, I remember suddenly thinking of almost nothing but her."

"And Luna? Is that why you've been so distant recently? Lora seemed rather ... scary that last time you saw her," she asked.

Harry sighed. "In my last life, Luna was one of five people who never, not even once, turned their backs on me. But, other than you, she was the only one who was really close. Sirius and I had become a little close with a chance for living away from the Dursleys, but he died in our fifth year and Luna was the only person who could really relate to me and she helped me out a lot. Plus we had a lot of discussions throughout the year about life in general and our pasts."

"That's how you got to know her," Hermione said in dawning realization. "She told you about how she was treated."

"And I was a very bad friend then, too," Harry said in more than a little shame. "She was mocked and ridiculed and you and I had played a part in it. We called her the same names as everyone else. She had been alone and suffered as you know now, but throughout all six years she was at Hogwarts. She never had even one friend. I mean, Ginny was her friend before Hogwarts, but look at them now. They don't even talk to one another."

"It's kind of hard to imagine that," Hermione said with a frown. "I mean, I can kind of understand it, but I can't really see myself being mean to her." Hermione looked up to Harry and considered him for a moment. "Were you together with her then?" She doubted it considering what he said, but if he wasn't with her, and Luna was another possible soul mate, then it was still possible.

"No," Harry admitted. "I was too self-absorbed. Basically, I was worried about being associated with her, so I was really only friendly in private or amicable in public. I was really ashamed of that, so I decided I'd be better to her this time around like she was to us."

Hermione was fairly sure she should focus more on the time-travel, but after the past few months and the recent frustration, her attention was instead in a place deemed more important to her at that time. "What do you think about Luna now, though? I mean, why are you so upset about what Lora was telling you the other day? I mean, if you're soul mates...," she trailed off, trying to see where he would go on his own.

"Towards the beginning of the year after I found Luna locked in a closet, I promised I would never stop being her friend. And I meant it, too. At the very least, I can _not_ stop being her friend. After this long, and the trust she has in us, it would completely crush her. I honestly don't think she would ever trust anyone again," he said miserably.

Hermione nodded, seeing it as a very likely possibility. "And what about the soul mate thing? What do you feel for her?"

"I ... like her, yes," Harry admitted. "If I didn't also like you, I could probably be willing to date her. But, I _do_ like you and ... I was kind of looking forward to the idea of seeing if you'd want to date me. That's kind of why I flirted with you over the summer. But, it's also why I really slowed it down during the school year. Some of how I felt about you both from before I came back came with me, so my feelings are kind of ... jumbled up."

"You assume I would agree to dating you," Hermione said, a part of the hurt she felt at him admitting to liking Luna causing her to voice the thought.

"I think we both know we're both interested," Harry countered with a chuckle. "That wasn't _my_ memory I viewed this morning."

Hermione blushed brilliantly, neither admitting or denying his statement.

"Hermione, I'm going to be honest," Harry said with a sigh after a few seconds of awkward silence. "I want to date you. I want to be able to hold you, kiss you, call you mine and never let you go. But, a part of me feels the same for Luna, just not quite as strong really, but just like with you, it grows every day. And I know I would never cheat on you, but I also know it would be wrong of me to pursue a relationship when I know Luna is going to stay by our side, just as you both promised this morning, and that she'll hurt in silence over it before eventually hoping to die in a fight to get away from it."

Harry clenched his fists, scoffing in disgust. "I don't know how to not hurt her. The only way for sure would be to date her, but I am finding the one time I really want to be selfish, I don't want to give you up. I was _really_ looking forward to dating you."

Hermione smiled, looking down. "I ... was looking forward to you dating me too," she said.

"'Was'?" Harry asked, not looking at Hermione.

The brunette looked at Harry, truly looked at him, and realized she didn't want to give him up, either. "Would you want to get together right now, even if it meant hurting Luna?" She asked as answer, watching him flinch.

"No," he whispered at length, looking miserable.

"You told me about this year," Hermione said, deciding to shelve the topic for a few minutes. "What about from then until you came back?"

Harry sighed and leaned back. "This summer is the Quidditch World Cup. The Weasleys took us and there was a Death Eater attack, but no one we know was hurt, though it was close. Then next year is the Tri-Wizard Tournament-"

"I meant to ask about that," Hermione said, making a note on her parchment.

"Basically, our DADA teacher was a polyjuiced impostor who entered me illegally, I was forced to compete and the entire school turned against me except for you," he said with a small smile. "There were people who didn't voice out against me, but no one but you actually supported me. Even Ron turned against me. He got angry because he thought I entered without telling him how and then he was basically like Malfoy until I got through the first task. Once the school was happy with me again, then he came back. That's actually a trend of his."

"Anyway," Harry continued, "you helped me train, just the two of us, and helped me learn the summoning charm to summon my broom for the task and I outflew a dragon."

"Dragon!" Hermione screeched, looking horrified.

"Yea," Harry chuckled. "Nesting mothers. We had to get a golden egg from their clutch. Anyway, after that was a Yule Ball. You were beautiful, by the way," he said, making her blush. "I'm not just saying that. You truly were. And you were on the arm of Viktor Krum, an international Quidditch star that Ron had a man-crush on."

Hermione snorted. "I bet he hated that."

"He did," Harry confirmed. "Called you a traitor. It may have also been because he tried to ask you to the ball as well, but did it in a really insulting fashion. But, Krum had already asked you by that point and you were rather scathing in your refusal."

"Anyway, even though we barely talked, Ron was my hostage for the second task, which was to retrieve a person from the bottom of the Black Lake. You were Krum's hostage. You were also hit pretty hard in the newspapers by a vile woman named Rita Skeeter who writes badly about everyone she can. Then the third task came up and I was kidnapped and my blood used to resurrect Voldemort-"

Hermione gasped in fear and despair, hating how Harry had to go through that.

"-and Cedric was taken with me, but he was killed. I was able to get away and bring his body back, but Minister Fudge refused to believe me about it. That summer, the Prophet said I was delusional and turning dark and other such stupid things. But, a woman named Umbridge sent two dementors after me to try and kill me, but I defended myself and Dudley. Then I was put on trial for underage magic and breaking the Statute of Secrecy."

"What! How could they do that!" Hermione yelled, furious on Harry's behalf. "Didn't that woman die, though?"

"Yes," Harry said quietly. Too quietly, actually.

"Harry?" Hermione asked carefully.

Harry simply looked up slowly and then stared into Hermione's eyes which widened a second later before she couldn't look at him and her gaze moved downwards. "She created muggleborn camps, Hermione. Think Nazi concentration camps. They were subjected to torture, rape, experiments and were used to train new Death Eater recruits. This is the same woman who hires people to kill off families to get their family libraries and wants to kill any half-breed in existence."

"It doesn't make it right, Harry," Hermione said quietly, not sure how to take what she just heard.

"She tortured students," Harry continued, making Hermione look at him in shock. "In our fifth year, she becomes our DADA teacher, which is why you made me start the underground dueling club and teach it. She taught blood purity, gave Malfoy and Death Eater children the right to assign detentions, take points and use magic in the halls, including hurting students. She made me use a blood quill to write lines that literally etched it into my hand 'I will not tell lies' when I said Voldemort came back. She used the Cruciatus on several students and she sent people out to kill your family."

"What?" Hermione asked aghast, suddenly fearing for her parents.

"You made your parents leave your house by that point, but it was burned to the ground," Harry explained.

Hermione looked like she was going to be sick, but held it together fairly well. "Continue," she said at last.

"I got off from the trial, but the next year, we dealt with Umbridge and her work with Fudge to restrict the school in a bunch of ways with decrees to stop things or dictate what we learned and how and what we couldn't. I was also getting a bunch of visions from Voldemort. Then, during OWL's, I got a vision that had me running to the Ministry to save Sirius, along with you, Luna, Neville, Ron and Ginny against twelve of Voldemort's inner circle. We actually came out of it alive, except you were the most heavily injured. But, Voldemort showed up and everyone in the Ministry who came by after alarms were tripped saw him, so people knew he was finally back."

Hermione made a few notes on her parchment, writing furiously and trying not to think of what could have happened to her parents. "Was my mother pregnant before?" She asked curiously.

"I _swear_ I had nothing to do with that!" Harry denied loudly. "I don't know how that happened!"

Hermione giggled despite herself. "I'll take that as a no, then."

"That summer, Dumbledore kept me under lock and key and no one was allowed to communicate with me, even though I was sent back to the Dursleys and I had just watched my godfather die, just like the year before after watching Cedric die, though you each sent one or two letters that basically said 'keep a stiff upper lip' until I was free." Harry rolled his eyes, past annoyances coming to the fore as he remembered how he felt.

"We didn't talk to you at all?" Hermione asked, easily reading Harry wasn't fond of that. She mentally checked off to ensure she never did that this time around.

"No. But, Dumbledore also forced it and kept letters from me. So, while I didn't know it at the time, it wasn't totally your fault. But, sixth year, you and I stopped really talking for a while. I think you may have been under a potion or something, too, because you got angry because I used notes from a second-hand book in potions and did better than you because of it and you got angry with me for all sorts of things that just seemed like a reason to yell at me. You even hexed McLaggen to get Ron onto the Quidditch team when he tried out, but got pissed at me for tricking Ron into thinking I gave him a good luck potion. And you did a lot of other hypocritical things like that, so I'm not sure if you were or not," Harry said.

"You're right, that doesn't sound like me at all," Hermione worried her lip as she considered what she was hearing.

"Well, towards the end of the year, Draco managed to allow a bunch of Death Eaters into the school. We lost a couple dozen students, Lavender got hurt by a werewolf but didn't catch the full disease. Snape killed Dumbledore and I ran him out of the school, though that was before he actually decided to kick my arse at the edge of the wards."

"God," Hermione breathed. "How did Draco do it?"

"A teleporting cabinet, basically. But I've already removed it and got the other side of it, so it can't be used," Harry explained. "There are a few secret passages, though. I'm not sure why Voldemort never used them, though. I mean, he found Salazar's secret chamber. You'd think a hidden passageway would have been easy enough as well."

"What happened then?" Hermione asked.

"After that, we went home for the summer. Me to the Dursleys' and you straight to the Burrow, from what I understand. You went home to get your parents to go to Australia, though. Voldemort attacked the Burrow during a wedding, Bill to a champion from the Tournament, a girl named Fleur that Ginny and Molly were absolutely horrible towards even though she's a wonderful girl and you even made friends with her once you got to know her. She's part Veela, so she has an attraction that kind of pulls men in. Ron can't be around her without being a drooling idiot. Most of the other guys we know and spend time with are okay around her, though."

"What about you?" Hermione asked, curious.

"Pretty much immune," Harry explained. "I can fight off any Imperius put on me, and it's sort of the same."

"You've been under that?" Hermione asked.

"The fake teacher puts all of us under it in fourth year and Voldemort tried as well," Harry explained. "Anyway, we left the Burrow and went on a hunt for the items that Voldemort uses to remain alive, Horcruxes. Basically, he splits part of his soul and places it in an object then, if he dies, his soul remains on earth. I destroyed one already, have another one and will be getting the third probably this Christmas or summer. It's not dangerous, I just want to wait until it's much easier."

"You're sure it isn't dangerous?" Hermione asked, looking at him carefully.

"Completely," Harry said with a smirk. "If I get Sirius to get it for me, there's no danger at all. He just has to go to his house where it was hidden by a family member who wanted to destroy it, then bring it to me to finish the job. The only reason there's any risk at all is a house elf that believes the same pureblood crap as his masters did. But, Sirius can tell him to not hurt anyone."

After a few moments of careful scrutiny, Hermione finally nodded. "Okay, continue," she said.

"During the hunt, Ron ate most of our food and then got tired of running around looking for those items. He was angry when we were running low on food and you wouldn't let him keep eating and he didn't like all the walking. There may have been more that caused him to finally blow up, but that was most of what he complained about. Well, that and because he couldn't do things without magic and kept getting angry when you tried to tell him how to do things since Voldemort had taken over the Ministry and we couldn't use much magic, safely."

"He eventually left us. He asked you to make a choice and you stayed with me. We eventually find Gryffindor's brooch about a month and a half later, but you know how that turned out," he said uneasily.

"When did we talk about all those things you know about me we haven't discussed yet?" Hermione asked. "Like my school days and the like?"

"When Ron left, our trip got a lot easier," Harry said. "And with it just being us, we stopped using warming charms that failed in the middle of the night and just slept in the same bed and would talk a lot and generally got more comfortable around each other."

"How," Hermione began, her face heating up again. "How comfortable, exactly? That ... older version of me in your mind and some of those fantasies I saw ... They were very accurate."

"By choice, we slept in the same bed and in light clothing since our body heat helped tremendously with the blankets," Harry said with a blush. "But, not by so much choice, we had a few walk-in accidents in the shower or while changing. Plus, you got into healing by necessity and whenever I'd get stupid, you'd be there to heal me, so you saw a lot of me on a fairly regular basis. You probably knew me about as well as your own body."

"Oh," Hermione blushed. "It kind of isn't fair that you've got these memories and I don't. I mean, you know what's going to be on the OWL's and know exactly what to study!"

Harry chuckled. "Well, except for Runes and Arithmancy, yes. And, you don't have to worry. I can always show you my memories of some of those classes if you want to try and learn some of the stuff early. Just not right now."

"What about Dumbledore and that prophecy?" Hermione asked.

"Basically, the prophecy says it'll be me or Voldemort. Dumbledore's known since before I was born and didn't once tell me anything or train me. Hell, he even knows about the horcruxes right now and hasn't said a thing about it. And in his will, he left you a children's book, me a snitch, and Ron a thing to put out lights. He didn't give us advice on how to win or give us direction. The only thing he _did_ show me was Voldemort's history and told me what a horcrux was in general terms. We had to figure everything else out on our own!"

"He didn't train you at all?" Hermione asked, sounding offended.

"Not a single thing," Harry confirmed. "That's why I'm not really being too helpful with him this year."

Hermione growled and looked at her watch, then at her list before nodding resolutely. "Okay Harry. I understand and I think that's enough for now. We need to meet up with Luna soon if we don't want her to know we left her for now."

Harry winced, looked depressed again, which Hermione noted. She nibbled her bottom lip, coming to a decision. _'I've always figured out the answers he needs. I can do it again,'_ she thought as she got up and leaned over to him. She pressed her lips against his own, feeling a violent shiver race down her spine that seemed to end at the juncture between her legs and made her moan in approval as she felt his arms wrap around her. Her hands fisted his hair and pulled him harder against her as she felt his body press against her own. When she felt his tongue against her lips, she opened them and gently touched it with her own before sucking gently on it as she pulled back, smirking as she felt his appreciation press into her. "Let's be selfish, Harry. Just for once, let's do something because we want it, okay?"

Harry blinked rapidly in confusion.

"You trust me, don't you Harry?" Hermione asked after a moment.

"Of course!" He exclaimed. "But what-"

"Shh," she said, swooping down to kiss him again and relishing at the feelings that raced throughout her body. She tingled in places she didn't even know she had and wanted to claim him as her own, even if it left her with no choice but to figure out how to help with Luna. "I will figure out a way to help with Luna," she said after she pulled back from him again.

"Does this mean you're my girlfriend?" Harry asked, looking and sounding somewhat dazed.

"Do you want me to be?" Hermione asked, wondering if he had come to a different decision.

"I want a lot more than girlfriend from you," Harry responded immediately, his voice low and his gaze penetrating in a way that made her quake and plunder his mouth once again with a ferocity he had only ever known her to put into her homework or keeping him alive.

"It's yours," she breathed after she retreated once again. She squeezed her legs together, trapping his own between them as she laid on him on the couch, going down to steal another kiss. She had no idea what it was, but now that everything had been admitted and there were no doubts, she just couldn't stop. His lips and the delightful sounds they made together were far too addicting. It was only when she realized they were rolling their hips against one another that she remembered Luna and the time.

"Oh," she moaned, double-checking her watch. They had just been kissing and – she checked where their hands were to confirm – touching very tender places on each other, though nowhere that would be too much, quite yet. Well, except for the wonderful squeezing she felt on her bottom since that was the one place he had ready access to. _'God, don't let that stop,'_ she begged, letting out a breathy moan as she sat up, only to shiver at the sharp gaze locked onto her eyes. "We have to go. We've barely enough time to get to Luna now."

Hermione stood up on shaky legs, wondering where their usual strength had gone and watched her new boyfriend get up and readjust himself through hazy brown eyes. She could almost _swear_ she felt a part of him inside of her, deeper within her than her body could possibly be. But she really didn't mind it. She _liked_ it.

"God," Harry moaned, pinching the bridge of his nose under his glasses once he figured out where they were and put them on. "What the hell am I going to do about Luna?"

"Let me handle that," Hermione said, coming up and hugging him, only to squeak and moan as Harry molded his body to her and nibbled on her neck, causing her to cling to him before shaking off the feeling and pulling back. "T-time to get back," Hermione gasped out.

"You're right, sorry," Harry apologized. "I just can't seem to get enough of you."

Hermione smiled despite herself, but still managed to keep her distance and start walking to the door. "Don't apologize Harry. I really enjoy it. We'll have to ... come up with some rules later or something, but that will definitely be within them."

As they walked hand-in-hand under the invisibility cloak, Hermione nibbled her bottom lip, ignoring where it had just been, and tried to decide on one of two paths she knew to be open to her while trying to determine more of them.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 5, 06:00 - Gringotts**

Sirius Black coughed as he returned to human form outside of Gringotts. There was currently no one around and the bank itself was already open, which suited the escaped non-convict just fine. He passed the guards at the doors without a glance and walked in, glad the goblins were neutral territory. They didn't care about his status as a fugitive, even if it would have been true. As long as he had gold and was willing to part with it, then they would gladly do business with him.

It was about as early on a Sunday morning as you could get, at least by wizarding standards, but the bank itself never closed since some rather unscrupulous people would rather do their work during off-hours. The dirty man went to a teller and bowed his head. "Sirius Black to pay Gringotts to make a high-profile purchase and send it to Lord Harry James Potter."

The goblin's head snapped up, then nodded once curtly. "Very well. Follow me, human." The goblin hopped down from its stool and strode quickly to an office where the manager of the Black estate would be, or his subordinate. Luck was with the Marauder, however, since it was the man in charge.

"Bloodclaw, this wizard would do business with you," the teller said. "He wishes to provide service to the bank and deal with Lord Potter."

The older goblin looked at Sirius carefully, noting the wizard's unease at the lengths they were going for the request when such a thing would normally be handled at the teller station. "Entry is given for this meeting. How can Gringotts help you today, Lord Black?"

"Why the break of standard protocol?" Sirius asked, allowing his confusion to surface.

"Lord Potter is favored by our people. That you wish to make a purchase and send something to him through us is out of the norm as well. He is your godson, correct?"

"Yes," Sirius stated proudly. "Now why have you called me Lord Black? I was disowned and have only my private vault."

"You were never disowned, or it didn't happen legally. Either way, we have never had you stricken from the ledgers," Bloodclaw stated brusquely. "As you are of age and there is nothing to legally keep you from your Lordship, you have gained it once your younger brother died, provisional until you accept it magically, of course."

Sirius knew this was a golden opportunity. This would keep it from going to those who would abuse it. He had believed his mother was serious when she said she had him disowned, but apparently not. And he knew there was always the chance that his sister Narcissa could have laid claim to the title through her spawn if she revoked the Malfoy name. But, if he could do this, first, then there was nothing to fear in that.

"I, Sirius Orion Black, do hereby lay claim to the Lord of Black title and all that it entails. So mote it be!" The magic of their family name, which was attached to their blood, was thus activated and magical ownership of all that was theirs was now at his fingertips, including a gaudy ring that encircled his right ring finger.

"Very good, Lord Black. Now, what are your demands?" It was never requests with the goblins, but demands. They followed more human customs when they worked with the young or extremely wealthy, but those who knew their ways would know they did not like niceties.

"I would charge Gringotts with acquiring a Firebolt to be delivered to Lord Potter for Christmas. I will also create a Last Will and Testament as my old one from the last war doesn't include all the Black holdings."

Minutes later, Sirius left a will for everything he owned to go to Lord Potter except for five hundred thousand galleons that was to go to Andromeda Tonks with a note apologizing for what their family had done to her and telling his story along with a request to not do anything foolish on his behalf, a hundred thousand galleons to go to Nymphadora Tonks, through Andromeda since he knew the girl but could only vaguely recall her after his stint in Azkaban, and finally another five hundred thousand galleons to go to Remus Lupin. Only those financial amounts were to be transferred immediately.

Once Lord Black had left, the goblins set out to obtain the broom in question while also sending Harry a letter he would get in a few days.

_Lord Potter,_

_Per our previous discussions, the items you requested have been finalized. Please come to Gringotts at your earliest opportunity to complete our barter._

_Griphook,_

_Potter Account Manager_

_Gringotts Bank, London_

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 5, 23:40 – Potter Manor**

Harry had been in good spirits since early the morning before. Aside from finding out that kissing can get _so much better_ than a soggy pressing of lips and heavy sobbing, or feeling like you were kissing your sister and desiring it anyway while worrying about why you were attracted to a woman that looked like your mother, he had finally explained the situation with Luna and the time-traveling to Hermione! And even better, Hermione promised she would be thinking of a solution in how to protect Luna from a depressing and horrible future!

Harry trusted Hermione enough to believe she could do it. That girl was just incredible like that. She had been making a list of questions, he had noticed, and asked several when they were alone to get things clear in her mind, but that was to be expected. After all, she wanted a memory of the OWL's, too. _'It isn't cheating,'_ she had said when he brought it up, _'to have a study guide for a huge test.'_ Naturally, he agreed with her. They had just decided not to do anything with it until they solved things with Luna, whose snuggle-happy ways seemed much more telling to the two new lovebirds.

Now, it was the night after that and rather late. Dobby had warned that the Minister had stopped sleeping at his office when Angelica refused to keep sleeping there and was now at his own home and his own bed. Thankfully, he still wore the emergency portkey.

So now, Harry was wearing Lucius Malfoy's face with polyjuice, at twenty minutes of his hour's length of time. Dobby had checked and the Minister was sleeping soundly while his wife snored along beside him. "Ready, Elf?"

"I is ready, Master," the elf replied, popping both to the Minister's bedroom.

Harry stepped out of the shadows that his assassin's outfit naturally seemed to wrap around him. He was using Malfoy's stolen wand and cast a simple confundus on both people so it appeared to them that he was wearing Death Eater robes, but not the mask. He then stunned Fudge's wife and then walked to the door, opening it just enough to slam it slightly and curse as though it had been an accident.

Fudge bolted awake, looking around nervously only to pale as soon as he saw what appeared to be Lucius Malfoy standing at the foot of his bed. "L-L-Lucius!" Fudge rolled quickly to try and grab his wand from the bed stand table, but whimpered as it sailed into Fudge's waiting hand from a simple summoning charm.

"My, my, Cornelius," Lucius spoke in silky tones Harry felt were like the man. "It would appear you no longer trust me."

"N-now, let's talk about this, Lucius! I d-don't b-believe you had anything to do with Delores' murder!" Fudge tried to shake his wife awake, hoping she could grab her own wand. He knew he would be far too slow to get hers before Lucius killed him for even the attempt. He _knew_ Lucius was a ruthless bastard.

"Oh, Cornelius. How you disappoint me. Dealing with the Potter brat of all people. You think just because he's the child of prophecy, that would excuse you for letting him gain his lordship?"

"W-w-w-what prophecy?" Fudge stuttered. "And there was nothing I could do about his lordship! He was legally allowed to have it! There was nothing in the laws to stop him. Even Dumbledore tried and failed!" He was now shaking his wife so hard the woman would probably have a sore shoulder in the morning.

"Oh, stop bothering with her," Lucius sneered. "I ensured she would remain asleep for our discussion. If that is to be a temporary or permanent thing is all up to you, of course."

"What d-do you what?" Fudge asked.

"My master is going to return, Cornelius," Lucius said with a false happiness that Fudge bought. "Potter just wasn't quite powerful enough to totally destroy him as an infant, but he must be eliminated before my Master returns. And you have allowed him a way to train his friends during the summer. If you allow Potter to gain power as the prophecy suggests, then my Master will fall and I cannot have that!" Lucius roared, sending a whip-like tendril of magic out to slap Fudge on the cheek.

"My lord demands this world and everyone within, Cornelius. And I cannot have that ready to give him with you in charge. You are growing to be too much of a hassle and I cannot let you become an asset to Potter. That would be an _emergency_ that my Master would punish me for. No one knows where I am, after all. I have all the _time _I need these past few days."

"My aurors will kill you if you kill me," Fudge tried to scare the man.

"Foolish puppet," Lucius sneered. "I have an emergency portkey made by my master long ago. It will shatter any anti-portkey ward to get me to one of our safe houses. Goodbye, Cornelius. I will miss playing you for the fool. Avada Ke-!"

"Emergency portkey, activate!" Fudge yelled, remembering his own emergency portkey when Lucius mentioned his own. He felt a little bad about leaving his wife behind, but hopefully Lucius would kill her and it would open the way to marry Angelica. He was sure she would appreciate the position of power, even if it would mean a lot more intimacy.

Fudge bent his legs just in time to land properly in a dark room that had stone beneath his feet. As soon as he arrived, dozens of torches lit automatically, showing a very ... dank sewer-like room with a giant bust of an ugly man that made Fudge squeak for a moment before he fainted.

Meanwhile, back at Fudge's home, Harry rolled Lucius' eyes and threw Fudge's wand down and sent a few blasting hexes at the walls and windows to get the aurors running before he awakened Fudge's wife, cursing Fudge for managing to escape his killing curse and allowing the now-screaming woman to see his face before both heard the aurors rushing the halls.

"Next time, you'll die too, woman!" Lucius snarled before disappearing as if moving to both sides and just fading away just as the aurors kicked the bedroom door in. All they saw was Lucius' head and a screaming portly woman who had the sheets clutched to her chins.

"Check the powder room and closet!" The lead auror said. "Call the boss. Ma'am, can you tell us what happened?"

The woman told them everything she saw and heard, screaming every single syllable.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 5, 23:57 – Potter Manor**

Harry arrived at Potter Manor and put his time-turner away before allowing his assassin robe to change back to his day clothes as his adrenaline wore off. This one had been close as a matter of necessity. He had to be seen as Lucius to throw off suspicion towards himself, whether there was any or not. But, if those aurors had come in firing first, he could have been toast.

He stripped down and got into the shower to remove the muggle hair gel he had used to try and emulate the aristocratic Death Eater's own style, mentally snickering that his nearly fourteen-year old's tackle was of equal or partly greater size than Draco's dad's. It wasn't that Harry really looked, but it seemed as such.

He kind of wondered if that could have been why the bastard and Narcissa slept in different rooms.

Still, once out, and feeling clean from what he had just done, he looked into the mirror to admire his own form, glad to be back in it, and then dressed and shifted to the Chamber of Secrets, just outside the last door to enter so Fudge couldn't see him and risk seeing how it was the same way Lucius left.

Harry opened the door and walked in, only to snort as he saw Fudge had passed out. "Hey, wake up," he ordered, shaking the pudgy minister's shoulder.

"What? Ah!" Fudge jerked back and looked around wildly.

"Minister? What are you doing here? Did something happen?" Harry asked, looking confused and trying to pull off the sleepy look.

"Harry! Thank you for the portkey!" Fudge said, actually hugging Harry and making the younger boy very uncomfortable. "You were right! That bastard Malfoy just tried to kill me! I used your portkey to get out of there right away just as he was sending the killing curse after me!"

"What happened to your cheek, Sir?" Harry asked, looking concerned. "And are you hurt? Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?"

"Just a slap, dear boy," Fudge said with a weak smile. "The fool thought to try and torture me a bit for information, but I held strong."

Harry almost burst out laughing, but wisely held it in. "That's horrible! You should really see Madam Pomfrey, sir!"

"No, no!" Fudge stopped him from pulling the man along. "I just need to get to the Ministry and let them know I was able to fight the man off long enough to activate the portkey."

"This way, then, if you're sure," Harry said, leading the man out.

"Er, Harry," Fudge began slowly, wondering how much the boy knew. "Do you know if there's a prophecy about you?"

"Hm?" Harry asked, sounding disinterested as best he could. "Oh, yea. Sure. Not sure what it says, but I know there's at least one about me somewhere in the Ministry where they store those things."

Fudge paled. "Do ... Do you happen to believe that ... that You-Know-Who may come back?"

"Well," Harry said, stopping to look at the older man and put on a thinking expression. "In first year, he had possessed our DADA teacher, Quirrell. He tried to kill me that year, but I won. Then last year, he had possessed a girl here, Ginny Weasley. I managed to win that, too, and save her. So, I figure he's trying to come back, at least. But, as long as he does, I'll be here to keep protecting my friends and loved ones," Harry said, smiling innocently and leading the crying Minister for Magic to the mouth of the Chamber of Secrets that would lead to the girl's loo and creating stairs.

"You're a parselmouth?" Fudge asked, now scared.

"Uh huh," Harry said. "I wasn't originally. It was in my family line through Slytherin, but I didn't actually have it. But, when I beat the Dark Wanker the first time, I got it from magical conquest. Or at least, that's what I've been led to believe. Apparently, it's also pretty big in the Eastern countries. But, I don't know. I don't even know when I use it unless I do it on purpose. I've also heard it drives women wild," Harry said with a wink, smirking at the Minister. "I figure I'll learn that for fact or not when I'm a little older."

Fudge was a little worried about himself right now. A part of him knew Lucius had been spouting off things he probably wouldn't have if he hadn't expected to be capable of killing the Minister and planning on it. But, that gave him knowledge that would probably make him an even larger target, now. However, that same knowledge said this boy was probably going to become one of the most powerful men in the wizarding world and he was worried he, too, would try to be rid of Cornelius. The Minister for Magic was absolutely _not_ happy with that idea! "What, er, do you think your long-term goals are for the future, Harry?" He asked as they started their way to the first floor.

"Honestly?" Harry asked, deciding to be just that. "When all is said and done, I just want to be left alone, have my family and settle down. I will work in politics if I have to, but really, I just don't care. If I can make things better for everyone, then I'll certainly try. But, the muggles learned that the more people there are, and the more who are allowed to do things, the more money there is everywhere and that those in charge get. They learned that by not segregating and by doing things for the people, they actually get more money than just by accepting bribes or by trying to isolate a certain people. So, I may try to show that to the government some time and see if they'll accept it. I mean, there are a _huge_ number of muggles, so it's pretty obvious when you have that many people that, if something works for that many, it works."

Fudge, not knowing exactly what Harry was saying, since the boy was just trying to manipulate the older man anyway, simply understood that the muggles learned a way to make more money than bribery. Perhaps they weren't totally worthless after all? "I don't see many people following that line of thinking, but if they saw it as a way to make money, then maybe."

"If they really wanted money," Harry said, "then they'd try to work with muggleborns. I mean, the more witches and wizards there are, the more people there are to spend money."

Somehow, that seemed revolutionary to Fudge. "Well, my boy, I believe this is where I'll leave you. I need a good, stiff drink and to send out hunting parties for Malfoy while seeing if my wife is okay."

"The ring will recharge within a few days, but I don't know how long. It depends on whether you went through wards you aren't allowed to," Harry explained. "So be careful, Minister."

"I will, thank you, Harry." Fudge said, slipping through the gates that opened as Harry approached. Were Fudge a smarter man, he'd have wondered about that.

Harry sighed once the man disappeared with a crack. While it was harder to apparate without a wand, he wasn't about to walk in the dark with dementors still around the school. Still, Harry turned and decided to ignore his exercises that day. He had been up for a while and there was a very warm bed with his name on it and dreams of enthusiastic, bushy-haired kisses to get to.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 5, 08:20 – Granger Home: Late breakfast **

Emma smiled brightly as a snow owl descended onto her breakfast table with a letter tied to its talon. It had been just over two weeks since she had sent a letter to Hermione about being pregnant again and she was honestly unsure of what her little girl would say or think. After all, Dan and Emma were getting on in years. They had been in their mid-twenties when they had Hermione and were now about to celebrate their fortieth years. Well, forty-second for Daniel. That wasn't apparently a big deal for magicals, but for muggles, it most certainly was a bit of a rarity.

The woman glanced up to the ceiling where she could hear the shower running and her husband's poor attempt at singing. She hadn't told him yet. She had been a little worried about jinxing it, but knew she wouldn't be able to put it off much longer. She had been willing to wait until she got a response from Hermione, but no longer. She knew it took a few days to go between their home and Scotland to that castle, so the time wasn't unexpected, but it was nerve wracking.

With a sigh, the eldest Granger woman opened the parchment and began reading.

_Hi Mum! Hi Dad!_

_I'm so sorry this was so much later getting to you! To be honest, I wasn't sure what to say. I'm so happy for you! And I'm thrilled to become a big sister! It was a bit of a shock to realize, however, that I now believe I know exactly why Dad was grinning like a loon for a week straight. Well, I already knew, but honestly. _

_I'm getting off topic, I'm sorry. I'm really glad we're going to be expanding the family. I admit I believe this is a little late, but you have both kept in good shape and am positive you'll be just as great parents to our new baby as you were to me._

_I look forward to finding out if it is a boy or girl, though. Until I know, I shall henceforth call it, 'Baby'._

_Harry and Luna also send their congratulations and Harry wants to know if he is allowed to buy baby toys. If you wish to give him permission, please point out that one toy is customary. I think he would try to buy an entire store. So far, I've been able to talk him out of it until we can learn whether Baby is boy or girl. _

_I don't think that'll last long. He's already making a list of possible toys. Luna has joined him and they now refuse to listen to me. I swear, it's like fighting a war over land dominance with these two and I'm outnumbered._

_Back to seriousness, I truly am happy and I can't wait to meet my new brother or sister. And, if my calculations are right, I may be around when it's due to be born! Please have something on hand for me to read about what to expect. Harry asked our librarian about such a book and he reports a very awkward conversation with our Head of House, McGonagall. I'm thankful for the help when I brought it up, but there's no way I'm willing to suffer the same discomfort unless I actually require it._

_Mum, there is a little more to this than just congratulating you on the new baby. As I write this, it is the day after Harry and I have decided to become a couple. Yes, I know you told me you were sure it was going to happen and yes, I know you won the bet with Dad (and yes, I knew you made it – You didn't really think you could hide it from me, did you?) _

_I cannot tell you where I learned this information. I know this is going to sound like some poorly contrived romance novel plot, or like I'm under the influence of magic, but please keep in mind that I can confirm the following information with a source of the highest possible authority muggle or wizard could comprehend. That is the only hint I can give you, simply because I cannot give more._

_Soul mates are real, but not quite what most stories make them out to be. From that source mentioned above, I have learned they are basically two halves of a whole, as you know, but it isn't like there is just only one person available for someone else. Think of it as the Yin and Yang symbol. You could have one white piece and three black pieces, and any of those black pieces could be possible soul mates and fit to make the whole. It is compatibility. But, when it comes to a relationship, we still have to work at it like any other possible relationship. We can and will still argue or have disagreements, but they are likely to be far fewer and we'll generally have a greater understanding of one another._

_I have learned that Harry and I are, indeed soul mates. But, like that example above, he has two others beyond myself. We are aware of one of them, and the other is somewhere that he'll likely never know. _

_My problem is that same source I told you above is aware of these as well and pointed out the other girl is our best friend, Luna. She has been horribly abused while at school. She's been picked on, locked in broom closets for the weekend, forced to take potions that make her hurl, she's even been locked out of her common room naked and forced to sleep the night away in a hideaway in the hall. The point is, she's generally been alone the entire time._

_Because of that, and because of the nature of Harry's need to help people and that soul mate thing, she is falling for him hard. And we know it is real. I know she is not going to try and break Harry and I up. In fact, she's been trying to get us together, if I read her motivations right. But the thing is, I ... I don't know how to say this, so I think I will come right out and say it since you have brought up something similar. _

_I don't mind that she likes him and ... I'm wondering if you would be disappointed in me if I considered trying to share my boyfriend. I don't know if I could ... well, make it a true three-way relationship. I never really thought about something like that and I definitely never considered another girl before. But, while I am not in love with her, I am in love with Harry. _

_I cannot tell you how I know this other than to repeat, once again, it is the same source. But, I know that if Harry and I stay together, Luna will remain our best friend. I also know she will never accept anyone else for a partner other than him. I also know that she will eventually commit suicide. Not by killing herself, but ... I suppose you could say by allowing herself to die when she could stop it._

_We cannot, and will not, consider breaking our friendship. We are her only friends and the first ones she's been able to trust who haven't stabbed her in the back, which I honestly don't understand. She's a pretty girl, extremely loyal, very nice, intelligent. I admit she's a little strange, but in a lovable way, and she loves to cuddle, kind of like Harry. After not much in the way of physical affection or touches that weren't painful, she and Harry just can't get enough._

_I need help, Mum. Harry and I decided to be selfish for once and get together. But, no matter what we do, we can't think of a way to protect Luna. And I've been thinking about it very hard for the past couple of days. There just is NO other choice. The only one that MIGHT work is getting her a boyfriend, but we know it won't happen. Basically, no one can compare to Harry._

_Am I wrong? Is this a bad idea? I'm just so confused and worried. Neither of us want to hurt her. And we know we could trust her. I probably wouldn't have even seriously considered this except I realized something. Our friendship, if turned into a relationship, wouldn't be different at all, really. We already hug and cuddle and spend nearly all our time together. But, it's the other stuff that comes with dating that we would be adding. And some of that, we already do. Nothing serious! I promise! I just mean we kiss each other on the foreheads sometimes and, when Luna is locked out of her dorm or something is put in her bed like itching powder, she'll come to my bed to sleep to avoid the painful powder or, if it's something scary or painful for her, emotionally, she'll go to Harry's bed, but that is pretty rare and only really because she feels safest with him._

_That actually reminds me. I am going to accept something called an 'Aegis' from Harry for our family. Basically, I learned in the wizarding world that muggles have no rights. If you attacked someone, you're almost guilty just for being there, even if you only defended yourself. Also, there are almost no women's rights. I was hit with a pretty bad curse a few weeks ago (I'm perfectly fine and healthy right now, Luna got me to the hospital wing almost immediately and I was fine from there) and I had no legal recourse if I had been hurt in a long-term way. Harry's family protection could provide that. It will also allow me to use magic whenever I want and basically ignore the underage laws, so I can show you what I've been learning!_

_Any advice you can provide me, Mum, I'm begging you for. I just don't know what to do._

_I love you, Dad and Baby,_

_Hermione – The soon-to-be-best-older-sister-ever_

_PS: The bit about Harry and the book was a joke, I just felt like you could use a good laugh._

Emma gave a start when the shower turned off, realizing she had been sitting and staring at the note for a few minutes and shoved it into her pocket. She would show it to Dan later, after she had him in a, hopefully, good mood from her news. But, that was now going to wait until she could at least see about helping her little girl. That was the important thing right now. She immediately began to mentally compose a response as she simultaneously prepared a shopping list for all of Dan's favorites.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – December 6, 07:25**

The second week of December was starting and students were getting excited by the Yule holiday. Hagrid had, once again, dragged a large pine tree he had uprooted into the school and the First Years had transfigured baubles to hang onto it. Even the Thundercats had, somehow, gotten into the spirit and were running amok in red and green outfits.

Hermione suspected Luna had transfigured them considering the fur people kept beaming at the serene blonde girl.

After their talk with Harry, Luna had a near transformation into her old, happy, calm, serene self that was full of smiles, laughter and hugs. It seemed Harry was making a concerted effort to spend time with them now that his worry was gone from hurting Luna. He still had no idea if Hermione had an idea, and she wasn't saying anything, but he realized to do otherwise was just hurting her anyway.

They were hiding their new relationship, sadly, but felt it necessary. They just didn't want to broadcast it to Luna until they had come to a decision. They didn't really care about anyone else. Well, except maybe Ginny. But, the young Weasley just didn't do anything other than look from afar. It had taken Hermione some digging, but apparently, Ginny didn't actually _remember_ any magic from her first year except the first month or so. From there, most of what she remembered was fragmented and she had made a promise to work extra hard in exchange of going forward to her second year. She had apparently been given license to practice at home due to her trauma and to catch up.

She only knew that because she had spoken to the redhead. Even her own brothers, at least Ron and the twins, didn't seem to realize that had happened. It actually should have appeared obvious, Hermione thought. All of their stories were about this vivacious, rambunctious little sister that didn't take crap from anyone and wielded a wand like a live grenade if their horror at the as of yet unseen bat bogey hex was to be believed rather than embellishment.

Still, Hermione couldn't have been too much happier. Even if she hadn't had the opportunity to snog Harry like that first time, and she had been _very_ tempted to use her time-turner and snog him until he was blue in the face. When the three were cuddled on the couch in either the early mornings or late evenings, their arms around each other had taken on a much deeper meaning and the trailing fingers along her bare neck and occasionally her shoulder would leave her panting.

If she didn't like it so much, she'd have been worried at how strongly she reacted. Harry had confessed much the same, but if Luna had ever noticed the ... shift in the landscaping, she never said anything or bothered to move.

Hermione sighed in contentment as Harry sat next to her and Luna across for their morning meals. She was about half done with her oats and fruit and felt a general sense of holiday spirit in the air.

"Good morning," McGonagall said, coming up with a clipboard in her hand. "Are any of you planning to stay for the holiday?" She asked. Getting affirmatives from all three, she placed marks on their names and wished them a happy Monday.

"I thought you might be visiting your father, Luna," Harry said.

"I originally intended to, but while my father was on his extended holiday, he met a woman," Luna said, leaning in and whispering as if telling a dirty secret. "She had given him an offer to see the fairies at Christmas, but he refused since I was going. When I learned, I decided to stay here with the two of you since you were planning on staying. It's been much too long for Daddy to be alone. I'm hoping he can find some happiness."

Harry blinked. _'What is it with all the romance just from me emancipating myself?'_ He wondered.

"Well, it'll be nice to spend the holiday with friends," Hermione said with a smile before she continued to eat. A small part of her was disappointed she wouldn't be able to kiss Harry whenever the urge struck, but not so much as to not be dwarfed by the happiness of actually having friends staying with each other. A part of her decision, other than the fact that she now had a boyfriend even if not officially official, had been the knowledge that there would be almost no Gryffindors staying behind and all the alone time she could spend with that new boyfriend to break him in.

Three owls landed on the table with the daily mail while the Prophet was delivered to the various students. Harry, it appeared, had a letter from Gringotts while Hermione got both the paper and a letter from her mother which she immediately put in her pocket. "What'd you get?" She asked Harry.

"A letter from Gringotts about some business I provided them with. I'll need to go out soon and talk to them," he said, smiling widely. He had been looking forward to this.

"They still can't find Malfoy Senior," Hermione said in disgust, looking at the headline.

Harry leaned over and put his cheek close to Hermione's as he read over her shoulder.

_**Lucius Malfoy Still at Large!**_

_By: Rita Skeeter_

_It's been nearly a week since Lucius Malfoy's failed attempt to assassinate the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge and the manhunt continues. His vaults at Gringotts have been ordered sealed, but treaties with the goblins deny the Ministry the ability to actually do as such. The best they can offer is a substantial bounty for the man's head and hope that the goblins will capture him and turn him over for the reward, which is unlikely. Still, no less than ten aurors are stationed in Diagon Alley at any given time in hopes of catching him before he can get to the neutral grounds of Gringotts bank._

_The day following the attack, Ministry aurors raided Malfoy Manor only to discover nearly everything of value had already been taken from the home. There had even been found a hidden room under the floor in one room which had been emptied as well, though what it contained is a mystery at this point. Any attempts to contact the Malfoy heir go unheeded since he is a minor and cannot be questioned without a guardian present._

_Minister Fudge has proclaimed that..._

"Honestly! Do they really think he'll just show up in Diagon Alley and allow himself to be caught?" Hermione asked no one in particular.

"Well, with glamors, he could and no one would really know," Ron said from where he was eating eggs and hash. "I mean, Dad said he was a Death Eater and really smart to never get caught. So, he might be able to, ya know?"

Hermione wondered when Ron had shown up, but put it aside since she had been focused on the article. "There's got to be a way to look through glamors."

"Some people can," Ron said with a shrug, "but only really powerful wizards like Dumbledore. And they usually have to train themselves to."

Hermione curled a pink lip in disgust before putting the paper down, the rest just as annoying or pointless. "Well, I'm going to the the library. I'll see you when you finish up, alright?"

"Alright. See you soon," Luna said while Harry grunted his agreement around his drink. He was mildly curious as Luna used the shield variant he had taught people to cut animal shapes out of the toast before she made a house from yet more toast, a yellow lake of over-easy eggs, pastures from hash browns, people from sausages and bales of hay out of orange slices.

Then, she once again played the part of a natural disaster, ignoring the pleading sausage people as they begged for mercy.

The fact that she charmed them to do so was a little awkward, but made sense considering every stab of her fork sounding like a quiet little clap of thunder.

Meanwhile, Hermione had rushed to the Room of Requirement where she created a room and checked her watch, deciding this was worth however long she needed to flip for, and then entered, not to come out again for two hours where she had read and then pondered.

_Hello Hermione,_

_First, let me say I am so happy you are okay with my being pregnant. Don't fret. I feel like it's a little late in the game as well, but I'll be doing everything in my power to ensure we remain healthy and around for a very long time to raise this child. And you'll be a wonderful older sister!_

_Oh! You tell those two they don't need to buy any toys, but if they must, just one will suffice._

_In regards to this protection you mentioned, however, I would like to get some information on it. If you understand it and feel it is something we should take, then by all means. We trust you and know you're an intelligent young woman. And we don't go into the magical world without you, so we needn't worry about a fight, but I suppose you never know when something may happen. But, please let us know exactly what it entails before you actually agree? We don't want you to get into something you may not have learned well enough to understand the full ramifications of. Like I said, you're intelligent and we trust you, but some things can only come with experience. And in regards to agreements, your father and I have much more of that, magical or no._

_Now that those are out of the way, I suppose we should get to the important part, yes?_

_First, I think I have a suspicion of what you were referring to, but truly have to wonder what would make you think such a thing as to think of that as a source for information. I'm not discounting it. After all, with magic, perhaps it isn't as impossible as I may originally think. But still. Please just keep your eyes open, your wits sharp and think as logically as you can about such things._

_Honey, I know I told you I had a relationship with two other girls when I was your age, and I did I will admit, but that was something that worked for me, at that time. Nothing came of it. Could it have? Perhaps. I had to leave, so I will never know._

_Something I hadn't mentioned to you, that is much closer to your own situation, is perhaps my relationship with your father when it first started. When the two of us first got together, I was already with another girl in university. It wasn't exactly a relationship, more of a friends with benefits package, but we did care for one another a good deal. When your father joined ... well, that was actually a drunken night after finals and, thankfully, none of us regretted it after the fact, which I feel I should tell you will almost always happen. Almost never will a woman get drunk and sleep with someone and then not regret it in the morning unless she is just that promiscuous._

_You may have already figured this out over time, but that other woman was your aunt Rebecca. You already know she isn't truly an aunt by blood, but until you were born she was a part of this family. She backed off after Dan and I chose to marry. Not because he was claimed or any such nonsense, but because she respected marriage in a way that she didn't want to intrude upon._

_What I am trying to tell you is that I have been a part of two different three-way relationships. The first wasn't serious, but more coming of age than anything with few options of the other path. The second, however, was a much more fulfilling relationship that could have still been going had Rebecca not chosen to pull back._

_Any relationship takes work, trust, perseverance and a good amount of commitment, Hermione. A relationship with more than two people is going to take a great deal more of these things if you want it to last, which you are going to want to be very sure about. It isn't just the relationship, either. Being open about such a relationship is not really very well received, honey. Most people will look at you and think you're a slag or have no self respect or honor. I don't know if it is different in the magical world, but if they're as behind the times as you lead us to believe, then it is probably even worse there. I understand Harry is a Lord. In Medieval times, Lords could have multiple partners, but it was still not exactly a normal thing. And this isn't Medieval times, even if parts of it appear to be in your world._

_The long and short of this, is that you must do what you want, what you feel is right, even knowing what you'll be facing. Forget everything about soul mates and your source, whatever it may be since it obviously didn't give you the answer. Ask yourself the first important question._

_Can you honestly handle being with Harry, and knowing he will be in the arms of another woman at least part of the time?_

_For me, the answer was yes, but that was also because that 'other woman' was also 'my' woman as well. We all three shared. It wasn't two different relationships, but one larger one._

_If you were to ask me right now if I would be as willing to consider another woman in our relationship, I can safely tell you I would be quite adamantly against it. Not because of the baby. But because your father is mine and now mine, only. Rebecca could stand a chance, but it would be slim to none. Having my partner to myself is nice in many ways, and I'm not referring to the physical. Knowing that his entire being is centered on me alone (perhaps I should say his 'romantic being', since he does love you just as much, of course, merely differently) is such a rush!_

_I can't be more helpful, I'm afraid, because any advice beyond this would be to push you one way or another. The problem with that is that it could be a happier situation for you either way. There are good sides to having a third partner, of course. There's more love, affection and cuddles, as you seem to be aware (and hopefully not too aware quite yet.) You always have that wonderful female friend you can talk to and you never have to worry about your discussions on your love life leaving that love life. But, you may have to deal with possible maneuvering, too, where one girl tries to become the more important girlfriend. This Luna seems like that may not be the case right now, but remember you're still young. While you're learning what you like and do not like, you are also becoming who you will be for your lives, and it could be someone very different from who you are now._

_I will not ever, not even for a moment, be disappointed or ashamed of you, Hermione. Even if Harry weren't in the picture and you introduced me to your girlfriend, I would still be happy for you. And it would certainly be hypocritical of me to be upset about something I, myself, have enjoyed and experimented with. And even if you haven't considered women, you never know. It may be something you'll later learn isn't all that bad._

_I'm not telling you to test those waters, Hermione. Understand that. But, I AM telling you not to be afraid to try as long as it is someone you know you can trust and won't hurt you should the situation arise. As I said, you're learning what you'll like and what you won't. And tastes are always changing. I remember when you loved green beans, carrots, spinach and yogurt. That phase didn't last very long, but it was still something you loved quite literally one day, and then wouldn't dare touch the next. I still can't figure out how you came up with that concoction._

_I love you, Hermione. We both do. And whatever you decide, we're here for you if you need us._

_Your loving mother_

Hermione put the parchment down and sighed. While her biggest fear had been put aside in this letter, it arose one she hadn't even considered: public opinion on a high-profile celebrity in a school of moronic children who ostracized anything abnormal from their own world views.

"Well damn," she muttered.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – December 6, Bedtime**

Hermione sighed as she and Luna got into her bed while the rest of the dorm room was quietly sleeping away. She had been a little reticent to talk most of the day since breakfast while her mind was on the issue at hand. She had been thinking and thinking, but couldn't really come up with a viable solution to her question.

Basically, was it worth it?

On one hand, she had Harry as it was. They were together, and happily at that. But a part of that happiness was from Harry believing Hermione could come up with a solution, which Hermione felt sure she could. And she had four such solutions in mind.

On another hand, she wasn't foolish enough to believe that two of those solutions would actually succeed if put to the test. One was get Luna a boyfriend of her own. As of right now, Hermione didn't know any boys who really cared for the quirky blonde other than Harry. While she could try to set one up with her, there was nothing to suggest it would work and far too much evidence to suggest it would fail miserably. The other possible solution was not to stop being friends with Luna, but slowly push her away to a distance that most people were comfortable with in regards to friends. Less cuddling and hugging, no more sleeping in the same bed.

That would fail the first time they tried it and be far too obvious by this point. They'd just gone two and a half months of gladly accepting and even initiating such sessions with her.

The third, possible solution, was talk with Luna and explain what Hermione and Harry were planning in regards to their relationship and basically try to guilt Luna into protecting herself by saying they wanted Luna as a part of their life forever and as long as possible. Not a foolproof plan and one that guaranteed her to a life of solitude and painful loneliness if she really would never consider someone other than Harry, which was the main reason option one was expected to fail if it ever got attempted.

The last and final option was what Hermione was considering, which was bringing her into the relationship. The fear of this, however, was not that it would fail, but what it would mean. She would be with Harry, and with another girl. That meant she would suffer those like Draco Malfoy who would say mean and hurtful things like she wasn't woman enough for Harry and he needed another girl to be happy. Or they may say horrible things like she was nothing but a toy to Harry.

They may also say things like she was a cauldron licker or worse things that she hadn't heard yet in the wizarding world about lesbian witches. She knew it wasn't such a big deal and being with Harry would be worth the public comments and opinions, but this would definitely put her into the spotlight and most likely in a bad way no matter what. And as much as she didn't care what people thought or said, she knew that those spoken words or judging looks _would definitely_ make her feel bad and probably make her cry.

Right now, she heard bad things like 'mudblood' or 'whore' from those of Draco's ilk, but it was stuff that was obviously not true or things that were proven not to matter or that she didn't honestly care about because she had no control, like being muggleborn. Things that proved how stupid they were.

But if she did this, those comments would hurt more because she _chose_ that life and her partners.

The simple facts that she had considered from the very beginning, however, drew her forward and firmed her resolve. She loved Harry. No doubt, no hesitation and no restrictions. She ... cared deeply for Luna. She didn't really know what it was, nor could she rightfully explain it. It was something like best friend, but certainly a good chance at being more. Yet, it most definitely was not romantic love. It may possibly have a chance of going that way, sure, but right now? There was no romantic affection there at all.

"Good night, Hermione," Luna whispered, smiling sleepily and yawning cutely. "Don't let the Snorkacks bite."

Hermione nibbled her bottom lip as she watched Luna wriggle her head on her pillow, making a comfortable hollow for her head to rest in. It wasn't romantic affection, was it? "L-Luna?" She asked hesitantly.

Blue-gray eyes fluttered open for a moment and focused on Hermione, clearing up almost immediately as she saw the worry on Hermione's face. "What is it, Hermione?"

"I ... I was wondering if you would be willing to let me try an experiment. I can't really explain it at the moment, but it's something that might help Harry and us in the future."

"Of course you can," Luna said simply. It didn't really matter what it was. If it helped her friends, Luna would go on a rampage through a nundu mating area if necessary.

"It ... would be a little ... weird," Hermione said with a blush, averting her eyes from the eyes that held no clue what she was about to ask, but still somehow appeared to judge her, weighing her. "It would definitely push the bounds of our friendship, though I don't know by how much."

"Hermione, it doesn't really matter, does it?" Luna asked. "I'm your friend. I would do anything to help you and Harry."

Hermione looked at Luna, her cheeks a little redder and decided there was nothing for it. It had to be done. She had to know. The bushy-haired one licked her lips and leaned forward slightly, pausing and then slowly leaning forward the rest of the way and pressed her trembling lips against Luna's own, sucking gently, marveling at how soft Luna's were compared to Harry's. She was surprised when Luna, while not really understanding what Hermione was attempting to accomplish, kissed back. The blonde girl was far more hesitant than Harry and Hermione's nerves barely allowed her to note it, but she did.

Hermione pulled back and looked into Luna's eyes, curious that the blonde girl was smiling back at her.

"Please let me know if it helps Harry?" She asked quietly, closing her eyes.

_'No romantic feeling at all,'_ Hermione thought to herself, laying her head down and waiting for her heart and nerves to calm down.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Tune in next time to see things play out! And who is the next to truly die?

**Forewarning**: Hermione is not ignoring the fact that Harry went back in time about five years. But, she's a hormonal teenager who just found out she can have the guy she wants and ... well, there's more to it than that, but you'll discover that later. But, at the same time, the Luna bit is a more pressing matter to her right now.


	18. Happy Holidays!

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter17** – Happy Holidays!

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Character Death, Murder, Darker Events, Suggestive Language, Brief Nudity

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - Moving sucks. And I learned I'm addicted to the internet because I've read every book I have in my library, which is a nightmare to move by itself. How can Hermione do it? I would sell my best friend's soul for a house elf right about now (he sold it to me in high school for a pencil for a test, so it isn't as bad as it sounds, right?)

Thank you 'Kenny G' and 'Stella Voci' for being the background music during the Harry/Luna fluff scene! (What can I say? I like saxophones and a lack of lyrics so I can enjoy the music for what it is.) For those curious, it was "The Wedding Song" and 'Scarborough Fair', respectively. The latter is a multi-national, online group of girls who sync and sing on Youtube.

**NOTE!** - **You may skip the Wizengamot session if you REALLY want to once they start discussing laws. The first part of that scene is important, however**. If you want to skip the official law-making stuff, just scroll or search for the usual scene break of xXxXxXx.

Note: The book Harry gets with the goblin on it is similar to the one mentioned in "Manipulator of Destiny" by Wheezy1. This wasn't intentional, and I didn't even notice it until I was beta'ing this chapter, but there you go. I decided to ask for permission to use the idea, but she doesn't allow PM's, E-mails or any other method of communication from her profile, nor has she posted anything in years. To that effect, I didn't have permission to use it, but did try. That story was previously recommended and still is.

Daphne Greengrass' appearance is based on what is stuck in my head, though where it comes from, I couldn't honestly tell you.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Heart and Soul" by Sillimaure (H/Hr/FD – Formerly "Alternate Endeavors" - Hermione hasn't joined, at least yet, and the author is doing a great job of letting the relationship(s) develop rather than making them instantly go for one another. He's letting them actually fall in love rather than making them, basically.)

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Tuesday – December 7, 22:15 – Diagon Alley**

Harry Potter was ... confused. Totally and utterly confused. It was late evening three days after he had confessed pretty much everything to Hermione and ensured her mental defenses were as good as he could expect them to really be. In the end, he just didn't really want to hold out any longer and had decided they were good enough and would simply get stronger. Hermione Granger was _not_ known for doing things half way.

Throughout the last few days, Harry had been aware of the world around him in a way that had been both disconcerting and distracting, but ultimately intriguing and impressive. After delving into Hermione's mind and coming back out, something had changed with his mind in the way he thought. And he had no idea what. It was very obvious at first, but had seemed to have gone back to almost normal, and had then been growing since. It was actually something that reminded him in no small amount of Dumbledore and his seemingly omniscient attitude sometimes.

It wasn't his ability to think. That had changed almost obviously from the time he put on those stone bracelets Lora had given him. He didn't struggle to remember things, he came to conclusions much faster and could see how things related more easily. He also didn't get distracted or waffle on making decisions that were really simple. Before, he would have trouble deciding between eggs or scones for breakfast or just went with whatever was closest to his reach.

No, it wasn't anything like that. He had become aware of those changes almost immediately. He didn't require someone to make decisions for him any longer, even if he _did_ kind of appreciate and enjoy Hermione having made up his mind for him for meals sometimes until he realized he could just eat from whatever was closest.

Harry _felt_ the world around him. When he had told Neville he could feel his magic, he hadn't lied, but had made it sound more common than it was. He had only felt Neville's power when the boy was shoving obscene amounts of magic into a spell to try and do it right and was within a few feet of him. Now, he felt the magic of everyone around him and even of Hogwarts herself in a similar way to how he sensed the world of Hermione's mindscape. He could feel a rough idea of people's emotions, something that had him smiling when around Hermione recently, and he could tell just how active their minds were, something that had him a little _less_ likely to smile around Hermione as that girl's thinking and processing speed was frightening.

It was actually a little comforting when he realized he could now feel Hogwarts' apparent life force flowing through the castle. Or as best as he could tell, that was what it was. It was a little bit like Luna; mischievous and playful with an air of innocence and ... puppy-like behavior with that sense of eagerness to please. Harry knew he was flying a little blind in regards to what he was understanding. He couldn't bring himself to care, though right now, however.

The dark red, nearly black, assassin's outfit was molded to Harry's form once again as he laid on the roof of the brothel in Knockturn Alley, ignoring the sounds coming from below and hiding in the shadows of the building beside it so his clothing would mask his presence. In his hands were twenty silver darts he had transfigured out of what had been silver barbs; basically a little silver ball with a dozen hooked prongs spiraling out in all directions and designed to break off from the main body if forced to move about.

It had required a hundred galleons for Mundungus and a thousand for his target, which Dung would be allowed to keep if he made himself scarce and 'forgot' any of this had ever happened, and one hour as Lucius Malfoy to do the face-to-face things and use his voice, once again, but he was about to get rid of another of Voldemort's more lethal enforcers. It was also better to get as much use out of the living-impaired Death Eater as quickly as possible to get the best run out of his face since he couldn't keep doing so forever. They would realize he was dead eventually.

Harry's eyes narrowed to slits as Mundungus Fletcher and Fenrir Greyback left the bar on the ground floor of the brothel, the slimy thief with a woman under either arm and his hands in places they were probably charging him extra for while both girl stumbled with bottles of fire whiskey in their hands while the werewolf snarled. Somehow, and he didn't know how, Harry knew that this piece of scum had not only captured Luna in that memory of when Luna had _not_ joined him, Hermione and Ron on their hunt, but every single time she wasn't with them. He wasn't really sure what had happened to her those times, but thinking about it filled him with a rage not unlike what he remembered feeling as Hermione was being melted alive by the Flamebrand daggers. An all-consuming rage threatened to erupt from very deep within him and it took all the control he had not to rush down there and rip the man apart with his bare hands.

"The pay is good, Fletcher. But I don't want to see you again after this! Am I clear?" Fenrir growled out, disgusted by the lowly scavenger. He was disgusted by the man, if you could call him that, in front of him. He was once one of Lord Voldemort's chief assassins. He was gifted with young flesh on full moons, a large lair for his pack, lauded for his prowess and artistry with his claws and paid well, though admittedly not _this_ well per job, and had twice the number of pack members he did now. Now ... _this_. He was forced to do the dirty work of a grimy little thief who was hired to do the dirty work and was too cowardly to do the deed and now paid him for someone else who wanted an auror that was hunting him down eliminated. _'Pathetic,'_ he growled mentally. _'I wonder who he ripped off to get this kind of gold.'_

"O' course, guvnah! Jus' make shur it'll be done right-like an' you won' be seein' me again!" Dung said happily, groping both of his paid-for witches and trying to memorize how they felt before the shit hit the fan. He doubted they'd come with him, but for what he was getting out of this, he could get plenty of tail in the muggle world, so he wasn't upset. More like antsy. But if he could heroically 'save' one of the girls? Well, maybe she just might take a shine to him, then.

Harry's lip curled in his own silent snarl, wishing Mundungus hadn't been such a disappointment, but put that aside as he wandlessly banished the silver darts into Fenrir's body, quickly casting to end their transfiguration and watching dispassionately as the werewolf's body began to convulse and writhe on the ground even while Mundungus rushed forward and grabbed the bag that only held five hundred galleons as he had lightened it considerably before meeting the mark. He barely had enough time to apparate out before Fenrir's pack mates rushed to where he had been and began to try and help their leader before howling in pain as one touched a barb of silver. They left their leader to his death as they knew it was impossible to help him now, while three of them grabbed the women Mundungus had left to be carried back inside and dealt with.

Harry had been unable to forget his memories of what had happened to Hermione or the newer memory where Luna had been with them. Fenrir Greyback had been at least a part of what had happened to both girls. To that end, his life was already forfeit. Harry just decided sooner was better than later, as much for himself as for the world as a whole.

He quickly grabbed a few dozen other silver needles from a holster he had created and elected to get rid of the pack mates that were still outside as well, his saving people thing making him help the girls Mundungus brought into things. Having run with Fenrir, they attacked the same innocents as he had and would, so while he didn't know them directly, he knew what they were a part of. Each that bore his mark on their bared arms received the same treatment with less of the silver, incidentally making their demise slower, not that Harry would be aware of it as he left right after, Shifting away to Potter Manor where he intended to get sick in private and then head back to Hogwarts where he could turn time and cuddle with the girls and try to forget what he just did, at least for a while. The next time, he would go after the bastard that dared to hurt Hermione in the Ministry and, somehow, Harry thought he may enjoy Dolohov's death.

xXxXxXx

Nyctophobia. It's a word few people really know by name, but nearly everyone has, at one time or another, suffered from to at least some degree. It's the fear of the dark. As children, when our minds are open and suggestible and even the non-magical children are capable of seeing magic, believing in it, we tend to fear that there is something out there, waiting and watching. It isn't even the fear of the pain that would come from whatever may be out there, or the knowledge that anything out there could, potentially, kill you. It is the unknown. Not knowing what the darkness holds, it could literally be _anything_. However, while the non-magical adults may look into a closet and then smile at their children who were sure that something was hiding there, believing there was nothing to fear, the child, and magicals by and large, knew that there very much _were_ things to fear in the shadows and the dark. There were things that would lay in wait with the patience even a Saint could appreciate.

That was why Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe and Mandy Brocklehurst had been unable to return from where their minds had gone. They were stuck in the dark, paralyzed by fear, because they _knew_ what was in that darkness. They _knew_ what that darkness held. Their minds had been unwilling to be found by that creature again and so all of those various parts had hidden away, trying not to be found by it, or anyone else who may be searching.

The mind, however, is only capable of so much. It can only be stretched too far before it can't go further. Once those fragments went as far as they could, trying their best to run instinctively from the predator chasing them, they turned and went another direction. And while that predator those parts of the mind feared was no longer there, each of its parts were. It was really only a matter of time of running back and forth that these pieces, one by one, would run into each other, becoming part of a whole once again.

Mandy Brocklehurst's finger twitched as her mind came together more swiftly than her older peers'.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – December 8, 06:10 – Gryffindor common room**

Hermione found herself sitting alone in the Gryffindor common room, resting on the couch and randomly tossing crumpled parchment balls into the fire, which was the only source of light in the room. Harry had already left the bed he had once again shared with her and Luna by the time she woke up and was in the Room of Requirement. Normally, she would have strongly considered joining him, but she had too much to think about. It was also a little disconcerting just how okay she felt with knowing that he only asked to share a bed with the two girls, it would be awkward to ask only one when the other was right there, after all, when he 'got rid' of someone that would cause them extreme problems later on. She knew it was wrong, but she also didn't care. Harry had made a difficult choice and she wanted to support him, knowing it was necessary. She wanted to know who and why, and he told her, explaining his reasons. She didn't force him to tell, nor did she require it, but he promised to always answer her and she wanted to be sure he never crossed that line from doing what he needed to, to doing ... Well, if it ever became more than he needed, she honestly wasn't sure what she would do. The idea of _not_ supporting Harry, even in something like that was unfathomable to Hermione.

Only the fact that such a realization didn't bother her hardly at all is what scared her about that. It was her faith in Harry's innate goodness that kept her from worrying about it, though.

A part of her also felt a little bad for the fact that he was literally the only person who was doing the exercises he had offered to pay for them to do and no one he brought into his circle of friends to help with the Defense club worked out with him, but none of them really wanted to exhaust their bodies, not to mention Hermione was usually tired anyway with traveling backwards in time so much and not getting enough sleep. She was rather fond of watching him work out, but felt it was a little rude to stare in non-blinking lust while he exercised and she didn't, however, so she stopped after the second time, deciding to think on whether or not the time-turner would be worth using to get into shape when she knew what was coming, even if it meant breaking the rules that had been laid out for her.

She would _not_ fail Harry. But, with all the time her courses were taking out of her, just in getting those extra hours a day to attend the classes, it was becoming difficult to find time for much of anything else, to be honest. Only when she forewent her homework time, such as now, did she have time to really sit and actually _think_.

For two hours, she sat in silence and the dark, taking solace in the quiet. Try as she might, Hermione just couldn't really figure out a way to logically think through what she was wanting to determine as the best course of action.

That ... simply left it as a fully moral question. Could she approve of Harry dating both Luna and herself?

Hermione flicked the paper of her mother's letter in her pocket absently, debating with herself on what was spelled out there.

Last night, she had kissed a girl for the first time, wondering if she would feel what she felt with Harry. To put it simply, she hadn't. With Harry, she felt a desperate need that seemed centered around her core. She _needed_ to be as close to him as possible and to feel him there, even if it was through clothing. She needed to taste his lips on hers and no heat had ever called to her like his hot breath had on her neck. That alone had almost been enough to be her undoing.

With Luna, it had been ... Pleasant. There was no desire. There was no heat. There was no intense, desperate need to touch the slender blonde as her body had literally craved with Harry. Luna's lips were softer, warmer. She was gentle and tasted sweeter. The Ravenclaw didn't take anything from Hermione, she merely accepted what Hermione took from her without an attempt to receive anything in return. Hermione felt it may have been her lack of understanding in what the Gryffindor was doing, but Luna had kissed back gently, letting Hermione take the lead.

While there was no desire or romance there, neither had there been disgust or shame, as Hermione had feared to expect. It was ... Pleasant. There wasn't really enjoyment from it, merely a sense of gentle acceptance. It was kind of like hugging her, only ... more intimate. But, the same sort of emotions from one seemed to carry the same from the other to Hermione as she inspected her feelings in those three or four brief seconds of kissing Luna.

"Is everything okay, Hermione?" Luna asked, fisting her eyes and sitting next to the bushy-haired brunette who had yet to comb her hair that morning as the blonde yawned. It was wild and sticking every which way, though didn't appear tangled.

"Just thinking," Hermione said, sighing a little and tossing another balled up parchment into the fire.

"Is it anything I can help you with?" Luna asked, curling up to the older girl for some cuddle time until Harry came from his exercises. "Those offers to help Harry don't go one-way, you know. I'm here to talk if you want. You've listened to me in the past. It's only fair."

Hermione pondered on that for a moment, debating on whether or not Luna could really help. On one hand, Hermione knew her decision was already made. There was really only one choice _to _make. But she was having a difficult time explaining it to herself. She just couldn't accept a decision without being able to verbalize her reasoning and rationalizing it. Hermione's entire life had always been about empirical evidence to support her knowledge and actions. But, at the same time, she knew her reasons. She just didn't know what they meant. It was kind of like accepting Luna and her creatures. She had simply humored the girl until the Room had provided living proof of Snorkacks, at the very least.

Finally, after a couple of minutes of companionable silence, Hermione nodded. "I found out why Harry has been distant lately," she said at last.

Luna looked up quickly, wondering if it was as bad as she had feared. Hermione had been acting differently the last week or so while Harry had returned to his more usual self, but neither had given any indication that anything had really been wrong since they last talked about things. Luna could safely say they had never had so little space between them before. "Are ... Are you going to tell me about it?"

"He thought he had hurt you," Hermione explained, skirting around the issue at hand while doing her best not to lie outright. "Well, not that he had, but that he would. Someone tried to make him not be your friend, someone very powerful, and he needed help to figure out how to keep his promise to you and he finally asked me. So, I came up with a plan and now everything is fine. It isn't finished yet, but will be soon."

Luna grinned brightly, lurching up and forward to hug Hermione tightly. "Thank you!" She breathed out heavily, barely actually speaking the words.

"You're our friend, Luna. I just want you to remember that we love you and won't ever break our promises if we can keep them," Hermione said with a warm smile, enjoying this. When Luna was happy, she made those around her happy. It was like she was some sort of Karmic mood stone.

"Why would someone want to keep Harry away from me?" Luna asked, pulling away and cuddling into Hermione's side, hurt. "Who was it?"

"Someone that is supposed to help Harry," Hermione said, her voice showing just what she thought of _that_ particular statement. "Harry would have hurt you without meaning to because of something he wasn't going to do, but she didn't realize there was a way to fix it and still be your friend, or she ignored it, I'm not sure. Either way, it's been resolved and that's why he's been so happy."

"Thank you," Luna said again. "I don't want to lose either of you. You've been my best friends since I first met you and I've never had a better friend. If something has to happen, then let me know and I'll help, okay?" Luna offered, looking up at Hermione woefully, making the brunette mentally grimace. She knew that Luna would do whatever it took, even if it probably meant doing things she didn't want to do.

_'Not happening,'_ Hermione growled in her mind where the blonde wouldn't hear. "Don't worry, Luna," Hermione said, leaning down and kissing the younger girl on her temple. "We love you and not even Heaven or Hell can keep us from staying with you." She mentally rolled her eyes before adding, _'literally, it seems._'

Luna wasn't sure of exactly what Hermione meant, as she sounded like she said a lot more in that simple statement than was truly spoken aloud, but she felt safe and assured. Thinking about the night before, she decided to try and be helpful, leaning up and gently placing her left hand on the back of Hermione's head and kissing the shocked brunette on the lips softly, truly meaning the kiss this time. "Thank you," she whispered, relaxing and cuddling into Hermione's side again.

Hermione swallowed thickly and leaned back into the couch, trying not to admit that this kiss affected her much more strongly than the one from the night before when she was nervous and scared. There still wasn't that intensity or heat that Harry and her had shared, but it was enjoyable this time.

"Are you cold?" Luna asked as she felt Hermione shiver.

"Just on my right side," Hermione said, trying not to let Luna realize she had been affected, thinking it was probably due to the surprise of the kiss. "That's one of the things I love cuddling with both you and Harry for. I love the warmth."

Luna simply smiled and burrowed into Hermione's side again, waiting for the day to start with Harry's arrival.

xXxXxXx

Snape growled from the back of his throat as he watched the cauldrons boil in his private lab. It wasn't frustration, but sadistic happiness. It would require two potions, but Albus Dumbledore would get what he wanted. Love, lust, loyalty, fertility ... The Potter brat and those soon-to-be whores would be stuffed to the brim with potions and, with the strength of those fertility potions, each girl would have at least three brats on the way, soon.

He hoped they would have more than even that. There would be nothing more amusing to him, other than their deaths, than to watch them discover their swollen bellies become so large that they would be lucky to walk about under their own power. The dark Potions master had tested a weaker version on a muggle woman and she had become pregnant with seven little brats and, luckily, not a single one survived. The human body just isn't meant to provide for that many children naturally and few women would be capable of surviving it. The children less likely.

That, too, was something he was hoping for. And, should the potions fail to cause a miscarriage, then the necromantic potion he would have finished in two more days would do the job wonderfully. It wouldn't be a miscarriage, but knowing their horror as they watched the Potter boy destroy their bulging stomachs before turning on the women themselves would be even more amusing to the potion master. They wouldn't be ready until early February, when he could put the whole plan into motion, but James' spawn would destroy everything he held dear.

"The bastard won't come to detentions," Snape hissed to himself, debating the best way to get his nemesis to take the things needed. "Ah," Severus said, grinning darkly. "Even better. Albus shall believe it is merely one of those he asked me to create. I'll simply tell him the fertility potion was too dangerous to alter with another potion if he wants healthy brats. After so many years on my potions, he has long lost the ability to read the auras of magical items unless he devotes his full attention to it. I'll let him have the displeasure of deciding how the potions get to the little bastard."

Severus chuckled darkly, grabbing his wand and heading to the female dorms. Such vicious thoughts got him excited and it was time to let this week's list know they were currently failing his class before hitting them with a compulsion to better their grades in whatever way it took.

"Perhaps I should let the old fool believe I require the weekend to get some supplies and spend my time in muggle areas," Severus forced his face into a neutral scowl as he stalked through the halls.

Hiding in a nook near the door, a Thundercat watched the evil man leave, not being able to discern his mumblings, before turning to the door. Carefully, he dragged over a bound and gagged squirrel _acquired_ from the Forbidden Forest and tossed it at the door, only to watch it burst into ash as the potion master's wards kicked in for anything non-human. _'It appears we must think of another way into his private lab,'_ the Thundercat thought to itself, rushing away to find Twinkle for his report.

xXxXxXx

"Hehehe!"

Petunia flinched and closed her eyes, hoping beyond hope that whatever invisible creature was causing that horrific giggling would stop. Or, at the very least, it would stop humiliating her poor Duddikens while he was having his private time. Honestly! The nerve of that magical _freak_, for what else could it be, to tell him he was far from growing into a man!

For almost a month, little things began happening that they at first thought was just their imagination, or that perhaps someone had chosen to squat in their attic. There had been awkward girl sounds, things in the house were rearranged, their toilets hadn't worked for the entire time and constantly flushed themselves, only to over flow.

The first time they had blamed it on their freak nephew, anything breakable in their home was broken. The second time, they would feel themselves being pushed on the stairs. They decided not to try a third time.

Right now, however, that infernal giggling was coming from the the living room where the telly was playing and that voice was demanding popcorn and purchasing a good many adult pay-per-views... It was deplorable! Blaming such a thing on Duddikens!

Meanwhile, Myrtle was having the time of her life. She had apparently spent so long learning to clog toilets and turn on taps that, apparently, she had been able to physically interact with the world, even with that which wasn't magical! The first time she punched Dudley Dursley in the balls, she couldn't believe her eyes when he went down and passed out! She had no choice but to try again with Vernon, just to be sure. Don't even get her started on what she chose to do to Petunia during the night.

Apparently, she was still kind of cold.

Still, other than the only eye-candy for her being morbidly obese or on that wonderful picture box that she could spend others' hard-earned cash on, she was having a very fun time! And these people wouldn't go about and tell people about her, either, because they didn't want someone who dealt with 'her kind' to be near them.

So now, all she did was ... well, anything that caught her attention, really. Some of the neighbors were worth spying on in the showers, and there was always something to break. Plus, rushing through the Dursleys at night while they slept just wouldn't stop being funny! Same with floating in front of the shower heads and making the spray turn icy before it hit them.

"More ale!" Myrtle yelled out. She couldn't drink it, but she could fly through it, which still did strange things to her thinking processes. And that viking movie on the telly was wonderful for the inspiration. She couldn't wait for Dudley to get back home to make a roasting piggy comment at him. Maybe she would wait to do it in his sleep, waking him up. She hadn't tried using her foot in those sensitive areas, yet.

xXxXxXx

_Hello Pumpkin,_

_Yes, I know you don't like being called Pumpkin anymore, but I'm your father, so I'm allowed to embarrass you, even from such great distances._

_First, I'd like to address the issue of you dating Harry and considering bringing your other friend, Luna, into it. I want to confirm what your mother told you: we will be happy for you, no matter what choices you make for your life as long as you are happy. The only thing I'd like to ask, for the sake of my own heart and peace of mind, is that you give plenty of time and allow your relationship to grow naturally. Don't try to force things and don't try to change to suit a situation or you'll simply fool yourself and later on, regret things or end up miserable._

_I lied. I want to also ask one more thing of you. PLEASE send any sex-related questions, comments, observations or the like to your mother in a separate letter and possibly covered in warning labels and maybe even charmed so only she can read it if you are at all able to do such a thing._

_If you need a male's point of view or theory or anything, I'm actually here for you. Don't take that previous as a sign that I'm not. But if it is just general, basic stuff, I would like to freely live the lie. You could have great grandkids and I'll still live the lie that my little girl is a vi ... a vi ... That you're single. Harry, or whoever the very lucky boy or girl may end up being, will simply be an adopted child in my eyes (until I can learn to accept it ... on my death bed...) (Just kidding, sweety.)_

_In all honesty, if you're happy, we'll be happy for you. And your mother told me what she said and showed me your letters (did you know she copies all the letters she sends you so she can keep them in order to look over? Surprised the hell out of me...) I fully agree with her. You can be very happy with either path. We will support you. But make sure you know what you're getting into. In university, especially during the sixties, it wasn't a big deal for us, so that probably helped. Today, it would be a little harder, especially if one of us were as famous as Harry seems to be._

_That aside, I'M GOING TO BE A FATHER AGAIN! I don't know whether it's a boy or girl yet, the ultrasound looked like a bean or potato (I was hungry at the time) to me, but give it time. I know your mother told you, but it bears saying again. This time by me. If you're curious, I don't mind whether it's a boy or a girl. My first child was a girl and turned out perfectly._

_Your mother is getting furious with me, she wants me to go out and get her some chili and I swear I can hear her teeth grinding from where I'm currently hiding, so I need to go (she didn't really crave anything with you other than spaghetti. I think this next baby is going to be interesting.)_

_Love now and always,_

_Dad and Father-To-Be_

Hermione smirked as she put her letter into a folder in her trunk. Her mother had confided that she really only made him go out and get food when she didn't want to cook (or clean,) and because he was apparently happy to leave and pick things up. Granted, that was only part of the time, but he always left and returned with a smile on his face and she only did it once a week unless it was a legitimate craving, which wasn't often, either.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 10, 08:28 – Gringotts: Harry's first stop of day**

"Welcome, Lord Potter," Griphook said happily as the source of his promotion came into his new office. The best way to get a goblin's loyalty was to make them wealthier. Not that they were _loyal_, mind, but certainly moreso than normal. Griphook, as it was, happened to be a touch more loyal than most because his clan had once been shamed and it wasn't as though they were blacklisted, but they _were_ more likely to be overlooked due to the belief that each member of a clan was a part of the whole, and when one was shamed, the others of that clan were as well until redemption was obtained. A lack of honor in battle in the form of one of Griphook's ancestors letting comrades die to save his own hide, was less shameful than theft or dishonor in forsaking the goblins as a whole, but it was held since the last goblin uprising. Griphook, on his own, redeemed his clan, making him not only gain a large promotion, but earn more gold and he now was next in line to lead his clan. Before, it would have taken an extreme action such as reacquiring a lost piece of goblin history like Lord Potter's sword or Ravenclaw's Diadem, which was a creation that opened full access to the wearer's brain, allowing them to recall all details of a person's life, no matter how small or overlooked at the time. But such things had been lost to time, at least until recently in regards to the sword. Griphook had found it necessary to scrap several plans to reacquire that item when Lord Potter returned his and his clan's honor or risk losing it all over again and potentially being the cause of the death of his clan as reparations.

"Hello Griphook. I received your letter saying we had things to discuss?" Harry asked, bowing his head to his accounts manager and taking the offered seat. He had little understanding of what he meant to the goblin or his clan, but he learned there were various levels of respect he knew he was to provide and had recently learned this was the extent of what he was supposed to show, though it was rare to get that much from a human in the experiences of the goblins.

"Indeed we do," Griphook said, pulling out two fairly large jewelry boxes. They were about fourteen inches long, nine inches deep and five inches tall made of white oak stained either a very deep honey color for Luna, or a dark cherry. Both had runes for protection from elements and age, anti-theft and simple artistic designs etched and filled with gold before the whole thing had been given a protective lacquer and buffed to an amazing shine before the final runes to permanently harden the shell were added to keep it in such shape forever.

"These," Griphook proclaimed proudly, opening the golden-honey box, "are the protective enchantment items you tasked us to make. As you can see, they open to show a silk-inlaid chest where the bracelets, anklets, necklace, earrings and rings rest on the top. The gold and silver fabrics are made from acromantula silk for added longevity and the softer, water-like material, of course. In the bottom section are the various discs to insert into the jewelry of choice. The first section simply lifts out to show the final ones along the bottom. The columns in the corners are, of course, to keep the removable panel from resting atop the bottom discs."

"They're gorgeous," Harry said, grinning widely. He had asked for the chests separately after realizing the girls, Hermione definitely, didn't have any sort of container to hold his gifts in. He asked for something a human girl would likely find beautiful and the goblins didn't disappoint.

"I crafted the chests myself, Lord Potter," Griphook said, feeling pleased with himself. "There is a third, sub-compartment under the second panel of discs that has an expanded bottom. Simply remove the wooden false bottom and your lady friends can store any other jewelry they so choose. The rings and earrings, as you can see, are attached to the top of the lid along the left hand side with the bracelet and anklet on the right and the necklace running across the bottom of the lid. The mirror in the middle is so they may look at themselves as human females are wont to do. We still do not recommend rings unless they are likely to always be worn, but your letter requesting that we add them was acknowledged since, as you stated, it is better to have any possible chance to wear the protective items."

"What are those three runes on the left of the mirror for?" Harry asked curiously.

Griphook pressed the top rune, rather than explain, and Harry watched in fascination as a ghostly image of Luna and who Harry knew to be her mother, Celeste, rose from the mirror and began to dance together to the sound of tinkling music that Harry couldn't readily identify. It was hauntingly beautiful and filled him with the sense of contentment, happiness and wholeness. It was made even more so by the sounds of the two girls laughing, or giggling in little Luna's case, and having a simple conversation in short, softly spoken words about dancing and innocent talks of fantastical animals they dreamed of finding together. The image was sort of ghostly or smoky in nature, nearly all white, but the true colors that should have been there came through lightly, the entire thing a little hazy with the occasional sharp details, usually in the smiling faces or the entire bodies for a brief moment as they danced.

"What ... How?" Harry asked quietly, feeling a source of longing as he looked at the image and trying not to let his emotions be seen by Griphook. It was beautiful, but still a little sad to see what Luna had lost, knowing that while he missed his own parents, he had never known them, so it was the idea rather than the person. He realized in that moment that that simply wasn't the case for her. Luna lost more than an idea, but a person she actually knew. That had never really occurred to him until just then.

"When you told me who these items were meant for, and taking in their obvious intent, I took the liberty of choosing a music box rather than a simple jewelry box. The song is a creation of the fae. I went to Mister Lovegood and explained what you wanted for his daughter and requested a memory for this that he had of Miss Lovegood. When he provided that, stating it was one of the last times Miss Lovegood saw her mother, the fairies around their residence, who it seems she has befriended to a substantial and impressive degree, asked if they could provide the song. It was such a rare honor for the fairy-folk to provide anyone at all with their gift of song that I knew to refuse would be to dishonor you, the Lovegoods, the fairies, myself and Gringotts, so I accepted in the most gracious way I could immediately think of."

Harry had no idea what Griphook meant, but understood what he was trying to say. "Thank you," he said quietly, still staring at the dancing pair before Griphook silently reached forward and touched the bottom rune, deactivating the image.

"The middle rune will play the music without the image, and the bottom turns everything off. I am afraid I don't have such an image to share with Miss Granger's music box, but I have the crystal you can use to add one stored in the expanded section, the same with one for the music. Simply take any memory you wish, add it into the sphere as you would with a pensieve, and then place it in the empty space behind the mirror. There is a one-time use phrase you can use to remove the mirror, then the one to lock it into place forever, unless a goblin is brought in to alter these in any way."

Harry nodded. "I'm very impressed, Griphook. Thank you. Please take an extra fifty galleons for yourself with my blessing for your initiative." He knew it was a substantial amount, but he also knew how much this would mean to Luna and he really wanted to ensure Griphook continued to take initiative like that since the final product was so much better.

"It was my pleasure, Lord Potter," the goblin demurred happily. "As you had requested, we also have finalized your Arch system and have several made up for your use. Per your previous instructions, several have been placed inside of enlarged trunks; the trunk you gave us for Miss Granger, the one you had us buy for Miss Lovegood from Natas' Trunk Shop which we also provided the same door in the kitchen that leads to yours and Miss Granger's trunks save that you'll need to add the doorway into your trunk yourself or bring it to us, one for Miss Granger's parents' home that we'll give to you now and five in trunks that were miscellaneous in nature so you can provide them as you wish, each clearly labeled so you know who gets which in the future."

"Then we have also provided you the product without the trunks as requested for the Longbottom, Bones, Weasley and Potter residences and Hogwarts. We have already installed the Arch for Gringotts for your transport needs in the same room I found you in the first time this summer. That is only temporary, until you choose to go public with this. Whenever you come here, please be sure to wait in that room for someone to get you. In the case of an emergency, you may open the door to speak with a guard, but you may not leave the room if you wish to remain in good health. Do you understand?"

"I do," Harry said with a nod. "I am curious about something, though. I'd been trying to think of ideas on how to get the security system to work on this and was wondering, is there any reason you can't examine a person's soul?"

Whatever Harry was expecting, roaring laughter was not it.

"Lord Potter! Your humor is absolutely wonderful!" Harry tried to hide the wince at the unintended, hopefully, insult. "The soul cannot be compared to anything save itself to confirm its true nature," Griphook said, still chuckling lightly and wiping away a tear his mirth generated. "A soul can be examined to look for certain traits, such as the taint of evil, of control, goodness, various abilities and things of that nature; basically things that we can look to see if it is either there or not there, but you cannot confirm a soul is a particular one without comparing it to itself. We could take a reading of your soul today, right now, and save those results, but that does not mean we can see everything about either it or you. Therefore, if we tried to compare your soul to that reading, it would not match because there are things there that we can _not_ read, so it would appear different and thus, incorrect."

"Ah," Harry said, blushing at his ignorance and feeling embarrassed. "By the way, these arches. Do you know if they're safe to use if a woman is pregnant? Missus Granger is and I was thinking she could use this instead of a floo since it seems like she stumbles going through just like me. Plus, she's hesitant to step into fire, regardless of what it does."

"Very much so, Lord Potter. This is now the safest and gentlest method of magical travel wizardkind has developed. Only house elf apparition is as safe, but not as gentle. For that reason alone, it is likely to make you one of our wealthiest clients outside of Sir Flamel or ... _other_ families, particularly those who specialized in enchantment and similar businesses." Griphook looked a little sheepish for divulging that sort of information, but was hoping the boy would take the subtle hint. Their investigations suggested he and his possible mate were interested in that field. A boost to Lord Potter's vaults would never be a bad thing, after all. It was still off-putting to mention anyone's accounts or standing with the goblins, but everyone knew the Flamels were the single-wealthiest couple in the world. While most would attribute that to making gold from lead, that wasn't the case since it would devalue the precious metal, but because they stayed on top of their finances, invested wisely, and had the largest collection of books in the world that, by itself, would make them amongst the wealthiest elite.

"Oh," he said, moderately surprised at the knowledge and kind of feeling like more money was somewhat pointless. Still, it was nice to know he wasn't likely to ruin his family's legacy and helped contribute to it, instead. "Did you manage to get those books I requested?" He asked, hoping they would have come in. It had been quite a bit longer than he was told they would arrive.

"Indeed," Griphook said through his remaining smile. "The one on Goblin customs, written in 792 when humans cared about honor a great deal moreso than now. All of the information is still relevant, but if you have any questions, you may send me a message any time you wish and I will help you as well as I can or find the help you need. I expect that may be required if you care to attempt to learn our language. This tome merely has the basics required to match the customs such as greetings, farewells and titles."

"Thank you very much," Harry said. "I really don't want to do something to screw up, especially with the ones on how to not upset you and others."

Griphook roared in laughter, once again. "For the young and the wealthy, we forgive much, Lord Potter. While we do not forget, we also acknowledge sincerity and respect, which is far more than we can say for most. While you have not followed our own, personal customs, we are well aware they are ours. That is why we follow yours since we elected to work in your world and act as your bankers."

"Thanks all the same," Harry said with a warm smile. "What about those books on accepting my aegis? Hermione's been hoping to get those soon and I never got them in the mail."

"Curious," Griphook mumbled. "We sent them out nearly a week ago, ordered from Flourish and Blotts, Similarly, we have the books you requested regarding Family Honor, Bonds, which includes your aegis bonds and Rights of Claimant(4). I will acquire more today and send them out with a Gringotts owl. Interference with those carries a most painful punishment."

"Alright, thanks," Harry said, wondering why the goblin on the book he was holding was scowling even more than he had in the beginning and more with each passing moment. He would later learn shows of gratitude should be used sparingly with goblins since it was a sign of weakness, showing the other side they were doing far more than you were in a deal, regardless of how much you were actually doing. And if they were being paid for it, you had absolutely no reason to show your gratitude as it was pure business and their duty to perform. Gratitude was also best shown in gold, much like earlier. And that same action is what made the book goblin hold his biting retorts and refrain from speaking up.

That, and he really hoped the boy would use the knowledge he had written as it was intended rather than ignore it like wizards over the past thousand years. He was stuffed in a book and getting very bored.

"That aside, your acquisition of the Granger's business building has been finalized for one point six million pounds, which covered the cost of the building and our fees, which we took out of the interest the Grangers would have owed that we didn't require due to paying the lien off in advance. It has been added to your portfolio with all details associated with it. Should your investments continue as they have, then you will make this back in two years."

"Thank you. Other than that, has that account I wanted made up for my house elf, Dobby, been approved?" Harry asked. Dobby hadn't been free as long as he was in the last time line and had not really wanted to be paid this time around, but was willing to accept it with almost no restraints as long as it meant being a part of Harry's family. But, going to school, Harry didn't know if he would remember to pay the little guy each month, so he elected to have an account opened for Dobby. The only problem was house elves weren't ever considered able to have their own vault, and the Ministry restricted them on many things, so the goblins had to look into it to see if they were legally allowed to do so.

"We have learned that individual house elves may not have their own vaults," Griphook stated somewhat gruffly. The laws, he had learned, were also against the goblins themselves in any financial institution outside of their own land and recently legislature suggested new and upcoming laws that would restrict what they could do for their own customers had they not learned of them in time. In a way, it was luck that they found them and it was a worrying fact that they had not been made aware of them without following several loosely-related laws that worked together to infringe upon those rights.

"They are considered property by the Ministry and property is unable to maintain their own vaults as it has no rights in their eyes. Businesses and humans may, of course, but sadly, your friend Dobby is considered neither. In looking for ways around the laws for you, we considered a reinterpretation. If you created the account under the guise of an expense account for your household workers, then that would suffice. You could then put any name on it you wished for record-keeping purposes, officially, of course."

Harry nodded. "I'd like to do that, please, with an initial hundred galleons. To have an additional fifty galleons at the start of each year. Dobby agreed to only twelve, but I'll tell him the rest is bonus for doing a good job."

"It will be done within the hour. However, your house elves will need to come in if they ever wish to acquire their gold. They are not permitted a card such as yours regardless of how we try to interpret the laws." Griphook made several notes in Gobbledygook with a gnarled root, noting Harry's joy at giving away gold to a servant that would accept nothing and had agreed to lower terms for his boss' records.

"Understood," Harry said. "Did you have anything else you wanted to go over that I'm missing?"

"No, that is everything. The three dozen high-grade crystals and five dozen moderate-quality crystals that you requested are in that chest. Have a good day, Lord Potter, and may your enemies tremble at your name."

As soon as Harry left, Griphook grabbed his notes and rushed to the goblin king, Ragnok, where he found another goblin already present and waiting to start the meeting. "My apologies, My Lord. I was held a little longer than expected by Lord Potter and-"

"Sit, Griphook. Let us get on with our meeting. Enough time has been used," Ragnok commanded, watching his minion scurry to his chair. He was mildly surprised at Griphook's ability and viciousness after becoming the Potter-Boy's accounts manager. Griphook's clan was generally sycophantic and spineless, making them amongst the primary candidates for working right beside the humans, but now that their honor had been restored, they no longer seemed to go out of their way to appear non-threatening. Ragnok could safely say he was no longer disgusted by his mere presence. "Bloodreaper, what have you found of Potter-Boy's claims about the one known as 'Voldemort'?"

"It is as Lord Potter suggested, My Lord. The thief is not yet fully gone from this world. Lord Potter has faced this enemy down in combat thricely since his return to the magical world; twice in his first year and once in his second, where the thief also had the command of Lord Slytherin's pet basilisk, which he slew with the sword we crafted for Lord Gryffindor in 973. That is the same sword now at Lord Potter's side. Its enchantments have reactivated! The boy was able to call it into battle!" The goblin said, speaking happily towards the end. The Sword of Gryffindor was more than a simple sword, or even an enchanted one. It was the physical manifestation of an agreement between the then-goblin king Woebringer. Lord Gryffindor, along with his three compatriots who would later create the school now well-known in the world as the first of its kind, had fought at the side of the goblins when wizards attempted to subjugate the goblins just before the formation of the Ministry as it was to that day, the official authority over magical Britain, only with ideals and a code of practice that was lost over the centuries.

Simply put, it would stay by the side of its owner, ready to battle for him, while that person was upholding the agreement made between Lord Gryffindor and his ancestors and the Goblin Nation, which was simply to fight for each other and their right to an equal and fair life, as that was all that the goblins had wanted at the time that a pact had been created between them. However, the humans had seen the goblins readying for war, which had been to settle a dispute over the right to rule the Nation, and feared an uprising, thus attacking the goblins first, making them fight a three-sided war. It was Lord Gryffindor who had made the humans pull back enough for the goblins to settle their dispute, thus ending the 'Goblin Rebellion', as the humans now called it, which is when Woebringer had his personal blacksmith forge the blade where he and Gryffindor sealed with their blood during the final Hardening, filling the sword with magic, knowledge and Promise for the future.

"Do we know how the thief survived the destruction of his body?" Ragnok asked after a few moments of introspection. There had been the occasional human who showed promise or a simple lack of bigotry, but goblins had become a race naturally inclined to distrust humans as their word seemed to matter little to them as honor became a thing of the past, saying one thing and doing another. Goblins rarely lied, and only under the most dire of circumstances. They would happily and gladly twist the facts or use misdirection, especially for their deals and contracts, but they never lied if it wasn't vastly important to do so, such as to dark lords or Ministers of Magic, which they currently felt were about one and the same. A goblin had to be honest. Liars, thieves and those unable to be trusted were usually fed to dragons or blacklisted their entire clan for even one of their number's dishonesty. Of course, if the slight was to another, there was always the option to win the position of being right by defeating the other in trial by combat. Regardless of who truly was right, winning that would declare them right, regardless. A goblin could kill another in front of a hundred witnesses, but if he proclaimed his innocence, he could battle to the death against anyone stating otherwise and, if victorious, would hold the honor of being right. That was the Goblin Way.

"We have several theories," Bloodreaper stated. "We are aware he performed a large number of rituals, which is what we assume lead to him losing his human appearance and gaining more reptilian characteristics like any regular belly-crawler. But have have little to go on save a newer lead that recently popped up. Lord Potter, it seems, provided memories to Amelia Bones, head of the human's Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We have yet to see the memories, but our liaison in the Unspeakables has stated that Lord Potter faced a version of the thief in his second year that had been a part of a journal, suggesting either a horcrux or use of an umbilical tether."

"Umbilical tethers require a living host," Ragnok refuted.

"We know the thief branded his minions upon their left arms," Bloodreaper explained. "While a living host is required to maintain a living form of sustenance to the disembodied soul, it is possible he found a way to localize where the other end would keep him so he didn't drift aimlessly, or even perhaps a combination of both options. He may have even branded his minions with a variant to allow himself a non-living host by obtaining life energies from all of them in part. We simply don't have enough to go on. The only other information we can verify is that Lord Potter is somehow sensitive to the thief's presence in some way based on the information we've discovered and what he has told us and that Lord Potter seems to be aware of this in some way."

"I want a team working on this," Ragnok demanded. "Another team shall work behind the scenes to assist Potter-Boy as we have been doing, but they are to focus solely on this. What of the prophecy Potter-Boy mentioned months ago?"

"Verified," Griphook confirmed. "While we are unsure of its contents, we verified an active prophecy in regards to the thief and Lord Potter is the other suggested party of it, though we cannot prove it without looking at it and the Ministry won't allow us to do so. However, Lucius Malfoy was reported to have mentioned it in his failed attempt to kill Minister Cornelius Fudge. However, there are discrepancies there."

"Define," Ragnok ordered.

"Lord Potter, when he first arrived, told us the prophecy said it would be between himself and the thief in the end, but that it didn't say he _would_ win. Malfoy, during his boasting, stated that Lord Potter would win if he had enough personal and-or political growth and was angry with Minister Fudge for seemingly providing that assistance. Our contacts in the DMLE stated they were unclear of the specifics regarding that portion of the boasts due to the personnel with him at the time speaking over the memory. The contact stated they will do their best to get another glimpse of the memory and contact us again as soon as possible."

King Ragnok stroked the hilt of his dagger as he thought for several long minutes. The best their intelligence had said that Potter-Boy hadn't stepped foot in the Ministry building until _after_ that first meeting where he mentioned the prophecy. To that end, he could have been fed misinformation, as Lucius Malfoy was the type to get the information he wanted, especially if it involved his master. But at the same time, considering Potter-Boy's contacts, he could have had the true information while Lucius was the one receiving the false. Regardless, however, both paths required getting Potter-Boy some help. If that meant the goblins would be allowed a voice in the human government where they could stop the massive increases in taxes that made their profit margins smaller and have the truth of their race and history finally told with at least some semblance of equality and truth, then there really was no choice to make in the matter.

"We will continue assuming both are factual, but not quite accurate," Ragnok said at last. "Malfoy's statements can still be true with enough assistance, even if Potter-Boy's statements are as true as it becomes. Potter-Boy said he wanted to learn ward breaking during your first November meeting, correct?"

"Yes," Griphook said, confused. "He requested information on gaining tutors to learn, though he didn't explain why. I am also aware that he specifically changed his elected courses at Hogwarts during the summer to include human Arithmancy and Ancient Runes where he has focused heavily on gaining the knowledge about warding and structured spell networks, even going so far as to bring up the now-ignored methods of spell creation used a few centuries ago, and before, and the creation of what the humans now call Old Magic."

"Make a list of our finest curse breakers, including at least one human to work as our liaison between Gringotts and Potter-Boy. If necessary, find one with at least a modicum of knowledge in the field and a pretty face to keep Potter-Boy's attention and hopefully keep him out of trouble. A pretty face and flirtatious nature should be the first priority with the ability to lead any curse breakers shall be second priority as the liaison will not be actively working for safety. If we can find a way to take the risks and charge or simply help him, we should do what we can to do so. We do not want to lose the account or his political power to those who would stand against us. Now leave me."

Ragnok let out a growling breath before swiftly drawing his dagger and cutting his palm, covering one of the half-spheres of his golden throne with his blood and watching with a healthy respect for his predecessors as a framework of glowing lines spider-webbed from the throne to the wall and a hidden door opened, one that he had learned existed purely by accident during Potter-Boy's first meeting several months ago, which he didn't believe to be a coincidence. He quickly strode through as the door closed once again and entered a room that glowed blue from the stored memories of the kings of the past, filled with events and knowledge that they felt required to pass along.

"Show me," he growled out, commanding the room as he had learned from a moment of frustration when he couldn't use the memories as a pensieve. "Show me the honor of Gryffindor." Ragnok was suddenly lost to the memories provided, forcing him to relive the war and the feelings provided as though it was his own. He ignored the pain of wounds and rage as he focused on Gryffindor fighting by Woebringer's side.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 10, 10:30 – London**

Harry smiled as he stepped out of the bookshop where he had managed to find the complete set of Pippy Longstocking books for Luna for Christmas. These ones, in particular, had full-color drawings throughout, too. He didn't think she needed them to maintain her interest, but felt she would enjoy and appreciate them, especially considering the odd hair. With that, he had completed his Christmas shopping for everyone for the year and had delivered the Arch systems to the Bones and Longbottoms, along with his own house, and had only two stops left to go.

Finding a secluded area, Harry shifted to the Lovegood home and knocked on the door loudly.

"Coming!"

Harry looked at the door askance as he heard thumping, then a springing noise he'd heard from a cartoon once, followed by what he would swear was a lion and a monkey arguing with one another, then a foghorn and finally a splat sound as something thumped against the door. When it opened, Xenophilius Lovegood was looking at Harry as though he hadn't a care in the world. "Is everything okay, Mister Lovegood? I thought I heard some strange sounds." Harry asked, wondering what had just happened.

"Everything's fine, Harry. Please, come in. I was just packing for a short trip. How can I help you, my boy? Is everything okay with Luna?"

Hesitantly, Harry did so, finding nothing out of the ordinary from his last visit. "Yea, everything's fine, sir. Do you remember the door thing I mentioned during my last visit?"

"Yes, you said an arch of some sort?" Xeno asked as he grabbed a camera and placed it in his bag before grabbing what looked like a pair of antlers from some unfortunate moose, though Harry had no idea why he was taking them.

"Exactly," Harry confirmed, watching the antlers get followed by bog rolls and a spiked club and then a pair of roller skates. "Er, well. They've been finished and Luna said you were going on a trip to see the fairies. I was wondering if you would be back for Christmas or not so I could find out if she could visit you or if you'd want to have her come by a few days later."

Xenophilius looked up, startled. "I ... I didn't know," he said, sounding a little confused, very worried and self-loathing. "I ... Luna said she was hoping to stay at Hogwarts for the yule celebration because you and Hermione were staying, so I agreed to watch the Fae's Merisath(1) on the solstice. Oh, how could I do that?" He asked worryingly, fretting over hurting Luna on the holiday.

"Mister Lovegood, it's okay," Harry consoled the older man. "Luna isn't disappointed. She's actually very happy that you're going and that you've been invited by a woman who wants to share the fairies with you."

Xeno looked at the younger boy, still obviously worried. "Are you sure? We've never missed a holiday together since ... Well, we never have, actually. Are you sure she isn't upset with me?"

"No, she isn't," Harry soothed. "I came by to give you the arch I mentioned and find out when you would be back so Luna could at least visit you on days you'll be here. She still wouldn't be able to do so often, but if you know when you'll be back, she can at least come to see you before the new term starts. She doesn't even know I have these arches. I'm intending them to be a present for Christmas for both her and Hermione so they can visit on occasion during the year. That's all."

Xenophilius nodded, somewhat mollified, but still hesitant. "The solstice is the twenty-first this year. It's a four-day trek to get to where the fairies will be this year from the closest portkey point since they won't be near anywhere near human settlements or predators. I ... I may be able to make it back in time for her to visit on Christmas day...," he trailed off, wondering if he could ask Sarah to push that hard in good conscience. She was in excellent shape, but a part of this outing was to stay a few days after the event and see how the local plant and animal life responded after the fae cleansed the site with the emotions of the human world.(2)

"How about I have her come by for the new year?" Harry asked. "Again, Luna doesn't mind that you'll be away. She's happy for you and I'll let her know you would like her here to celebrate the new year."

"Alright then," Xeno said with a relieved nod. "But I'd like you and Hermione to join her if you don't mind, and Hermione's parents if they don't have plans. I'd like you all over to thank you for making my girl so happy and making this possible."

"I can't promise anything about the Grangers, but I'll come," Harry said, then helped the man set up the arch in his home on the second floor where his office was and between both bedrooms in case they had to use it for what it was intended, as an emergency escape. Xeno explained he would hire Gringotts to create a ward that could be activated from any room from the first floor up to give them time to use it if there was a problem. Since his bedroom was on the first floor, right above ground level, he would be the first line of defense in case the worst should ever happen.(5)

"If I may, what had you come out today on a school day?" Xenophilius asked.

"It's the second Friday of the month," Harry grumped. "I _thought_ there would be a Wizengamot meeting, so I made appointments for the day. Then I learn from Lady Longbottom that the first week doesn't count because it wasn't a whole week and most of the members found it inconvenient, so it was decided to wait until the next week. Apparently, it's '_the way of things'_," Harry attempted to mimic Augusta's cultured, droll tones in an overly dramatic way.

Xenophilius laughed with a little too much enthusiasm and slapped his leg. "Good show!"

Once ensuring Xeno knew how to use the system and had the runic combinations for the various connections, particularly Potter Manor and that he shouldn't leave Luna's trunk if he arrived save for emergencies, Harry made himself invisible and then popped away to the Granger home, hoping they elected to stay home for the evening. Making sure he was hidden behind a bush, he became visible and then knocked.

"Oh! Harry! Is Hermione not with you?" Emma asked again, noticing the lack of companion with him with a very slight frown as she led him in.

"No Ma'am. I didn't want to bring her today, especially since I'm bringing the arch so she can visit you this Christmas," he explained with a smile. "Speaking of, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't mind if I had Dobby, the house elf you met when you came over to my place, if I could have him bring all of Hermione's gifts except the one she'll need to get here to your place in the morning so that she can open them with you guys. I was thinking she would appreciate that."

"I'll approve it if you are willing to bring yourself and Luna as well," Emma said with a prankster-worthy grin. "Hermione's letters said that Luna would be staying with you at the castle since her father would be going somewhere else, something to do with fairies, I think. I know you said you wanted to visit your parents that day but, well, I was kind of hoping since you would have to leave wherever you were anyway, that you could at least come back and have a home-cooked meal with friends rather than the castle," Emma finished, looking a little more nervous. She didn't want to impose on his plans, but with everything he was doing for Hermione and with her letters she was sending, Emma was hoping to help her daughter out a little.

"I think we could handle that," Harry said with a smile. "Where's Dan?"

"Oh, wonderful!" Emma grinned brightly. "He's out getting me some butterscotch and cornflakes. Where do we want to set this thing up? Is it overly obvious?"

"Well," Harry began carefully, ignoring the weird ingredient list, "it'll actually be in a trunk," Harry said, showing the miniaturized box. "I was hoping you would put it in Hermione's room or one of yours, somewhere that you can get to it quickly if you ever need to, but also so you know when someone is coming or going, but visitors aren't likely to go snooping about. If they open it, they'll know something's wrong immediately since there's no obvious bottom and a set of stairs going down. This isn't the trunk I got her for her library, so you don't have to worry about her coming and going all the time," he assured her.

"Hm. I suppose our bedroom will suffice," Emma said, preferring not to have immediate access given to a random part of their house, especially Hermione's, even if she wouldn't be there. "How many people can use these things?"

"Myself, Hermione and our friend Luna and her dad are the only ones with your address on it, along with Gringotts, the bank, but Hermione is the only one that would use this alone. Luna and I may come with her, though. Oh! And Mister Lovegood was hoping you, Hermione, me and Luna will visit on the new year," Harry explained, as Emma led Harry to what turned out to be a spare bedroom next to their own. "By the way, congratulations on the baby!"

"Thank you," Emma said with a warm smile. "We've wanted another child for a long time. It just never happened. And I'll see what Dan thinks about the offer after we see Hermione to get her opinion as well, if that's not a problem. Anyway, I decided it may not be the best idea to have this where anyone could just come into our bedroom without warning," she said with a wave of her hand to show where she wanted it. "I doubt anyone would show up at night, but at least there's more room for it in here."

Harry nodded, setting up the trunk and showing Emma down into a simple, one-room flat with a fireplace, couch and two chairs and tables for a sitting room and small kitchenette to entertain guests, or keep them until permission to leave the trunk was given. Along an empty wall was a large, stone circle with forty runes inscribed along the outer rim that was cut off at the bottom to keep it flat and avoid tripping, though there was a small stone base that acted as a divider keeping the floor safe. In front of it was a short stone column with an angled dialing pad made of of three concentric circles with a large, black crystal in the center.(3)

"This," Harry said, pointing out the tablet to the side that showed pre-existing addresses for all the places Harry wanted an arch at for sure, "is your address book. The first is my house at Potter Manor that you should ever use if there's an emergency, something like a panic room of sorts, or you can go to Gringotts and they will help you as best as they are able. You can use this any time you want if you would rather this than using the floo. I remember you said you and Dan weren't too fond of stepping into fire, and with the baby on the way, this is much, much safer since you two are just like me and stumble when coming out."

"Thank you," Emma said gratefully. That had been a major concern for her.

"Now, at the moment, there are no security measures in place. That'll change the first time Hermione is over here, though. I'll explain what it entails and how it works then. But for now, dial the second address, which is Hermione's and goes to the trunk I got her for Christmas. It has one of these, too. That'll be how she can come and see you whenever she wants."

Emma nodded and looked at the address, matching the symbols as she hunted them down on the dial pad and pressed them, getting a clicking sound for each one and making them glow softly with a dark blue light. As she pushed the last one, the click was louder and heavier before the arch's symbols, the same ones she typed in, all lit up immediately and then the wall faded as another room popped up through the arch, looking like a much more richly-decorated room, at least as far as walls and hard floors went. The floor was darkly stained and gleamed with ivory walls, gold and silver accents on the cupboards and counter tops at the wet bar that Harry blushed at when Emma looked at him askance. There wasn't a single piece of furniture, however.

"This," Harry said, pointing at the symbols at the top of the dial pad etched into the stone, "is the address for where you are at any given time. Each of these things has an address book that will fill in with any new addresses that are made with these symbols on them."

"How do you turn it off?" Emma asked.

"Just push on the black crystal on either dial pad," Harry said with a shrug, doing so and making the other room vanish almost immediately. "I've been told it won't close until whatever is in the portal is gone, so someone can keep an arm in, for example, to keep it open. But the only people that can get an arm in are those who are allowed through to the other side. And you can close it from either side by pushing the black crystal as long as you're allowed on either end. Other than that, it's just like walking through a regular door. No weird feelings and I asked to make sure it is perfectly safe with babies on the way."

"Thank you, Harry," Emma said, hugging the boy and fighting back tears. The pregnancy didn't affect her emotions too much, but when someone did something kind or mean, she would get affected. It was just Harry's bad luck to be the one trying to figure out why his girlfriend's mother began sobbing.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 10, 13:00**

By the time he made it back to school, Harry was a nervous wreck. He had no idea what had happened to make Emma start crying, but it had taken him nearly ten minutes into talking her back into the house proper, and another ten before Dan showed up and laughed himself hoarse at Harry's expense while Emma made a meal out of butterscotch syrup and cornflakes that was apparently meant as a weird breading for her pork chops since Dan apparently didn't know what he was doing when she told him what she wanted.

After the nearly ten minutes it took Dan to comfort his wife, it took an additional five to comfort Harry (read: laughing at the boy) and explain it was normal during a pregnancy for a woman's hormones to get all out of whack. He wouldn't admit it, but Dan couldn't wait to see Harry's face when he found out his own wife was pregnant and having mood swings, though he'd kill the boy if it was with Hermione. He wasn't quite ready to admit his little girl was becoming a woman. Didn't mean he couldn't laugh at Harry's expense, though.

The man was a little upset that Harry likened it to his daughter's monthly cycle, however. The fact that he paid enough attention to her to know when it was upset the protective father a little since he felt that was his daughter's business and no _boy _had the right to know those things about his _daughter_.Though he was forced to admit the boy had a knack for handling it since he kept chocolate on hand for that time for her. The dentist in Dan loathed the creamy goodness, but the husband in him was glad it existed since it made life easier. The father in him, however, decided to mention that cherries, strawberries, blueberries, ice cream or chicken wings would be a better choice since Emma had confided that Hermione took after her mother in the comfort foods department.

Harry sighed in contentment as he slouched on the couch in the Room of Requirement where Hermione would meet him and they would work on their projects together before turning time and reliving the rest of the day with the rest of their classmates. He had arrived in time to eat lunch with his friends and Hermione was gathering her things to work on their Runes and Arithmancy projects. Harry had actually been working on it a bit more than Hermione had since he had been turning time a bit more often than he needed to make sure he had plenty of time for whatever he was going to do and working on them was a good way to pass the time.

Harry's plans were really very simple, initially. He had the formulas for the spells he was intending to use for everything already written down: vanishing, cleaning, lighting and water conjuration. He also had the required solutions regarding the various types of materials he was using worked out as well. Basically, he did all the leg-work needed and now only had to figure out the puzzle of the runes needed to put everything together and make a working prototype for the first wand he was hoping to create, the water conjuration.

"How far are you?" Hermione asked, looking at his work with a quirked eyebrow as she situated herself on the couch and table.

"With the Arithmancy project, it's basically done. Rather than deconstruct a spell, I'm constructing one, which Professor Vector said was allowed since I wanted to combine my Runes project like you are," he said. "As long as I show all my work on this and let her look it over, she's okay with what I am doing, which I've done. I just have to make the array for Runes and then test it to see if I did everything right."

"Do you want me to look it over?" She asked, scooting closer to him and looking at his work to see if she could spot anything immediately or not while putting her hand on his shoulder to enjoy the contact. He had made a point of being very careful to not make any sort of contact with her outside of cuddling with Luna and even then it was only an arm around the shoulder or getting hair out of her face to stroke her hair before bed. She was rather hoping for a little more while they were alone and was very much hoping he got the message.

"Nah. This is something I wanna try and do on my own, first. If the first wands fail, then I'll look for help. Thanks, though," he said, leaning forward and kissing her on the lips, relishing in that spark as their lips touched before warmth spread throughout them.

"I really like when you do that," Hermione said with a happy sigh and squeezing his shoulder, deciding the two of them would have a few more study sessions like this one on days she didn't have to turn time very much. It was _much_ more pleasant than doing her homework, alone, in the morning.

"How about you?" Harry asked, wondering why she had been playing mum on the subject since she decided what to do. She only smiled mischievously when he would ask. "How far along are you and what did you decide on?"

"Kiss me again, and I'll tell you," she said with an impish grin, making Harry laugh before he did as requested, making her sigh happily when it was over again. "I decided to make something for you, actually," she said, making Harry blink.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was originally hoping to be done with it well in advance, as you know," she said, grimacing and pulling her hand away. "But, I was having trouble with a part relating to force and speed, so it won't be ready for Christmas like I was hoping. But, remember how Dobby sent that bludger after you last year?"

"Couldn't forget it, even though I wanted to," he said with a smirk.

"Well, I realized that the Slytherins are always sending a bludger after you, trying to take you out of the game. That's one of the things that gets me so anxious when you're playing, I just _know_ you're going to get hurt, and you normally do, Potter," she mock growled at him, poking him in the side.

"Not my fault a bunch of guys on brooms have it out for me," Harry smirked, grabbing her prodding finger as an excuse to hold her hand and stroke the back of it with a finger.

"Well, I figured if I could make a sort of ... I don't know ... pseudo shield array that repulsed something the heavier it is and the faster it's moving, with a sort of equal and opposite force, it may make you safer in the air. Basically focusing on Newtonian Physics and trying to reverse them."

Harry's eyes widened, thinking not only of the Quidditch applications, but the practical and tactical ones, too. He grabbed her by the back of the head and gently kissed her for several long seconds, making her moan happily as her body reacted pleasantly to his. "Hermione, love, you're a genius. I know I've said it before, but I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed by you."

Hermione smiled ruefully. "I wish I could accept that, but I can't. My arithmancy kept showing that if I did that, you would actually be tossed in the opposite direction, too. So, if it's coming straight from in front of you, you'd be tossed backwards while the bludger would be sent the other direction as well, but it may not even stop the bludger. It would expel the force needed to stop the bludger, but only if you didn't move, too. I think I have a way around it, but I still need to do the arithmancy for it."

"You don't get it," Harry said, happy for Hermione. This was the sort of thing that belonged in her journal of ways to better the wizarding world. "Can you imagine what professional Quidditch players would do for this? Or anyone who may have to fight a giant? Or even if we could ever figure out how to explain this to the muggles as a sort of technology like a force field? Guns wouldn't be a problem for them, or at least not as serious."

"Not quite, but I like the way you're thinking," Hermione said, squeezing his thigh gratefully. "Giants? Perhaps. Bullets haven't got enough mass, though, to make this viable. At least not the way I'm making it since I was focusing on a practical application for you since I found out there aren't any rules against it since it doesn't affect the game, just increases safety. But, it could be adapted, I suppose. But arrows? I know the centaurs use those and it would work for that, I think. I'd rather not try it, though."

Harry smiled and shook his head before giving one more languid kiss. "Still amazing," he said, turning to his notes and starting on his runic array and Hermione turned to her own work, sending Harry little looks starting at simply smitten and turning calculating. He was also sending her something similar, but had stuck with something a little more along the lines of wishful thinking, feeling he knew better than to interrupt Hermione's study time.

Two hours later, Harry felt he had a viable, if potentially unstable, array ready since it was mostly taking the pieces he had and putting them together much like a puzzle actually worked. To test it, he simply put his wand to the power node where the crystal would normally be and held the paper over the edge of the work table so that the water would go to the side rather than up and then over all their parchmentwork. The test would only be successful if the water came out from the paper and not his wand.

"I'm going to try this water spell, okay?" He asked Hermione, getting her to watch him carefully and ready her wand, just in case of trouble.

"How much water should it make?" Hermione asked.

"Think garden hose," he said, getting a nod of confirmation from her. "Aguamenti!"

The result was more of a water hose with a nozzle on the end, as the results came out with far more force than Harry had intended, but the first test was passed.

"Harry! That's great!" Hermione rushed forward as soon as the water stopped and hugged Harry tight, squeezing for all she was worth and kissing him fiercely on the lips before looking excitedly down at his work proudly.

"Yep! Now I just need to try it with a crystal," he said, grabbing a medium-grade crystal and channeling magic into it for a few seconds and then placing it on the power node carefully. His fears, however, proved true as water immediately starting rushing out of the seal without the activation phrase that was supposed to power the rune for the water. "Damn!"

"Harry, that wasn't nearly all that bad. This proves you have the concept, you just need to make it work on command," Hermione soothed. She was actually impressed. She didn't expect him to get so far, so quickly. "Was it supposed to come out and start an inch above the seal?"

"Hm? Oh, yea, it was," Harry said, looking at the seal critically. "I didn't want to risk the paper getting wet and getting ruined just to cause a possible explosion and I figured I'd give myself a little latitude if the source node isn't at the end of the wand," he said, sighing. "I can tell something about it _looks_ off, but I can't tell where," he grumbled, staring at his hard work.

"Well, we only need the thesis ready to turn in with the new term. We're both already well ahead for that," Hermione said, nibbling her bottom lip before looking between her work and Harry. Harry was on the verge of making something new and showing a more intelligent side that excited her, and a successful test, even a partial one, was making her frisky. "Maybe ... Maybe you're just a little too focused," she said coming up to him, only to turn him around and then lean up, kissing his lips. "Take your mind off of it for a little while and maybe you can think more clearly in a few minutes."

Harry didn't need telling twice and already had his hands on her waist and pulling her into him as her lips made contact. That fiery, desperate need that they had the last time they did this was back and neither were inclined to ignore it. Harry fell back into the couch and Hermione straddled him, rushing forward to kiss him hard on the lips before she gasped as his hands slid up the back of her shirt only a few inches, but that was enough for Harry to slide his tongue into her mouth and caress hers.

Hermione would never be able to tell anyone just how it felt for her in that moment of crystal clarity, where her entire body, her whole being, was hyper-aware and she could feel even the currents in the air as their breath intermingled and she could swear his touch was somehow everywhere all at once, caressing every sensitive spot on her body, causing her entire being to tingle deliciously and making her begin to roll her hips in delight. She knew perfectly well that his hands were under her shirt and caressing the small of her back, as his fingers were practically leaving trails of electricity wherever they touched in those small circles he was rubbing into her sensitive flesh. His lips were practically liquid fire wherever they touched her as they went from her own to her jaw, then down her neck. All she _would_ be able to tell anyone, had she been inclined to do so, was that she felt a part of him so deep within her that she knew, beyond any doubt, it was beyond the physical and she had just willingly given herself to him as all that energy that had been building around them, all the magic within them that had been rising and mixing into one source of brilliant passion and fire around them, exploded, and her world, physical and mental, shattered as she crushed her lips to his and held him with all the strength she could gather as her mind was obliterated and she moaned in approval as new experiences washed over her in waves.

Harry breathed deeply as Hermione panted above him, holding him close and shivering every few moments as her thighs squeezed rhythmically for a few minutes as she began to move wonderfully above him in his lap. His own world had focused on Hermione the moment he felt her legs on either side of his own and he had only become hyper-aware of her and the sounds she made. He had lost himself in the rising power he felt within him as it merged with her own, their power escaping their bodies and coming together to swirl around them both, caressing each other and speaking to each other in a way that he quite frankly just couldn't understand. His world and reduced to nothing but Hermione and himself, following some invisible path as he kissed and nibbled, holding her and trying to show how much she meant to him. Harry felt her magic pushing outwards against his, making him push out his own to keep up before suddenly, they weren't pushing anymore and became one source of unidentifiable energy and he was suddenly her rock. Her awareness that he had been becoming increasingly aware of was suddenly expanded to cover everything and then rush back into a singularity as both were once again separate.

After a minute of panting, Hermione's lips were on Harry's neck, kissing gently as the two cuddled and Harry began to stroke her hair while she was lost in the sensations pulsing through her. They stayed that way for only a few minutes before Harry kissed Hermione deeply and then checked his watch. They had apparently been lost in each other for two hours. They'd have to turn time, soon. But until then, they were well enough done with their homework.

Quirking an eyebrow, he cocked his head to the side as he looked at his seal array, paying only half attention to it while the other half was on Hermione's lips sucking gently on his neck while riding the aftershocks coursing through her body. His eyes closed half way at apparently just the right time to see what had been niggling at his attention since the failed test.

_'I didn't connect all the lines for the power control nodes,'_ he thought, deciding to ignore it as he decided to return her affections and nibbled on her neck. She mewled pleasantly, hugging him more tightly as her breathing evened out, not asleep, but resting contentedly.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 11, After Dinner – DA Meeting**

Hermione had been a little more silent than usual since the day before when her and Harry spent the second half of the day in the Room of Requirement. At least their first time through the day. The second time through the day had them both smiling with a perpetual blush on their faces. She wasn't ashamed or embarrassed – well, maybe a little embarrassed – but she had been trying to consider what exactly it meant. Just by snogging her secret boyfriend, even if it _was_ great snogging, she had climaxed. That wasn't the part that had her evaluating the whole thing, though. No, that was something she had rather thoroughly enjoyed and didn't mind, even if she wasn't sure if Harry knew or not.

It was what was happening to her _when_ she climaxed that was confusing her. She was far from a stranger to physical pleasure, or of the fundamentals of what happens with such activities. However, what she had experienced was well beyond anything she had ever experienced before. Her body was highly receptive and the progression was much faster than usual, as far as she could tell. It wasn't _bad_. Nor was it anything that really bothered her. It just simply confused her. She had kissed Harry before, albeit not on the lips that she could recall. And he admitted that even when they kissed on the lips in his own memories, he had never felt the same kind of ... _electricity_ he felt when they did now and when they got together, of course. The only difference, as far as she could tell, was that they admitted their feelings to one another.

And she remembered Lora saying 'Bob', or whoever her boss was, had changed the bond they would share somehow from Harry's memories and that it somehow related to less time she could show up to guide Harry, meaning it was probably to add rather than detract from the bond.

_That_, to be honest, is what was bothering her. Not _what_ had happened, or _how_, or even _that_ it had happened. But that everything could be some sort of manipulation by some voyeuristic, cosmic deity mucking about in her love life. The part that bothered her was that she _wasn't bothered_ by it. She was _happy_ to be with Harry! She was _thrilled_ to be able to kiss him, hug him and even have a near-literal mind-shattering orgasm in his lap and then that he was willing to cuddle afterwards was simply icing on the boyfriend cake, not that she would admit to having thought that. Those things weren't a problem to her. It was that there was some eons-old person named 'Bob' that may be making her okay with the whole thing and that she didn't care about it.

She knew it was circular reasoning: 'I don't care about it, so I do, in fact, care about it'. But there you go.

However, the things she felt when it happened were confusing her, even though she wasn't bothered by them. Hermione had absolutely no clue what it was, but she knew she and Harry were now in this for the long haul. There were no promises made or words spoken. It was just a connection of some sort that established itself. She didn't know _how_ she knew, she simply did. She could almost effortlessly tell you what direction Harry was in from her at any given time. She could practically _feel_ him moving through the world around her like his planet orbiting her sun. She had a rough idea of his emotional state, too, even when she didn't see him, which was interesting in and of itself. To be fair, though, that was only if it was strong, so mostly it had been humor and his arousal.

If she could hear or see him two days ago, she would be able to tell you _exactly_ what he was feeling, even if she couldn't tell you _why_. The only time that skill had ever failed her was when she was faced with a facet of Harry Potter that she had never come across before, where he had killed someone and felt guilty for it. And even that, she could nearly excuse considering he had four years of emotional and personal development that she hadn't learned about. Even then, the only time she couldn't really read him was in regards to something she had never come across, such as his guilt for killing. She knew he was sad and guilty when they read about Umbridge's murder. Hermione just didn't connect it to a reason. She had known since the beginning of summer he had changed and was different, but she had never been able to readily identify how.

Well, other than flirting. She had begun to think he had just come into his hormones save for the fact that it wasn't lust that was driving him, but honest infatuation, so he didn't come across as someone lusting for a girl's bits. She had looked for that when he was flirting with her, thinking he considered her the easiest girl to flirt with. It wasn't the case, which she hadn't really been able to allow herself to believe.

Now, it was Saturday the eleventh and the D.A. was meeting again. Harry was speaking with Professor Flitwick about his plans on getting everyone started on actual dueling and Hermione was still feeling cuddly, so she was fairly well stuck to Luna's side rather than roaming alone as people trickled in. Both her and Harry had been extra cuddly since midday yesterday, a fact which Luna had happily commented on. Apparently, Harry was more huggy in nature while Hermione had a more ... Well, Luna called it a snugglebunny infestation. She quite happily explained that they could only be rid of by overfeeding the creatures before glomping her friends silly.

Hermione wasn't sure how else to explain the experience. It was a sort of overly enthusiastic pounce, hug and cuddle all in one.

"Granger."

Hermione looked away from Harry and saw Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini standing a respectable distance away and looking mildly nervous. "Hello Daphne, Blaise. Did you need something?"

"I was hoping to speak to you alone before Harry starts the meeting," Daphne explained, speaking a little low so no one heard her speaking so familiarly about him. "It's kind of important."

"Alright," Hermione said, throwing up a privacy ward for the two of them while Luna and Blaise stood a couple of feet away so it looked like they were all speaking together and no one would notice a Slytherin and Gryffindor conspiring together.

"You've gotten better," Daphne said approvingly, referencing the cloak and dagger actions. "_So_ much better than simply slinking off to a corner and speaking in hushed whispers, don't you think?" She asked with a proud smirk.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I may not believe it's really necessary, but I am willing to admit that you understand those things better than myself and that Harry would agree with you. I just think you're both paranoid, but there you go. At the very least, I should respect your worries, right?"

"And I thank you for it," Daphne said with a respectful nod of her head. "Look, I'm going to be blunt and honest, because I'm not exactly _thrilled_ with the situation."

"What situation?" Hermione asked with narrowed eyes, suspicious of what the pretty Slytherin meant.

"My _father_," she practically snarled the term, "would like me to try and become romantically involved with Harry and, should I fail, my little sister Astoria is meant to try."

"What!" Hermione hissed, female outrage and loyalty to her gender rising within her. "That's barbaric!"

"It's the way of things," Daphne said, rolling her own eyes. "Hermione, political marriages happen all the time, even in the muggle world. Surely you can admit that much?"

"Yes," the brunette hissed unhappily. "But they don't usually involve eleven-year old girls, either." Hermione shifted uncomfortably, wanting to pace but not having enough room in her small silencing ward. "So, what kind of help do you need?"

"With Harry being the head, and descendant, of so many families, there'll be several women looking to become a wife to one of those lines," Daphne began with a sigh of frustration, not noticing Hermione's heavy focus on her.

"Are you telling me to expect women to try and become his wife? As in each one hopes to become Lady Potter and get one of those titles or his money?"

"No," Daphne snorted softly. "If a man has multiple family lines of great power or wealth, or if he's the last of his line with either, then he's capable of having multiple wives to revive his line. In Potter's case, he has several lines to revive, so he can have one wife and one mistress for each to ensure a line's revival."

"You! What!" Hermione spluttered in shock. "He can _legally_ have a mistress!" She asked loudly, shaking in the outrage of it all.

"For the sake of reviving a family line?" Daphne asked, one thin eyebrow raised. "Of course. As long as the family is worth something, they don't even have to be pureblood. It's considered a standard practice if a person is part of a political marriage and they don't come to love one another. Do you recall the last world war? The youngest son was forbidden from entering the service to preserve the family line in nearly every country. This is much the same. Better the odds with two women rather than one. That's actually one of the reasons my father is so interested. He has no sons, so one of us could be a political marriage of convenience, taking the man's name, but for a woman like ourselves or Susan Bones, if the name is to continue, she can become a Mistress, getting most of the same rights as a wife, but no ability to inherit. That is one of the primary reasons it is allowed. It allows that family name to continue on. But it does come with inheritance risks for the child, and is not often done since the man risks that other family getting his legacy if the primary line dies. That's exactly how Harry gained his current titles and what most people fear coming to pass, but is also why it is allowed; it allows those lines to be revived since their blood flows through his veins as well."

_'This is oddly convenient,'_ Hermione thought. _'But I supposed it makes sense that it would come up considering what she's saying. It also explains why Harry is considered such a popular person and he's rarely approached. If these girls are supposed to be working on their parents' orders, then they wouldn't risk coming forward, I'd think. Still doesn't explain what Daphne wants, but at least this gives me an idea of what I'm looking forward to. It sounds convoluted as hell, though.'_

"Listen, Granger. I am extending my neck here because I need to get some clarification over Potter," Daphne said, letting her frustration show as she tried to distance herself from Hermione and Harry by using their last names. "I'll admit Potter has his good points, but I don't really know if I want to try courting him. But my father _will_ hear about whether I am trying or not from some of the others telling their own parents what they see and if I'm _not_ trying, then Astoria is supposed to."

"And you want to protect her," Hermione said, thinking she was beginning to understand beyond the initial outrages. "But it sounds like you want to know if Harry is safe."

Daphne's lips thinned slightly as she kept herself from frowning. "In a word, yes," she said after several long seconds where both girls gauged each other, one out of loyalty and the other looking for deception. "Astoria would prefer to meet a man and marry for love rather than potentially have her husband selected for her since she would prefer to marry for love and possibly carry on the Greengrass name and if there were a chance of Potter having even a _moment_ of weakness, I would rather make the entreaty and let her make the _choice_ of her own suitor. If I were taken as a Mistress, I'd be able to keep my family name, which is important to our world, as I think you realize, now. Astoria would then be able to marry anyone she chooses without the need to worry about names and heirs. But we both would rather make our own way rather than come under the thumb of some random man that we don't care for. We've spoken about this long ago and she knows I am not really interested in any men, so am the better candidate for position of Mistress."

"I ... Don't know what to say," Hermione spoke at last. "I don't really know how to respond to you being willing to give up your own choice for your sister's sake."

"Willing," Daphne agreed. "But I would really prefer to give it a few years, if you understand me. So please go ahead and answer my question if you don't mind."

"Harry...," Hermione started, wondering how to respond.

Daphne quirked an eyebrow, knowing hesitation and a lack of willingness to answer along with a very poor attempt at hiding information when she saw it. "Harry...?" She prompted, making the brunette look at her critically. "Is he looking for anyone, or even available? The word in the halls is that most girls are hesitant to try anything with how close the two of you are, though Lovegood seems to have thrown much of the population for a loop. With his political power, mass amount of land he owns and the history of the first school for magic, to say nothing of his wealth, there will be girls just waiting for him to show that he's available or interested, whether it's for something long-term or some bed play, because they can still possibly get something out of it. So is he?"

"He ... No. He isn't looking," Hermione said as firmly as she could.

"I see," Daphne responded, not letting her gaze leave Hermione's. There was weakness in the bushy-haired one. A skittishness of a woman with a secret to hide. The girl hidden within the Slytherin reared its highly moisturized hair as it sensed juicy gossip in a girl it knew could be trusted. But antagonizing the Gryffindor was _not_ something she wanted to do.

"Harry isn't the sort to sleep around or do things with girls just because they're offering," Hermione finally stated with authority. "He also wouldn't begin dating a girl without some sort of strong foundation. He doesn't care about fame, wealth or politics. He's more family-oriented than anything else, but he _does_ have goals and he won't risk something with a girl that could ruin those goals, including sleeping around."

"You seem awfully sure of his integrity," Daphne said levelly, believing Hermione to be naive. "I admire your faith in him, but it's a rare man who won't take something freely offered, especially when there are no apparent strings attached. Can you _really_ be sure of this?"

Hermione snorted softly. "The worst you would have to worry about is that he'd get scared and feel bad about risking hurting them if they tried. I would fully trust him to not being a threat to your sister. I'd trust him with her virginity even if he were dosed up with a lust potion and they were in a locked room for a day. I don't mean to make that sound so crude, but I want you to realize exactly what I mean."

"So you'd be willing to slip him one and go into that room alone with him yourself, then?" Daphne asked, truly curious. "You'd be willing to put yourself at risk like that and hang it all on the line just because of your faith in him as a good man?"

"Hell no," Hermione said, shaking her head. "Well, no to giving him a lust potion. But if someone gave him one and he needed observation and I was available for whatever reason or didn't trust whoever else to watch over him? Yes," she said firmly. "I have no doubts in my mind that Harry wouldn't do anything I didn't want him to, to me or _any_ girl and I am sure he has no intentions towards any girls that we would need to worry about."

Daphne stared at Hermione, honestly astonished at her trust and faith in Harry. The sneaky Slytherin honestly felt she could trust the boy as something of a friend, but wouldn't have been willing to take it further than that without the alternative being possibly worse. But this? "You're basically telling me you could be naked in a room with him, possibly even bound and him stuffed to his ears with lust potion, and you would feel safe? You _really_ trust him that much?"

"I'd probably be worried about how I got into the situation, but yes," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "I know it sounds weird, but he's a _good guy_. Astoria is safe from him, I promise. If it makes you feel better, I can warn him of the potential for girls approaching him and that he should refuse any such offers unless he is honestly interested."

"Thank you, Hermione," Daphne said after several long seconds.

"Is your father really going to try and force the two of you to try to basically seduce Harry?" Hermione asked, wondering what else Harry would have to watch out for. "Is this something that others may be told to do, also?"

"I'm not so sure I would say 'force' or 'seduce', but essentially yes. I know of several girls that received this kind of letter from their fathers," Daphne explained, looking blasé about it. "That's why I was worried. There will be a lot of eyes watching who is trying and who isn't, with most likely daily reports going out explaining who is getting closer and who isn't. The only person I know who was told outright to stay away was Pansy since she's already betrothed to Draco once he reaches his majority and a sixth-year girl, Bernadine, for the same reason."

"Would you be willing to get together with me to talk about the various marriage laws that are applicable to Harry and the general opinions about this in the wizarding world?" Hermione asked, suddenly having an idea. "You could also use this time to study with Harry, Luna and I so it will look as though you're trying so Astoria doesn't have to, though if you actually _do_ attempt to seduce Harry, I'll destroy you if I think you're playing with him."

For a brief moment, Daphne was truly worried that Hermione Granger was the best actress she had ever met as she found absolutely no signs of deception on the usually straight-laced witch who was now showing a darker, more unforgiving side that she had never seen before. But that moment passed quickly as she realized what she was seeing. Not evil or sadism, but protectiveness for Harry Potter, which made sense when she considered the possibly true rumors floating around the castle. _'Perhaps I can take this time to find out what Harry is actually capable of, too,'_ she considered as she nodded unconsciously. "I'm not interested in him. I admit I think he could be a powerful wizard and suitable husband, but I prefer my husband to have a stronger backbone than I've seen thus far."

Hermione chuckled a dark, mischievous chuckle that unnerved Daphne a little as dark brown eyes seemed to dart to her own ice-blue ones and hold her there in a penetrating gaze. "You'd be surprised at exactly how strong-willed and commanding he can be, I think. I'll need to know what Harry is going to be up against and what his options are, so we'll be talking tomorrow, if that's agreeable. Meet me in the library during lunch in the back on the upper floor. We'll talk about what you know while Harry's house elf gets us our meals."

"Finally done chatting?" Blaise asked as he saw Hermione's wand flick, dispelling the ward she had put up.

"For now," Daphne said, turning to her friend.

"Very good. I was beginning to get very lost while talking with ... Luna." Blaise resisted the urge to call her anything demeaning. He preferred his conversations to be sane and intelligent rather than insane and random. The Ravenclaw was a nice girl, but he still wasn't fond of her.

"I seem to have that effect on most people," Luna stated proudly, grinning brightly. Having more people to talk to was nice, but she could tell they didn't really care for her company like Harry and Hermione did, so they were really the only two, outside of her father, that she cared about in any meaningful way. So, for those who tolerated her as a more necessary evil in dealing with Harry and Hermione, she took great pride in messing with them as she felt it was a better way of knowing more about the person in general and she would be one of the first to get hurt if they weren't really Harry and Hermione's friend, which would save _them_ that pain. In Luna's eyes, she could quite happily and gladly have only them as her friends and make most others get annoyed with her to find out if they were really good people or not so they didn't have to learn that the hard way. And that also meant those who were obviously hiding something that her two friends couldn't realize was happening had to be investigated now, before they could do something regrettable like Cho and her clique. That could _never_ be allowed to happen again.

"Alright everyone," Harry called out as the incoming bodies thinned to nearly nothing since everyone was there. "We'll be reviewing everything we've done so far and then work more on our shields and aim. Professor Flitwick will be talking with each of his classes in the next week about the differences in dueling in a regulated tournament versus a duel with someone who wants to hurt you and we'll start our next meeting seeing who paid attention!"

Professor Flitwick would later tell his coworkers that his classes had never been more attentive or productive while having the fewest number of point reductions and detentions in a single week since he first started working at the castle almost sixty years ago.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 12, Noon-ish – Hogwarts Library**

Hermione had turned time for an extra two hours before lunch the next day. Harry had finally received an owl from Gringotts with the books he had promised her a few weeks prior and given them to her that morning. There weren't many, but they basically provided the information she needed, which she dutifully took notes on, summing everything together to send to her parents for them to make an informed decision.

_Dear Mom, Dad and Baby-to-Be,_

_Have you started picking out names yet? When will you be able to get an ultrasound so we know whether it's a boy or girl? Are you going to make the spare bedroom into a nursery? Harry wanted to know when he was allowed to buy baby things (I made him promise not to get anything without running it by me, first, and I think he's getting ideas... Let me know if anything shows up that you didn't order.)_

_As promised, I haven't accepted Harry's aegis yet, but I have made notes of the basics for what it means and our options. I think my options are a little different, but I'll discuss that later if I'm wrong. There are basically three different forms of aegis Harry can actually employ for what we want. They basically do the same thing, but what it amounts to is how far his authority can reach and protect us if need be._

_The first is the Fealty Oath. With this, we are basically serfs under Harry's domain. We work for Harry, doing whatever work we would do, to earn our keep. It's basically where he can speak on our behalf, pay our fines, be a part of decision-making or deals we do with others if they in any way interfere with our duty to Harry (our Lord) and basically, he must be informed of anything to do with us before it is done. However, it doesn't solve the original problem of having no rights. We could be hurt or killed, and Harry is owed something considered equal our value. In this case, since we have nothing to provide in the magical world, it could be said we are worthless. I would be a different matter as a magical, but that could be passed off depending on the situation. Unless something happens on Harry's land, I'm equally protected now as I would be under this oath. In the end, all this one means is we work for Harry like a regular employer and employee. We would have to fight for Harry in battle if he wanted, but he has no need to fight for us or do anything for us (though, you know he would, of course. He's just not legally obligated to.) _

_The second option is the Oath of Allegiance. This is really the same as the Fealty Oath, but those taking part in this are legally united under the same banner. This means Harry's rights become ours and ours his. However, you can only do this if you are magical. The Ministry only recognizes this if it is offered in oath via a magical vow to enforce it. I could do this, but you could not._

_The third option is the best, I believe, but probably the most difficult to accept. It's a Familial Aegis. Basically, if we're family, we get all the benefits and Harry MUST be consulted for anything and everything for all of us as we are his family and it'll only cost you a daughter (I joke!) Of the options, this is the best one, I think, but not really feasible. We only get that protection once we're actually family, or after the wedding. I'm not ready to become a married woman right now, so no worries there. You know I just like having all the options listed._

_There are two other options, but I don't think you'd be willing to accept the first any easier than the marriage option, and the second is truly out. The first is a betrothal contract. It basically is the same as the wedding option, but the penalties for breaking such contracts are pretty stiff. The second is basically to accept Harry as our Lord and Master and become his slaves, which means the Ministry can't do anything to us and has no choice but to go after Harry and either get any punishments from him or have him give them to us._

_And no, slavery, apparently, isn't outlawed here. Highly restricted, yes. I got upset and looked into it. There are only a very few conditions it is accepted, but it is accepted. Sometimes, I really just want to go to the Ministry and throttle some politician neck... It can't be forced upon someone, so you don't have to worry about that. It is sometimes offered as an alternative to the death penalty if the aggrieved party is willing to accept it and the bad guy makes the request. It can also be done totally voluntarily (it seems the magical world takes certain fetishes to their extremes.) It is also allowed to settle certain debts of honor._

_Harry says there is another option he thinks he can pull off, but he wants to talk to you about it, first. He let me read the book on this first, since he promised to accept whatever I thought was best, so when I explained this, he thought he had an idea. I guess you can expect a letter from him, soon._

_And I promise, Dad. If I have any awkward questions or the like, I'll go to Mom first. But understand if I think Harry needs advice and he doesn't want to talk to me, I'll be sending him your way. I don't expect it, since he always makes a point to talk to me and listen to what I have to say, that is still a subject that he may not be willing to get into with me. You WILL give him advice and help if he needs it. He hasn't ever had a father-figure in his life and while I know he at least understands the basics of things, I don't want problems that can be avoided. He may have a father-figure soon, but the man is like a full-grown child from what I understand. And his focus was on getting into a girl's knickers rather than keeping a relationship, so his advice may be wrongly slanted. If you want a cease fire on the sex-talks, then those are my terms. Consider it a bonus. If he's dating your little girl, you get to give him embarrassing talks and do the overprotective dad routine (just be careful – If you take it too far, he'll dig in his heels.) He'll appreciate it as much as be embarrassed about it, I think. Not right away, of course, but after the discussion, eventually._

_Anyway, as for my classes..._

_..._

_Love always,_

_Hermione_

Hermione had just finished rereading her letter to her parents when she saw Daphne approach the table. "Oh. You're a little early," she said, rolling up the letter.

"So are you," Daphne said, looking mildly confused at her presence before shaking her head gently. It was Saturday, and even though most people thought it, there was really no way, or real likelihood, of her and Harry spending literally all of their time together. "No matter. What did you want to know, exactly?"

"Primarily, how the public tends to take multiple partners if that's something Harry may have to deal with. I'd like to start there, if possible," Hermione began to write notes almost immediately, checking another parchment for questions she had planned.

"Pretty open, really," Daphne sighed. "It is considered a standard practice, even though it isn't all that normal for things to be official due to inheritance laws. You can expect at least a mistress on the side of almost any political or arranged marriage, which means most Pureblood matches. Most of those marriages are not based on a romantic emotion, so they do what they are required to fulfill any obligations, such as an heir, and then that is usually it, unless the husband demands his wife service him and-"

"They can do that?" Hermione hissed, narrowing her eyes even as her back slightly arched. "Wives aren't allowed to say no?"

"Yes, of course," Daphne replied, really disliking how naïve some people, or at least this one, were. "I've had a muggle histories teacher growing up that said that has changed relatively recently in that world, but it was the norm not that long ago. Several muggles are still alive when that was the case. There are some places it is _still_ legal."

"Yes, but ... but...!"

"Look, accept it as a current reality and, if you think you can change it, then by all means, do so. You'll have a _lot_ of women behind you, but we _do_ live in a male-dominated society, of which, the only women in power are certain women like Longbottom's grandmother and Amelia Bones, who are the only ones capable to hold their seats in the Wizengamot, or during the last war, Bones was such a ferocious fighter and saved so many influential people as an Auror she was able to advance. The Unspeakables are amongst the few who don't discriminate against us for not having a penis and, even then, you never truly know who they are."

"I still don't like it," Hermione grumbled, discarding the quill she broke in her anger and pulling out another one.

"Few women do," Daphne said. "But back to the point of this. For any family line that is dying out or has so few members, it is actually expected for them to have at least a wife, and one official mistress to continue it. However, the mistress is not allowed to conceive before the wife to ensure the proper inheritance lines."

"What if it's a girl like Susan Bones as the last of her family name? Or two like you and Astoria?"

"Bones is a perfect example," Daphne said with a nod. "She can either find a man willing to take her name to continue it, or become someone's Mistress, thus keeping her own name, and allowing any children of that union to bear her name as well. However, the second option is almost never going to happen because ... Well, say Harry had you as his wife and Bones as his Mistress. You have a child and then she has one a year later. If you, Harry and your baby dies, then Susan's baby can legally claim everything. The fear is that a mistress would do that to gain more money and power for her own family."

"Then how did Harry get all four Founders' lines?" Hermione asked. "The family tree in the Daily Prophet showed he got two from his mother who was born to a line of squibs."

"There were only two direct blood descendant lines for those he got from his mother, the Evans and the Gaunts," Daphne explained, showing one of the scrolls she had brought that her father had sent. "The Gaunt line died out about a dozen years ago. They were the primary line of Slytherin's. When they died, it went to the nearest, or in this case, the only, bloodline left: the Potters."

"And the difference between Harry getting those lines compared to Susan getting married and taking up, I don't know, the Longbottom name, and then just giving the line to one of her kids? Harry said that's what he wants to do for his own children," Hermione said, wondering at the thought of that for a brief moment as her mind flashed back to remember the dream he had during Christmas and he was married to her and, she now suspected, Luna. Her dream-world self had appeared _so happy_ to tell him there was another one on the way ... And he seemed even happier to hear it.

"To pass on the name, line and title, there must be a direct, blood relation. Next, legally speaking, the child can only take on one name unless they are the last and only claimant for the line. Otherwise, they must show a powerful claim over the title over any others attempting to take it. In Harry's case, did you see how he is also a descendant of the Peverell line?"

"Yes," Hermione nibbled her bottom lip in thought. "I had wondered why he wasn't Lord Peverell, too. He told me he was a descendant when ... something else we were talking about had come up," Hermione tried to not mention the invisibility cloak and the Deathly Hallows. It was close, and obvious that she was hiding something.

"Because there were two other brothers," Daphne said. "And with the way many of the purebloods went from family to family, trying to keep their blood strong, nearly everyone is interrelated to them in some way by blood, even if very thin."

"Then why not the Founders?" Hermione wondered aloud. "I mean, yes, they're a little older than the Peverells, but still, it's just like you said, they also would have spread out."

"They did," Daphne said quietly, making Hermione curious. "During the last war, the dark lord didn't focus purely on muggleborns. He killed others that were lines of the founders because he wanted the castle: Hogwarts. It had always been a strong focus of his according to my father."

"I don't understand," Hermione said, looking around in confusion. "I mean, it has a lot of knowledge here, and it's supposedly well-defended, but there is proof that it can easily be breeched."

"I don't know," Daphne said with a heavy sigh. "My father and I have a suspicion, though. People used to investigate the school, trying to figure out what made it so different than any other magical building known to the world."

"_Hogwarts: A History_ mentioned that," Hermione said, trying to recall exactly what was written. "It intrigued people because it shows abilities and magics that haven't been seen since before the Romans invaded, if I recall."

"I don't know," Daphne shrugged daintily. "Either way, it is a mixture of that, along with the small number of children most magicals have nowadays. The Weasleys are known to have so many kids, but they weren't the only ones, just the most recent generation. The Blacks, before them, had five. Before them, it was the Prewitts, before them the Anders, and so on and so forth. But, it is also that whole bit I told you about Mistresses. If a Mistress was taken and bore children for a line, they would have the name, but not the same blood as the husband and wife's children would have. So, if a family had only girls, and she became a mistress, the blood would go into a line, but only for some of those children."

"And, through whatever random twists of fate, these four just happened to be in the Potter blood," Hermione said, finally understanding.

"Not just fate. Rowena had a daughter and son, but the daughter died before getting with child, and both were born from Gryffindor's loins, as well. So those two lines passed down, until the generation after that married into the Potters, who took a common fancy to taking a partner that was usually either muggleborn or not even magical. Marrying for love kept their blood strong and out of most of the other family lines. The Greengrasses were similar, though we never married a non-magical. You'll find a line here and there with similar histories, but they are mostly newer, like us. We immigrated about a hundred and fifty years ago and because our importing business is so strong, we get a higher respect than most, especially due to our ties and contacts elsewhere. We're 'pureblood', but not British pure of blood, which is part of why we always stayed neutral."

"What about Black?" Hermione asked. "Harry had mentioned it's something that could go to Draco unless Sirius Black were to pass it on to him."

"It could, yes," Daphne said with a frown, wondering just how powerful Harry Potter would become. "I noticed a Black woman married into his line a few generations ago. So, he has the blood in him, but Draco is closer. He was one generation removed whereas Harry, I think, was two. So, either Draco would need to die, or just be declared unfit, or Black would have to pass it directly to him, yes. I don't know."

"Back to multiple spouses," Hermione said after a few moments of silence. "Legally, I get he can have more than one wife. What about how people see it? I mean, how would they really take it?"

"Depends on the person," the black-haired girl shrugged. "By and large, it would probably be like anything else in the papers. So, the public would go whichever way the articles told them to go. Witch Weekly would love it, the Prophet will go however they're paid and I doubt the Quibbler would even mention it unless Lovegood made a point of getting her father to do so."

"Will he _need_ a wife for each of those names?" Hermione asked hesitantly. "I mean, will he have to have them?"

"No," Daphne said, wondering if the brunette had any thoughts of getting with Potter. Or if they were already an item. "He could pass the names along with the birth of a new child, but it would only really make sense with boys or the political power could be lost anyway. But pretty much anyone who cares for tradition or pureblood lines will pretty much demand he do so. They can't force it, but they will argue that there is little chance of the lines continuing with only one or two women in his life, and will try to push for two for each, mostly in an attempt to gain access themselves through daughters or the like."

"What happens to the lines if he doesn't have enough children for them all?"

"Depends on exactly what happens, but most likely, they would be lost and held in perpetuity just like the Peverell and Emrys, or Merlin, lines. No one ever thought anyone would be able to lay a legitimate claim to even one line anymore, much less all of them. And if it didn't require blood relation to the line, they would be right. But, since it does, there aren't enough people, even through marriage, to challenge his claim."

Daphne waited until Hermione had finished writing her notes before continuing, smirking as she was curious about Hermione's reaction to the next bit. "A large reason girls will be coming out of the woodwork to get into a relationship with Harry is because of his seats on the Wizengamot. Harry currently holds one of the largest single voting blocks as his own. However, he can only sit as a single one of those seats unless he has a wife or sires an heir for another line. He can't just simply get people to sit as proxy for him without proof that he is managing the family line in question."

"So he has five votes, but can only actually cast one at any given time?" Hermione clarified, wondering if maybe this was something that would be worth having extra women for. _'We could do so much good with those extra voting spaces, but I'm having a tough time deciding on just _Luna_! I'd never be able to accept more than that ... Would I?'_

"He's got more than five, actually. When a line dies, the seat could go elsewhere if it was absorbed into another family. So, the Potter line actually has seven votes, all by itself. But, the Founder seats and the Emrys, or Merlin, seat, are held in perpetuity and in honor of what those individuals have done so, while valid seats, they aren't actually ones that can be absorbed into another family. But, they can absorb others if Harry were willing to take on one of those names, but the Potter name, and all the rights that come with it, would be lost."

"You make that sound important," Hermione said slowly. "Why is the Potter name so important if he could have so much political power under one?"

"It would be under four, actually. The Founder seats can't absorb each other, so they would forever be split," Daphne cleared up initially. "But I think it's part of why so many people, the Dark Lord especially, are interested in Hogwarts. The Founders' lands, titles and properties were never taken under the control of the Ministry," she explained excitedly, giving Hermione the primary scroll that detailed what she was telling Hermione. "This means that, because Harry is Lord of those houses and could legally claim everything that was theirs under one man, everything he controls fell under the same rights, basically being grandfathered in. So Harry now has the only land in Magical Britain that is _not_ under Ministry control!"

"You're not kidding," Hermione breathed out in awe as she read the scroll that detailed that same thing. "And if he takes everything under the Potter name and leaves only the Founder lines with their names and Wizengamot seat..."

"Then the main goal of every political sadist out for a piece of it will find they cannot get any of it, and only really get the political vote in the Wizengamot, assuming Harry gets anyone into that line."

Hermione looked up, shocked. "So, in a manner of speaking, Harry is his own government and territory within wizarding Britain?"

"Basically," Daphne chirruped. "My father thought that was what the dark lord was trying to accomplish with all the murders in the last war."

"This is getting a lot more complicated than I thought it would be," Hermione grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose and causing Daphne to decide to be a little daring.

"Is there ... anything you'd like to talk about? Girl to girl?" She asked, feeling a little uncomfortable. She had girl-talk with Astoria and her mother. Tracy Davis was an occasional friendly chat, but just as sly and cunning and the more well-trained Slytherins, so there was always a limit to what you could safely bring up. To say nothing of the fact that Gryffindors aren't 'one of them', in the eyes of the Slytherins, even the decent ones.

Hermione eyed the other girl warily, but decided she was the best bet to figuring out how to handle things. All she knew for sure was that she would not be talked out of her decision. She only wanted information. "The remainder of this conversation stays between us for now, yes?"

"Alright," Daphne agreed after saying her full name in her head rather than agreeing immediately as she desperately wanted to. If this was anything that could help her own case...

"Harry and I just started dating. However, I'm considering bringing Luna into the family, so to speak, but I can guarantee there won't be others. I can't explain my reasons, only that other than ones I can't say, she's also a good girl and I think she would honestly help balance us out in a way. Plus, she's fun to have around." The words were coming out quickly, but Hermione couldn't really stop them.

"I'm not into girls, at least as far as I know, but I know she cares for him and it will only get stronger. Plus, while I know Harry loves me, he also cares for her and he was considering just not being with either of us since he didn't want to hurt either and he wasn't exactly having an easy time of it. But, I know we're going to face extreme ridicule and probably a lot of bad press that is likely to lead to other bad things and I'm having trouble accepting what I already know I need to do."

Daphne blinked twice.

Hermione sighed and allowed her shoulders to slump. "I'm willing to go through all that to be with him, but I'm scared of just how bad it'll get."

Daphne opened her mouth, paused, and then closed it again before shaking her head. "Well, the first good news is that, even though Lovegood is a pureblood name, it doesn't come with anything to make Harry get another title."

"_Not_ helping," Hermione grunted, looking tired or just worn out from the worry.

"Look, there isn't really a good answer I can give you. Would _I_ want to share my husband? Not really, no." Daphne sighed, knowing that she was most likely going to anyway unless she could snag a good guy early before one of the others got to him first since she was consigning herself to a mistress slot for Astoria. It would mean marrying down if she found someone without a name that would take up her own, so that could help her chances. It'd just lower the political power unless they could expand the business. "But, in regards to what you're worried about, whatever comes will come. You just said Potter would be worth the negatives. All that's really left is to go forward with it and, if it works out, great. If not, then try something new."

"I suppose that's all there really is to it, huh?" The bushy-haired brunette asked rhetorically.

"Are you worried he will prefer Lovegood, instead?" Daphne asked, wondering if Hermione's fear was the same as her own.

"No," Hermione said immediately and with surety. "I considered it, but know Harry would make a concerted effort to treat us equally. I was raised with an open mind, but the culture in general was against polygamous and polyamorous relationships. It seems to be about as prevalent in both worlds, just openly accepted here."

"Then I don't see what the problem is," Daphne said with a tone of finality in her voice. A part of her was nervous due to the subject matter, but another part was uncomfortable because it was something she knew she would most likely face later, but without the same confidence Hermione was showing. "If it happens there, and you accept it, then you accept it happens. If you don't judge those people, you won't judge yourself. So, unless you have a reason not to, just do it."

"Thanks for the discussion," Hermione said, packing her notes and Harry's books into her satchel since she hadn't copied them into her own grimoire yet.

"Any time," Daphne said softly, watching the Gryffindor leave.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – December 13, Dinner**

"It wouldn't be so bad if any of you had just stuck to the exercise rather than quit on the second day," Harry told Ron after the two had started eating for dinner.

"My whole body ached and it was all I could do just to get out of bed the next morning, never mind go and run like a nutter all over again!" Ron complained. "I still think we should get some sort of bonus for having those extra lessons and then helping you teach everyone else." He didn't want to say galleons, or even money, but that was certainly what was going through his head.

"If you wanted to be able to do more at Hogsmeade, then you should have stuck to it," Harry refuted. "I told you guys it was going to be rough at first, but that it would get better after about two weeks. Plus, there were potions to ease the pain I offered."

"Cedric didn't take 'em," Ron grumped. "I wasn't going to let a Hufflepuff show he was tougher than a lion. We've got House pride we have to keep in mind, we do!"

Harry rolled his eyes, ignoring the feeling of being watched by more than a dozen girls, including Ginny, who was making cow eyes at him. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed that the last time through the time line. "Well, you _are_ getting a bonus, but it's for Christmas. Oh," Harry said, looking up in shock. "You didn't tell me; are you going back to the Burrow for the holidays?"

"Wasn't plannin' to," Ron said, grinning widely. "So I'm getting a bonus for Christmas? What is it?"

"Well, I'm not actually going to come out and tell you, am I?" Harry snorted. "But, you probably won't want to leave it at the castle, now that I think about it ... You may want to consider going home so you don't have to risk anyone taking them."

"Them?" Ron asked, sleuthing his way to an answer. "So it's more than one thing?"

"Focus, Ron," Harry laughed. "Seriously, though. I would strongly recommend going home. You'll thank me if you do."

Ron stared at Harry, considering. "Is this some sort of joke?"

"Is what a joke?" Hermione and Luna asked, just arriving for dinner from wherever they had been doing something girly. Well, either that, or they both really did just have to use the loo at the same time, but he wasn't so sure it was that simple. Harry was quite determined to believe there was a near-perpetual pillow fight or some secret activity that they did when girls went off together.

"Harry's tellin' me I need to go home for Christmas, but not why," Ron explained.

"After everything we've gone through the last couple of years, and rescuing me from the Dursleys' and taking me in when I really needed it, I decided to get each of the Weasleys something special," Harry explained, hoping this story would keep Ron from feeling like it was charity. "But, in his case, I got him two somethings that are related and I don't want anyone to risk stealing one of them and he may lose them if he has to hold on to them until summer."

Hermione looked at Harry with a quirked brow for a moment before turning to Ron. "Do you trust me?"

"What?" Ron asked, the question throwing him for a loop as it was totally unrelated as far as he could tell. "I guess."

"What is it?" Hermione asked aloud, then leaned in so Harry could whisper in her ear. A few seconds of quiet whispering, along with one hidden kiss below her ear, Hermione grinned widely. "Ron, I can safely tell you that you either need to go home, or find a _very_ safe way to send what Harry sends you home."

Ron's eyebrows rose. "For real?"

"I would if I were you," Hermione said, lifting a hand while Harry held the bowl of roasted potatoes for her to spoon onto her plate. "But I wouldn't want to lose the ... what he's getting you." Hermione suddenly jerked and then looked at Harry with a playful smirk on her face. "Hey! If you're getting that for _him_, what are you getting for me?"

Harry grinned fiendishly. "I'm totally done with my shopping, thank you very much! I got lucky this year and managed almost all of it during the summer." His smile dropped and he gained a look of confusion as something tingled at his senses. A feeling of not belonging and polar opposites seemed to drift on the edge of his awareness, only to come closer.

"Harry, what is it?" Luna asked a breath ahead of Hermione since the older girl was chewing.

"I dunno," he said slowly, furrowing his brow before realization dawned. "Oh! This is going to be good!"

"What is?" Ron asked, looking around inquisitively.

"Remember the day Draco pissed me off?" He asked, continuing on without waiting for an answer. "Well, this was my payback."

Almost as if on cue, the doors at the front of the Great Hall, leading to the main entry hall, opened, letting cold air in along with two strangely-dressed individuals. The more impressive of the two was a tall woman with blonde hair that went to her knees and was held in a very tight braid, suggesting it would be even longer than her body if unbraided. She was dressed in shiny red leather that fit her like a second skin, showing a body that had physical reactions in almost all of the males present as their own pants tightened. From her high-heel stilettos to her at-the-neck neckline, her outfit was a simple bodysuit that obviously used magic to seal shut. The only thing that appeared to be made by design was what looked like a supportive chest plate of hardened leather that pushed her breasts up. Outside of that, she had a few loops on her waist where a whip was coiled on her right, a riding crop on her left and silver clamps attached to a black belt that simply hung loosely on her wide waist like a gun belt. Her wand was on her sleeved forearm in a holster that was built into the leather of her right arm since she appeared to be a lefty.

The less impressive of the two, though not from lack of trying, was a man on a leash held in the woman's left hand. The man was relatively well-built with tight, black leather pants and a leather harness around his shoulders and chest with several rings made of steel. It was difficult to see much else as he was on his hands and knees, walking about as if he were trying to portray himself a dog, which only highlighted the fact that he had a small bundled package hanging in his mouth.

"I am looking for Draco Malfoy," the woman said calmly in an Eastern European accent and with a great deal of impression in her words. Her soft, silky voice practically oozed sex while the tone suggested she demanded an answer. It stood to reason, after all. She was a Dom. She expected to be answered.

Ron twitched and then groaned, along with about a dozen other males in the room and little Colin Creevy snapped a photo that he would soon sell for an obscene amount of gold.

The woman looked to her left at the Slytherin table where either half of the long table turned their heads towards the center where Draco was staring at this woman in wonder and awe. After all, he had been one of those to twitch and groan. "You are Malfoy?" The woman asked, seeing 'Sub' written in every facet of this boy's life and no spine to speak of. She therefore elected _not_ to have fun with teasing the boy. There would be no amusement since he would break far too easily.

"Y-yu. Ahem, yes. I am," Draco stuttered out, swallowing to relieve his suddenly dry throat.

"Deliver the package, worm!" The blonde woman suddenly demanded, making several people search for something to give to someone else while the pet at her side immediately crawled over to Draco and dropped the package at his feet before returning obediently to his mistress' side and sitting.

Hermione slowly turned her head to Harry and gave an exasperated glare before turning back to the entertainment. She had to admit, she kind of liked the outfit and couldn't help but picture Harry in something similar to the blonde-haired woman while she, herself, wore something closely resembling it, but with less coverage and her leash leading to Harry's hand.

Her blush was intense as she realized what her mental self was doing to her mental version of Harry.

Draco picked the package up and put it on the table as the woman snapped her pet's leash, causing him to turn. "Your package has been delivered as requested. Thank you for your business and may your master treat you well." With that, she turned to leave as quickly as she had arrived, the entire school wondering what just happened. Well, half the school. The other half was admiring the second piece of shaped leather that outlined the girl's rear end so that each fleshy globe was encased in soft leather that hid nothing from the imagination and then went up the middle of her back like a leathery spine so the soft leather would ripple as her own body rippled, which was only her muscles and that rather rounded bottom.

This picture would be worth just as much as the previous as Colin snapped away.

"Albus, why on _earth_ did you let those people through the gates?" McGonagall hissed as the Great Hall focused on Draco.

"They were delivering a package," Dumbledore defended, just as quietly as his deputy. "I didn't expect ... _that_! They were delivering an order from a magazine!"

Alicia Spinnet, the one who provided the catalog, shuddered and looked to Harry, impressed. _'That kind of thing would take some serious quaffles to pull off...,'_ she thought. _'Please, Merlin, let him have ordered an outfit and let me see it!'_

Blushing at all the attention and wondering just what the hell was going on, especially about that master comment, Draco unwrapped his package, finding the inside of the parcel was a small box that was larger inside than out. In confusion, he pulled out the first item, which was one pair of assless chaps.

The first snicker came.

Confused, and having hoped this was something from his father and realizing it wasn't, the Slytherin quickly tossed the pants down for a moment to grab the next item which had been on top, but had moved to the side during transit.

His collar.

Snickers sprinkled around.

With a loud snap, the collar launched itself from Draco's hands to his neck and clicked shut, showing the entire Great Hall his owner tag with "SNAPE" written on it. However, it was a part of a set of teaching materials. Therefore, out came the face mask with a zipper mouth, attaching itself to the screaming boy, which thankfully shut him up as the next item to come out was one of the anal plugs. Thankfully, those who enchanted the equipment knew, or hoped, they would start off small and that was what was used. A muffled scream later, the fuzzy pink restraints came out, along with some rope, tying the boy across the top of the table as the cat o' nine-tails came out and took a practice swing.

The Great Hall erupted into laughter as Draco got his first-ever spanking.

"Harry!" Hermione hissed, unsure if she should feel sorry for the git or warmed by the fact that Harry had gone to such lengths to get back at him on her behalf. She really wanted the former, but there was that latter bit keeping her from really feeling too much outrage while she envied Draco's torment just a little bit. She had never once been spanked and had often wondered about it, even more so recently.

"Just enjoy the show, Hermione," Harry whispered into the girl's ear so she could hear. "It's not really much more humiliation than he tries to pull off in front of everyone. The only difference is it's a little more so for him, but we had a lot of ground to cover to make it even."

Hermione nodded, deciding she really didn't care. Harry did it for her, and that was enough for now. She wasn't even really upset, but merely knew she should have been. A few hours later, she would find herself feeling a little mischievous as Harry asked her to stay the night with him again, along with Luna since it would be difficult to blow her off for the entire night and neither really felt comfortable with the idea of doing so and she would let him know exactly how much she appreciated it with the snogging of a lifetime.

xXxXxXx

_**Mysterious Murders! Is Lucius Malfoy Responsible?**_

_By: Rita Skeeter_

_Fenrir Greyback: werewolf, assassin and all around bad guy was recently killed along with eight other members of his pack. As many of you may know, Greyback was well-known to be one of those werewolves who took pride in roaming the countryside, looking for humans to attack, or even finding them and waiting near their homes on the full moon. He is also suspected of afflicting more than forty children with the infection of his disease. He was also known as one of You-Know-Who's enforcers but was never taken in, even when witnesses would name him as a culprit in crime, because his pack was simply too large and they generally stayed together or went to places Aurors couldn't take him in without bringing massive amounts of damage or death to the surrounding population and area._

_And now he is dead. Preliminary reports show he was killed just yesterday a little before noon outside of Belinda's, a known brothel in Knockturn Alley where many muggleborn and half-blood girls go when they are unable to find employment in a more honorable field. Greyback had been pierced with several silver darts that were banished into his body and then transfigurations canceled, causing them to form into a mass of silver thorns that would break off from the main body. The poisoning to him, as with all werewolves, was fatal and he perished in mere moments._

_It is believed he was the primary target and the others merely targets of opportunity since Greyback had nineteen of these devices in him while the others had only two or three. Witnesses were hard to find, but this reporter learned that they were only attacked _after_ the other pack members grabbed two women who worked at the brothel and appeared to intend them harm. It would seem Greyback had been lured out by an unknown male who had given Greyback a sack of gold and then turned around and taken it as soon as the man was assaulted from afar by his assailant._

_There is also speculation that Greyback was eliminated under orders, or as the goal to protect, Harry Potter. As you read in the paper after the last Wizengamot session, Lord Potter voted in favor of werewolf registration, thus making him a bit of an ill topic around the packs, who are not happy at all with the new law. The theory is someone, presumably under the employ of Lord Potter, decided to eliminate the most dangerous threat before it came looking for our youngest current Lord and chose to do so under extreme prejudice._

_Who may this mystery assailant be, you ask? It isn't known, but there were sightings of a man matching Lucius Malfoy's description within the Alleys that day. The even bigger question, however, is what could be his reason for this? Why would Lucius Malfoy kill a man with whom there is a history of dealing with? Why would Lucius Malfoy choose to eliminate a threat to someone he has already admitted to hoping to be rid of?_

_Reports suggest the Malfoy Patriarch had plans of leaving his family with and run off with Delores Umbridge and there are unconfirmed rumors of Malfoy paying a man to kill both her and Harry Potter a few days before her grisly demise. I don't know about you, my loyal readers, but I am seeing a link between one failed assassination and this, to say nothing of Malfoy's confirmed and failed attempt and killing Minister Fudge._

_In truth, we don't yet know who or why this is happening, or even if it is, indeed, the same man. What we do know, however, is that several people are being killed and the only possible link so far is a man many know to be powerful, ruthless and with a tendency to obtain what he wants._

_For history of Malfoy's disappearance and Umbridge's demise, see page 4_

_For crimes Malfoy Sr is suspected of committing, see page 5_

_Re-read the article of the failed assassination attempt, see page 5_

_For crimes Greyback is known to have committed and suspected of, see pages 6-8_

"Just tell me, was this you?" Hermione asked as Harry put the Daily Prophet down. They had turned time three hours and were spending that time in the Room of Requirement first thing in the morning so their older selves could ensure Luna stayed away, just in case. Hermione had suspected Harry wouldn't have stopped with Umbridge and, she later learned, the Malfoys, but it still bothered her that he did this and she didn't know about it until after the fact. Though, she now understood why he wanted to be with her and Luna the night before. She had thought it was because he was feeling ... _friendly_, and because it would be easy to get their alone time that morning, which proved to be accurate, but not the entire truth.

"It was," Harry said simply. "I promised you I wouldn't lie, and I won't."

"What ... What did he do? That made you feel like you had to ... kill him?" She questioned, moving over next to him and sitting against his side. _'Shouldn't I find being near him frightening after learning that he's been killing people?'_ She wondered, trying to determine why she still felt at ease and peace while with him. _'Maybe it's because I know he wouldn't ever hurt me? Or is it because I know he wouldn't do this without a real and valid reason?'_

"The things reported in the paper are accurate," Harry began, fighting the urge to hug Hermione tightly and cry. It had been _easier_ this time to do what he had to. And that scared him. "He killed people and ate them during the full moon, he purposefully infected children with the disease, he raped and tortured and actually took enjoyment out of it. He was Voldemort's chief enforcer outside of maybe Bellatrix LeStrange, but wasn't ever an Inner Circle member. But more than that, during the next war, he became something called a 'Snatcher'. He ..." Harry trailed off, shuddering at the memory he had and not being totally sure which lifetime it was from.

"He what?" Hermione asked gently, wrapping an arm around his back.

"Him and several of his pack members attacked Luna's home and captured her, taking her to Malfoy Manor," Harry said quietly, swallowing when he felt Hermione tense and let out a whimper. "The only thing I _know_ happened was some basic torture and using her as blackmail against her dad. But, I also know she was with them during the Christmas holidays and at least for a month or two. I'm ... not naïve enough to think they left her alone."

Hermione's grip on Harry tightened as her mind played through a multitude of scenarios, each one worse than the last. "That's where you said we always turned up and would get hurt in some way," Hermione questioned, though more of a statement. "That's what you said when you explained the Malfoys, right?"

"Yes," Harry sighed. "I've got three different memories of that, now. The last one that I've remembered for a while, then one of them ... killing you," he shuddered harder. "Well, they were torturing you, but you ..."

"I know, Harry. You told me," she soothed, still surprised at how well she took that knowledge. Knowing that you had been melted alive was very morbid, but knowing that Harry stopped her suffering, while even worse, was somehow comforting. That he was still there beside that and did the only thing he could to stop it.

"The other one ... I don't know, it's strange," Harry said. "We got out of it, a lot like the first memory I had where Luna wasn't with us but we found her there, but we got away and went ... somewhere ... to one of Ron's older brother's homes. I think it was Bill. But, I remember that was where I failed again. I ... I can't remember how I died that time."

Hermione cupped Harry's chin and turned him to her so she could kiss him gently, but with loving care, on his lips. "You realize I am sticking with you, right?" She asked softly, pulling back and looking into his misty eyes.

"Even after what I've become?" He asked.

"I'm not naïve to think any less of what Luna would have suffered there than you, Harry," she told him a little more firmly. "I know I don't really have memories of what went on in another time line," she said, hesitating a little as she wasn't so sure of that anymore. They weren't memories, but she was getting the occasionally _very_ strong sense of deja vu. "But I know that a war is _going_ to come again. You said you didn't know where all the horcruxes were, right?"

"Right," Harry confirmed sadly. "I know of a few, but there are two I am totally lost on. And while I know of a third, I don't know where it is, at least."

"Then we can't expect to end this until those two are destroyed," Hermione said, standing and pivoting on her right foot so she could straddle his waist and kiss him soundly on the mouth for a few seconds before leaning into his chest and cuddling him tightly. "We have to assume the war will start again and plan as such."

"I am," Harry said, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend and sighing contentedly. "I'm ... Well, I was meaning to speak with Blaise's mom about making potions for me but forgot until now. But, I'm also ... well, I'm training physically so I can last longer in fights and duels and I'm hoping to find someone to train me in hand-to-hand stuff during the summer, along with dueling. Plus food and medical stuff in general."

"That's why you wanted us to work out with you," Hermione said with a sigh of disappointment in herself. "You practically told us as much, but not directly."

"Mhm. I had to make sure your mental defenses were strong enough, so I couldn't just tell you what was up and had to use Voldemort as an excuse without being able to outright say I knew the future and what was coming. That's why I alluded to him still being out there and what it could mean."

"I guess there's no real choice but to start working out with you, then," she said, deciding it would be interesting to see his reaction to a spandex workout suit. "It's really only going to help me. It'll keep me from ... well, it'll help me fight off any possible situation that arises like Luna or what you remember of what happened to me, because there's no way in Hell I'm leaving you to do this alone."

"I know I need you with me," Harry said, putting his face into the crook of her neck and taking a moment to enjoy the feeling of her skin against him. "That's why I told you and Luna that a while ago. I can't do this alone, no matter how much I wish I could keep you guys safe. Everyone, really."

"Who do you plan on going for next?" She asked, tilting her head away from him to give him better access to her neck where she felt him start to kiss gently. However, when he stopped, she frowned, since she could easily guess his reason for doing so. "I'm not going to try to stop you, Harry. I know this has to happen and I can agree with it. But, I want to make sure you don't go too far. I want to be here for you and be able to tell you when your reasons aren't enough. I mean, you dealt with the Malfoys, and I understand that after you told me what they did and what you got out of them with veritaserum. But, the way you went after Draco last night ... The way you did it wasn't bad, per say, but it was edging a line that I really don't want you to cross, especially since he doesn't know about his parents yet."

"I understand," he sighed, nipping her collar bone and relishing in her shiver. "I was planning on holding off on the next one for a little while to get more information like the others, but I was planning on going after Antonin Dolohov."

"Why?" Hermione asked. "I think you've mentioned him, but the name is just familiar."

"He almost killed you," Harry said quietly, feeling rage build within his chest as he remembered the purple flame hit Hermione and her surprised face as she fell at the Department of Mysteries.

"Harry," Hermione spoke softly and a part of her felt a primal sense of joy and satisfaction at the idea that Harry wanted to kill the man that almost killed her, which worried her a little, but she felt that was probably the romantic within her she always feared existed and fed off Lavender and Parvati's boy-talks. To say nothing of the fact that she liked having a man who deemed her important enough to protect in such a direct way. "Thank you for wanting to protect me, but revenge shouldn't be what drives you. This is why I wanted to be here for you."

"It isn't just that, Hermione. That's just the thing that stands out in my mind," Harry corrected. "He also attacked us in a café in front of about twenty muggles after a wedding that the Death Eaters crashed, killing them just because they were there. He's also the guy who killed Molly's older brothers."

"Oh," Hermione let out softly, curling into Harry's embrace once again. "Do you know where he is?"

"Azkaban," Harry said. "That's why I'm going to get him and the LeStranges at the same time. I can't remember why, or maybe I just don't know, but I know that it will help out in more ways than just stopping them from getting free and killing people." That little push he felt seemed so familiar. It was the same feeling of 'need to do this' that he got when he first visited Gringotts immediately after the previous school year let out and he gave the goblins more information than he originally wanted.

"Harry, you can't break into the wizarding prison," Hermione explained with an air of 'poor foolish male' frustration. "It's reckless and likely to get you into a lot of trouble. Prisons are generally well-guarded and designed to stop people from coming and going outside of a controlled environment."

"Actually, I can. It isn't even all that hard. And doing it while most of the dementors are _here_ means it's even safer than usual because they have so few there, now. And I can just shift when I'm ready to leave in a moment so I don't even need to worry about a risky exit strategy. There aren't any known defenses against that kind of movement right now because it's such old magic."

Hermione was silent for a moment as she considered his plan before shaking her head. "I'm coming with you this time."

"What?" Harry asked, shocked.

"Harry, I believe you," she pulled back and looked into his eyes, determined to make him see her point of view. "I really and truly do. And I know that, in a war, you have to do things like this. But ... I don't think I'll be able to just do it without hesitating."

"Hermione ... Are you asking to-"

"If I do it now, then it should be easier to do it later, right?" She asked, partly hoping to hear she was right and scared to think that it was true. "And that aside, you _need_ to have someone there with you. I can do a Patronus now. Even when the dementors are kind of close. I haven't been right up against them, but I can make it with your help, too."

"Hermione, you know this affected me, and how badly. And I _lived through_ these memories," he pled. He knew it would be hypocritical to simply tell her no, but that didn't mean he had to let her without making _damn_ sure of her conviction, first. "I have memories of doing these things and living up to the realization that it was necessary. And believe me, even that didn't prepare me for this. It's different when you are legitimately fighting for your life compared to premeditation and planning. We've both killed during a fight during a life-or-death battle, but we understood that and knew these people were causing it. But this is very different to just simply ... When they're basically defenseless because you got the drop on them."

Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and cried gently. "I don't want to be useless to you, Harry," she said, holding him tightly. "I know I'd have problems with it, but it has to happen, even if I hate it. You're right that these people will do bad things and make things horrible. And if I stay with you, it would be naïve to think we could get through a war without killing someone, even with all this advance planning."

"You're there for me," Harry said simply, kissing her cheek and then her jawline before kissing her lips. "I do this because I know it has to be done. And for every single one of them I get now, it's just that many people that will be safe and alive later. I know that I _need_ to do this. And while others could help, they would have to be made to believe, and I can't do that without telling them things I'm not allowed to."

"I'm still going with you," Hermione promised, putting a hand to Harry's mouth when he tried to talk her out of it. "No, I'm going. I ... I don't think I could do it, but I can at least be there to make sure you're safe. But we're cuddling like the world is ending after."

"I can live with that," Harry said with a small smile, squeezing her body close to his and heading back to her neck to show his appreciation.

"That's – Oh! – the idea!" She gasped as his lips found a very sensitive spot. _'If I can't kill our enemies together at your side, then I'll damn well make sure you come out of it alive,'_ she thought as her breath hitched with his fingers trailing over the flesh of her back. _'After this, I'll need to speak with Madam Pomfrey and maybe learn some of those medical spells she mentioned! Hell, so should Harry... if he does this often, I just may lose my virginity a lot sooner than – OH GOD – than I expected to!'_

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**Friday – December 17**

Harry walked into the Wizengamot chambers with a smile on his face and in much better cheer than he thought possible after having sat through the previous meeting. In truth, that meeting was probably the only reason he wasn't skipping to go from place to place like his favorite blonde Ravenclaw. That very morning, he had managed to make it to six percent of his power unlocked without struggling for control and he was thrilled by that, too. It seemed working with wandless magic seemed to help him manage everything better than with his wand.

Also, four days ago, after the Prophet article that led to a very depressing chat with Hermione that had led to one Hell of a snogging session – Hermione seemed to be very good at those – he had found that his bushy-haired girlfriend had ensnared Luna into joining his morning training routine, having explained it to the quirky girl the night before. It was a unanimous decision between them that they didn't want to let Harry down, or risk anything happening to themselves, which would be letting themselves down as well.

That simply wasn't to be permitted.

They had almost been able to talk some of the others into it as well, but Cedric was the quintessential Hufflepuff and decided he would get a little extra work with his Quidditch team, feeling the idea worked well enough for him, it would work well enough for them all and help out his team at the same time. Ron, sadly, still wasn't about to get up that early or work that much, even for gold, while the others couldn't figure out the point. Neville had been interested, but left off since he helped Madam Sprout in the mornings in the greenhouses. But he promised to at least start running to and from the greenhouses.

Even that wasn't what made Harry happy. It had been a grueling few days for the girls, but they were making marked improvements and they were getting better at everything they were doing with him. But the memorable thing had been when Hermione and Luna showed up in spandex exercise suits that she had received the night before from her mother that had been grateful Hermione was taking measures to maintain her health.

Harry would freely admit both girls were attractive and really beginning to show some wonderful development, Hermione especially as being nearly a year older than the other two, but the best thing wasn't ogling them as they ran. It was the fact that the suits doubled as swim suits for them, allowing them to run themselves ragged, cool down with a brisk walk, and then slip into the wonderful bliss that was the pool.

Until Hermione took control over the room and showed them an entirely new device called a jacuzzi, complete with water-jet massaging and a steaming hot water supply that eased straining muscles and pains.

While Harry couldn't say it was better than getting that little bit of extra exercise from swimming, which worked out the whole body, he _could_ say that it was worth the loss. There were, after all, worse ways of spending half an hour than in frothing bubbles with two girls that wore skin-tight clothing.

Other than both girls giggling at his obvious reaction to the situation and Hermione's joke that maybe they should try it without swimming clothes some time, Harry felt his exercising had gone better than ever. It wasn't just because of the girls' new outfits or the jacuzzi, though. With them there, he felt a need to show off that he hadn't fully been able to fight, so he wound up doing a little more, pushing himself a little harder and by actually talking, first to encourage them and then to pass time, kept him breathing so he got better results.

One better, Hermione had taught him and Luna a couple of things she had heard about before, but had never really felt comfortable thinking about. It was her recent talk with Harry that had even made her consider them. But, she remembered her mother, Emma, talking about things she had learned in a women's defense class she had taken during university. Basically, she mentioned eye gouges, ear ripping, throat ripping and groin shots, among a few other things that made Harry a little queasy, but glad for the information. It also made him decide both girls needed at least one hidden weapon like a dagger on them at all times, along with plenty of silver jewelry, just in case. Thankfully, he had taken care of the last already.

He didn't know it, but Hermione had decided that she would begin pulling Luna into more with her and Harry where the three were alone rather than in their own little world surrounded by others. Mornings generally had them talking or working on projects, and evenings had them staying up together until everyone else had fallen asleep so Luna could be snuck to the girls' dorms and they generally had a library table where it had just been them until Daphne and Blaise started sitting with them to work on homework, which Hermione admitted to offering to promote House unity.

It was Hermione's hope that she could try and observe how Luna and Harry interacted and see if she could get some innocent situations up to get the two of them to try and acknowledge their feelings. While she knew they both did, she wanted them to _face_ those situations a little more before she brought her idea of sharing Harry out.

A half naked Harry wearing shorts and no shirt as he exercised, revealing outfits – even if he _had_ seen everything on Luna – and suggestive banter, she hoped, would help out there.

And if she could get them all sharing a hot tub in the nude? Well, it was something to think on, though she was unsure how she felt about it. But getting the thought out there?

Harry had much to be happy about, even if he wasn't aware of half of it.

"Lord Potter!"

Harry turned to the side, his hand immediately going down to his waist and turning so the palm was facing the person called his name as it was totally unfamiliar and he intended to be ready to cast wandlessly if necessary since he didn't _have_ his wand from check-in. However, he relaxed almost immediately as he saw it was a man walking with Amelia Bones. "Hello. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know you, Mister...?"

"Croaker. Algernon Croaker," the older gentleman stated, grasping Harry's hand. He had light brown hair that seemed to be fading to gray, pale brown eyes and a gentle smile. "Amelia here mentioned you were joining the world of politics and seemed to be a decent lad, so I decided I wanted to meet you and decide for myself. Hope you don't mind," he asked while mentally reading every facet of the boy. His stance was proud and confident, but still showing great suspicion of pretty much everyone. His eyes were always looking about showing excellent situational awareness and he was more than willing to look him in the eye as he spoke. Excellent show of character, but poor form for such a young mind since that gave Croaker all the opportunity he would need to search the boy's memories.

Harry was feeling a little deception from the new arrival, but put it aside since pretty much everyone in the room felt the same and smiled. "Pleasure to meet you, Sir. And I'm glad you aren't like the general public and believe everything you're told. It's nice that someone is willing to think and make up their own mind instead. I just wish the younger generation did the same."

Almost immediately, Harry felt the mind of the man ahead of him push forward and try to enter his own mind before he could really stop it.

"_What the hell?" Croaker wondered, suddenly finding himself in a forest. He looked around as he began to hear chattering from many creatures as they came out of hiding, showing hundreds of spiders, mostly all acromantula, come into sight and in sizes ranging from the every day house spider to ones the size of a small horse. However, it wasn't just them, either. Fairies seemed to come out of the flowers and what appeared as fireflies, or at least glowing light motes, came from the sky and began to surround him._

"_Bloody, bollocking shite! Mindscape!" Knowing he was found out already and feeling more than a little foolish, the man pulled his mental probe back only to get stopped in the middle as a skeletal hand burst from the ground to grab his ankles and try to pull him down. "The hell!"_

_Croaker immediately sent a concussive blast out from his body and retracted his mental probe, deciding that he was going to _have_ to talk the boy into letting him explore his mindscape._

"Give me one good reason not to kill you here and now for that stunt," Harry seethed, his face contorting in fury.

"Lord Potter, you will not-"

"Stay out of this," Harry ordered, barely keeping his voice low enough to not cause a large scene. "This bastard just tried to get into my head and I am perfectly aware I can call for his head if I want."

"Croaker, you didn't," Amelia asked, shocked. "You know better than that!"

"He's cozying up to Fudge," the older man said, pulling on his hard-ass persona as Head Unspeakable. "I had to know he wasn't some sycophant who was going to bribe or blackmail his way into getting things he wanted, especially after getting that waiver for underage magic for pretty much anyone he wants."

"While I respect the explanation, you'll have to do a hell of a lot better than that," Harry snarled. "You can't expect me to believe you care that much when that seems to be the fucking status quo here! Lucius Malfoy, alone, was like the bloody poster boy for bribing officials to get what you want and you never did a damn thing against him!"

"Lord Potter, watch your tone," Amelia demanded. "Regardless of what you think, things aren't so simple in the world. Especially with regards to Lucius Malfoy!"

"So it's that simple in regards to myself, then?" Harry snarked, sounding equal parts petulant child, royally pissed off Lord and angry wizard as the air around him seemed to glow lightly. The two nearest him could feel a rise in his power as he struggled to keep clamped down on it.

"That's not what I meant, and I apologize if that's how it sounded," Amelia stated, trying to back peddle and calm the situation down before something serious happened. As it was, Algernon was in a world of trouble already. The old man knew something like that wouldn't be forgiven, though the knowledge that Potter had enough training to even detect such a thing was astonishing. "If you wish to press charges, let me know. He didn't admit to the action, but explained his reasons for doing so which is equally damning after your accusation."

"What actions I take is entirely dependent on his answer," Harry growled out, an arc of blue-white light crackling at his fingertips for a brief moment. "I'll give you one more chance to explain yourself, and it had better be good."

Croaker had been judging the boy this entire time, trying to figure out what made him tick and how to handle him. From what he knew of the boy and what he had discussed with his contacts at Gringotts, the boy was important in a way that air was. What was more, he didn't seem to maliciously target people when he learned he had the apparently ability, at least from what the bloodthirsty race told him. Even now, he was giving Algernon the chance to explain rather than simply have him removed. As furious as the boy was, it wasn't likely he was thinking rationally, so the idea of getting a favor out of the older man had not seemingly even entered his mind. It wouldn't have mattered, as Croaker was above the particular law in question, but it was all a curious situation, regardless. The only way he could get into trouble with the law is the ability for Harry to call a duel of honor, which didn't seem to be his modus operandi. Thus, feeling intrigued, the man decided to take a gamble and see how it played out if the boy thought he had been humbled.

"My apologies, Lord Potter. To be blunt, I work in a unique department of the Ministry and you've come to our attention, even before you took on your lordships. We are more aware of current events than most and, while we believe it may be necessary, we are hesitant to offer our assistance to someone who would abuse the power that would grant. I needed to know what kind of person you are. And to be honest, I still do, so you can expect that it will happen again."

"Croaker!" Amelia hissed, horrified at the man's gumption.

"When did you 'notice me', as you put it?" Harry asked, his eyes remaining cold and the power coming off him stabilizing, though still present.

Thrown off guard by the question, though certainly not showing it, Croaker blinked before answering. "Since that Halloween night," he said, telling the truth since he saw little potential for harm.

"When did you or your department decide help was feasible," Harry asked, still cold and somehow sounding more dangerous with that question.

"Difficult to say," Croaker hedged, unsure of how to answer. "There were always members who thought it was necessary, but it's only been seriously considered since you returned to wizarding Britain."

"While probably not the sort of thing you would normally answer, I highly advise it," Harry explained, leading into his demand. "Who is in charge of 'considering' my need of help and when did they begin doing so that culminated in your checking in on my state of mind and feasibility of getting that help."

Croaker couldn't understand what all this was getting to, but something in him said that these were far more dangerous questions than he could tell. Something about them was catching his attention, and he had no idea what they were. "Who is in charge is not something I'll tell you since the leader of my department is a classified secret known only to a very select few. But this person started putting serious consideration into helping you when it seemed it was necessary."

"You're evading," Harry stated simply, the air around them all suddenly turning thick as a pressure descended upon them and everyone in the room that all understood to be a magical aura of power, but only two knew its origin. "I don't need to know the event, I'm asking _when_ it was deemed I may need help."

_That_! _That_ was what was catching Algernon's attention! All of his questions were referencing some point in the time line! _'But why?_' He wondered if it was possible that the boy somehow obtained or was aware of the time-turners that had been stolen, but didn't see how that was possible. He had a staggering amount of power, but he didn't even seem to be aware of it, or at least of what he was currently doing.

"In your first year, though I'm not at liberty to say exactly when or why," Croaker said, carefully watching the boy in front of him. Normally, he would try to read surface thoughts, but that was obviously a bad idea since he didn't know how thoroughly his mindscape protected him.

"Either you're lying, or something happened recently to change your mind. I can tell you're being evasive," Harry said, hoping to see how the man responded. In actuality, the man had told the truth, as far as he could tell. But if that were the case, then the Ministry would have come to help him in one of his past memories that went beyond that point in time. The only possibility was that he changed something either during the summer or that school year.

"I just admitted to as much," Croaker snorted. "That's the point of not saying who or when since it can narrow things down."

"I'm intrigued, but not interested for now," Harry said after a moment, his eyes remaining narrowed as the pressure in the room seemed to lessen. "I don't know you, don't trust you, think you're up to something and rather than ask your questions, you attempted to invade my mind like some mental rapist. Do it again and I'll simply assume you to be hostile and respond as such."

"You've got balls, kid, I'll give you that," Croaker grinned.

"If you're both done asserting your authority over one another, can we continue on?" Amelia asked sternly. "As amusing as a pissing contest is, there is a sense of decorum one should project in public."

"I still had a snarky comment, but I'll refrain," Harry said, smirking at the monocle-clad woman who glared in response.

"They're made of brass, I'm assuming?" Croaker asked, amending his previous statement.

"Oh please," Amelia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Enough of that. Lord Potter, I was hoping to talk with you about something Susan has discussed with me in some of her letters."

"What's that?"

"You've started a Defense club that originally seemed to focus on the Patronus charm, which you've managed to teach to many within the school. More, in fact, than are registered in the last decade combined. And it has gone from that to teaching other things, including dueling, silent casting and some sort of shield variant."

"Yes. The Patronus is something I think they should all know if we have over a hundred dementors around the school filled with what amounts to an all-you-can-eat buffet for them in the form of children. The rest I decided to do since most of our DADA teachers have been utter crap until Professor Lupin showed up. He's actually pretty good. But since a few of my friends wanted to continue, I decided to hold it open to anyone since I didn't feel comfortable letting others not do as well as they could."

"My reason for broaching the subject is that I would like to bring some of my Aurors in to sit in on some of these lessons," Amelia explained. "As I said, Patronus-casting adults are hard to come by. On top of that, Susan spoke highly of your ability and I admit to being curious."

"I'm willing to allow your people to come by if I'm allowed to sit in on an Auror training class for one of their dueling sessions, matching one class for one class for however many you wish to have someone visit excluding Nymphadora Tonks, who I'd like to show up to at least the one you're wanting to come see. She's either an Auror Trainee or greenhorn in the corps at the moment."

"Why her?" Amelia asked, slightly wary. She knew of the girl, as many in the Auror and Unspeakables did, since she had extreme promise with her physical morphing ability. But, crass as many were, it was expected that a hormonal boy would really only consider one aspect of that ability. But the fact that Potter knew of her at all was just odd. She was just out of Hogwarts when he started and was only now coming to the end of her final year of training.

"We're cousins and I don't really know any of my family except the Dursleys, and I gave you memories about how they are. I'm curious about what other kinds are in my family line. Plus, she's close enough to my age that she may be fun to hang out with and would be able to give me a point of view of the Auror training program that a general adult wouldn't have since I considered becoming one for a while," Harry said honestly. "That aside, I know she's able to change her appearance at will and I'm curious if she can tell me how to check for the ability since I've done similar things in the past and want to know if it may have just been accidental or a very mild version of that ability."

"Are you curious about where you hold up against an Auror?" Amelia asked. She could freely say that _she_ was, though she wouldn't actually do so. She also felt the boy may need a quick kick in the danglies to teach him some humility if he thought telling a man of Croaker's reputation and skill that he would try to attack him when the boy knew nothing about the older man. If he kept this up, he'd be dead before he finished making it through puberty.

"I've been aware of the magical world for only a few years," Harry said, cocking his head to the side curiously. "I'm in my third year of Hogwarts, which I think is the same number trainees go through training. The odds of beating them are slim to nothing. It'd be interesting to see how long I could last, but I think that's about it."

"You had two terms, and I'm curious. If you're willing to put on a demonstration with a trainee or Auror, then I'm willing to accept both of yours," Amelia stated, causing Harry to quirk an eyebrow.

"After the new year, then?" Harry asked, deciding it would be very worthwhile to see where he now stood after three months of working with his evil twin in the Room of Requirement and his general training. It wasn't likely to make him the equal of an Auror, but it would be curious to see how and where he stood.

"I look forward to it," Amelia stated, actually telling the truth. "Shall we get ready for the meeting? There are a larger number of people here than usual and I'm curious to see if we can approve the audit."

"Do you not have audits under normal circumstances?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes as Croaker seemed to fade into the background, but not actually leave the room. The man had just stepped out of the conversation and Harry could honestly state that he was happy to seemingly ignore the man while maintaining a focus on him in case he tried anything.

"Yes, but they're scheduled and review the official books," Madam Bones said with a frown. "What Augusta was hoping to put forward was an official audit, which means actually going back and looking over receipts and inventory to match everything and look for discrepancies in case anyone made a mistake. It happens, though it should be reviewed every few months by each department. That's how we know where our money is going in the Auror department. So, rather than using departmental accountants, we would have used an actual business for it rather than own people."

"And you don't worry about them being bought off or anything?" Harry asked as the two stopped where they would split up.

"Magical oaths not to fudge the reports," Bones stated, wondering just how crafty the boy in front of her really was. These were some very insightful questions on the topic compared to what she would expect from a kid.

"And the Ministry doesn't do the same for its own people?" Harry asked in shock. "Makes a rather large hole, doesn't it?"

"The official reason is because outside sources could let slip information they find out, which is what the oath is _supposed_ to be for. Outside of that?" She shrugged helplessly. "My department keeps logs of everything to protect from problems. Others, for the most part, don't. So, I don't know what they do and it's bad etiquette to talk about it. I do hope your support can be expected for this?"

"Of course," Harry said. "I didn't realize just how much work it would cause for all the departments, but I do think it should be done at least twice a year in general." At least, that's what he thought his Uncle Vernon said was the case at Grunnings, with one basic audit at the end of every month to ensure goals were met. "If you need help with anything like this, just let me know, along with your reasons for wanting it. Doesn't mean I won't confirm what you tell me or that I may disagree, but if I think it's something that could do good, I'll help."

"Thank you, Lord Potter," Amelia said, nodding her head and finding his childishness in the matter a little refreshing. To say nothing of how direct he was being. It was rare to find that in a politician and she dreaded the day he would lose that and become like everyone else. And he would, of course. It would be necessary if he didn't want to get devoured by the wolves in the others.

_'Why! Why would _anyone_ willingly do this?'_ Harry wondered twenty minutes later. _'Do they talk that slow on purpose? This has _got_ to be where Binns learned his public speaking skills. There is no other explanation. That old guy on the left wearing bunny slippers is sleeping. I'm seeing a pattern, here.'_

Harry wasn't sure where the bunny slippers had come from, since he wasn't sure if the man had a wand or not. He was actually wondering why many of the adults seemed to have wands and his was always taken. It would bear looking in to.

Another twenty minutes later, Harry was scribbling furiously on his enchanted note pads, deciding if nothing else, he would be plotting and planning ahead, with the occasional defeat of his Arch Nemesis in stick-figure format in between thinking sessions. He realized that if Madam Bones ever went to his home and found his purloined items, he could be in serious trouble and was planning on asking Jeffrey, the painting in his Manor that told him a bit about the house, if there was a safe area to put his things.

However, much like roughly a month before, many within the room saw him working with gusto and enthusiasm on paper and, after seeing what he had caused in the previous meeting, were wondering exactly what he was working on and how it would affect them.

They would be a lot less worried if they knew Harry was thinking up his own, personal theme music as his stick-figure self stomped the Dark Lord's danglies.

"As many of you know, the last meeting had only two petitions to pose for today's. The first, put into play by Lord Montgomery, was a proposal to have witches and wizards re-qualify for positions in the Ministry for any department requiring the use of magic to execute the duties their job entails such as Aurors, Obliviators, magic reversal squads and others on the list you see before you," Dumbledore read off, looking a little more tired than usual. Harry couldn't blame the man, though. He felt like being in the room was sucking the life out of him, too. "I now open the floor to Lord Montgomery to make his case, and then to discussion."

Lord Montgomery was a short man with a very thin frame, looking as though he spent most of his time either in a chair or in bed. But what his body lacked in physical stature, it more than made up for in a steady gaze and strong voice. Harry felt he should know the man from something or somewhere, as the dark gray and black of his hair was cropped short and his face left in a short, pointed goatee and mustache. "Ladies and gentlemen, what I am proposing is that those who go out into the field or perform any magic either in public, or in the pursuit of their duties, must take a simple evaluation to ensure that they are fit mentally, magically and even physically if required, for their department. As you know, obliviators have a tendency to go to a public location and either totally erase a mind of what it saw and shouldn't, or throw in a standard memory of drinking in excess to account for lost memories. That is why I propose simple tests and evaluations to ensure our people can perform their duties diligently and without modifying memories in a manner that borders the illegal. Aurors occasionally must go out into the muggle world and several of their reports come back with the added notes stating they had to perform magic to keep attention of the muggles off of themselves. Further, in the case of emergencies, obliviators excuses that in absolutely no way reasonably explain away the situation. Such situations cannot be allowed to continue. That is all," the old man said, taking his seat in a mild struggle not to simply fall into it.

"Our methods have worked for over the last thousand years," a man said from the other side of the room. Harry couldn't remember who he was, but he certainly seemed annoying. "Why should we change them now and simply add more work to an already overworked staff?"

Noises of agreement could be heard scattered about the room before Amelia Bones spoke up. "I pick out five reports each day at random to ensure my men do their jobs. What magic are you suggesting is nearing illegal?" She asked archly, but still remaining respectable.

"It is illegal to use magic on muggles except in the matters of maintaining the Statute of Secrecy," Montgomery stated proudly, defending his position from the most powerful person his case could be said to have hurt directly on a job-efficiency level. "However, many witches and wizards who venture into the muggle world, not only your Aurors Madam Bones, bring attention to themselves with attire wholly unsuited for their culture, which makes them stand out. And when they require doing something simple with magic, or the need to apparate for example, they will confund the muggles watching them, or who notice something out of the ordinary, or simply obliviate them on their own if they see something they shouldn't. It is, in a manner of speaking, entrapment, where _we_ cause a situation they fall into wherein we then use magic on them. Aurors will occasionally have to do this for their duties, and I understand that. But when they stick out and this is required, that is their own failings. To say nothing of the magicals who venture out and simply see no harm in doing this things to make whatever they are doing easier."

"You're referencing the Confundus Thief?" Amelia asked in a manner that was more statement.

"I was not, but that is a perfect example," the old man conceded. "That person confounds muggles to steal their valuables and money and then leaves, causing the muggles to make mistakes in life as the confundus begins to boggle the mind before Ministry Obliviators come and fix them, but then make them believe what was stolen was either a general burglary or the result of some gambling debt."

"Even if we were to implement your plans," another man offered in a more friendly manner, "there is little our Obliviators can do on such short notice. We cannot do anything to replace what was stolen, nor can we repay every muggle who had something taken. Your program, then, would be worthless."

"I wouldn't say worthless," Harry spoke up, making the majority of the room look at him, and not just a few with unfriendly eyes. "At the very least, it would reduce the number of incidents Aurors or Ministry employees create on their own and on the Auror level, it could potentially increase response time if they run. Also, it could ensure that those holding any particular positions maintain the skill set necessary to keep the position."

Looking to everyone, Harry shrugged. "Take myself for example. I don't really know politics very well. I haven't been trained and haven't been taught how to see the various nuances of my decisions in far-reaching ways. That's the sort of thing you get from doing and experience, like all of you. What I _do_ see, however, are ideas, be they good or bad. I saw werewolf registration as a good idea so we would know who was out if someone was attacked and we could narrow things down that way, but I didn't see how they might feel angry about it when you consider the subjugation they have to face on a daily basis. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. I would probably fail any evaluation. But a simple comment last time I was here is causing us to vote for an audit later. While I see that as a good thing with many benefits, it is still something I caused. I even helped stop an increase in taxes, though I also see that as a good thing. It could have been anything, though. It could have been that the tax hike was requested by the goblins and denying it could have sent us to war. I don't know. But, I wouldn't have been here if it wasn't required for those who are members, which wouldn't have simply happened if there were a requirement to ensure I knew what I was doing or had some sort of training. This position is something I'm required to sit, though, since it's a family position rather than ability. I could be dumb as a rock and you'd be forced to have me here since it's law. I probably wouldn't have been here today except I started something the last time and I see through my obligations. So, if we can keep someone from bungling something up somewhere it counts, then that is a _good thing_. Thankfully, I can't screw this up all by myself since all of you are here also. That's why I listen to all sides and see what you people think. I see this as a good thing for those reasons. The only bad I can see from this is that anyone who got a job they shouldn't have would end up removed from it."

"Another down side," the first man stated, "is that it would require additional work, time, money and effort to accomplish and slow the Ministry down, keeping us from being effective. If we had to test everyone, then those we test will not be working. Those doing the testing will require pay and must take the time to determine exactly what they are testing _for_. In the end, we are attempting to fix something that is not broken."

As a few murmurs of agreement spread in the room, Dumbledore decided it was time. "All in favor?" A minute to get the tally. "Opposed?" Another minute. "Motion has been defeated."

Harry watched as Lord Montgomery slumped slightly in his chair and nod slowly as if to himself. A second later, however, he looked up to Harry and nodded once, an apparent sign of thanks and gratitude.

"The next motion was the one put into play by Lady Longbottom proposing an audit of all departments within the Ministry with the final report to be delivered to all Heads. Lady Longbottom, I open the floor to you, and then discussion."

"Thank you, Chief Warlock," the stern woman stated as she rose from her seat. "As many of you know, we proposed a tax hike during the last session when it was stated that we have a lack of funding coffers. This dent in our finances was stated as being caused by the manhunt for Sirius Black by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but was disproved by Lord Potter after stating their funding has been both frozen, and cut. This leaves us with the serious problem of not knowing where our money is at or who caused it to be misappropriated. To that end, a Ministry-wide audit is what I have proposed to find where the leaks would happen to be. That is all," she stated as she sat fluidly into her chair.

"Much like our last proposal, any audit would take time and slow work down to a crawl," the same whiny voice spoke as last time. Harry was beginning to dislike this man. "But even more, a proposal of this magnitude would cost several thousand galleons and the proposal is asking for an outside source with the standard confidentiality oaths. While I respect that motion, it would cost us even more when we are already with low numbers. I simply cannot condone spending additional money to find that which is already lost."

"But it is finding out _where_ the loss is occurring that we need to know," Bones stated loudly and firmly, ensuring she was to be heard. "I account for every knut that goes through my department, even making certain cuts to have enough for added patrols instead of getting new equipment since much of the old still works. However, if I find that someone, somewhere in my department is giving me false reports, I would want to know so I can fix the issue since my department is suffering enough. And I know other departments are being hit badly as well, some even worse than mine. Simply put, we _need_ to know these things."

"The money is lost," the same man spoke. "It would be more efficient to simply save the money we have now, and send out financial reports of our own departments or perhaps even swap our accountants to look into each others' reports in case they are were the leak is at."

"If it _is_ a person," Bones stated louder, beginning to get upset, "then we can try to reclaim much of that money. Or at least as much as possible. We can't find that out without the investigation. If we go from this point without finding out whether it was embezzlement or just stupid book keeping, then it could be whoever caused this or is responsible gets away, free and clear unless we put up departmental reviews later."

"Has anyone anything else to say?" Dumbledore asked, before nodding after ten seconds. "Very well. We shall take the matter to vote. Those in favor?" Pause for votes. "Those opposed?"

Harry was honestly surprised that it was defeated by such a landslide.

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**Saturday – December 18, 09:45 – Hogsmeade Day**

"Ready to go, Hermione?" Harry asked the next morning where the students had that Saturday free to peruse Hogsmeade once again. Ron, finally free of any due homework, was one of the first to leave since he didn't want to risk anyone finding a way to keep him in the castle and it would be the last time to enjoy it before he left the next day with the majority of his family, who was now highly curious as to what he would be getting. Not to mention it seemed as though there would be a bonus surprise as Bill was called from the field by Gringotts and would be home in time for the holiday.

"Yes," Hermione said, getting up from the couch and stretching her arms above her head, smirking as she saw Harry's eyes roam over her form very quickly before looking away. He'd been doing that often since the morning before. Apparently, he hadn't realized how much she had begun growing even this early in life.

Tossing those thoughts aside for now, she turned to Luna who was laying upside down on the couch so her legs were hanging over the back and a Thundercat was curled on her tummy, 'Snarf', Hermione thought, purring away. "I plan on coming back after lunch. Or, if you'd like me to bring you something from the Three Broomsticks, I can bring you something."

"That's fine," Luna said simply, softly petting Snarf who was napping. Apparently, without Dumbledore there, he wasn't needed and someone else was taking up shop in his office for the next few days. "Ginny was hoping to get some help with her Transfiguration essay, so I was planning on helping her with that."

"Is she still having trouble catching up?" Hermione asked.

"No. She was able to get almost fully caught up over the summer, but was saving Charms and Transfiguration until after school started since the rest could be learned easy enough at the Burrow with little casting and Molly was more than talented enough to assist with Potions. She was simply having difficulty getting the end results to be neat. I suspect she is only another month or two from catching up and possibly surpassing many of her classmates."

"That's good," Hermione mumbled. "Well, I'll be back later if either of you need help with anything."

"I'll let her know," Luna said with a smile. It was still surprisingly lonely to not share her time with her friends outside of classes, but since it was only for half a day, it was basically the same as not seeing them from breakfast to lunch anyway.

"You know your dad _did_ give you permission to come with us," Harry offered while Hermione put on her heavy coat and scarf before switching to her hat and mittens.

"I just don't want to upset any other second-years," Luna sighed. "It wouldn't be fair to them."

"Fair enough," Harry responded. "We'll see you soon, Luna."

Harry and Hermione left at a sedate pace, having a little time before the next batch of carriages left for the morning. They were hoping to use the time as an unofficial date and knew it wouldn't be long before Ron joined them. "The Thundercats have been staying in the background lately," Hermione said, making small talk. "Is there any particular reason?"

"Just keeping an eye on things," Harry said. "They still enjoy spending time with Luna, as you saw, but we've been spending so much time together that they've been holding back so they didn't bother us. Other than meal times and playing with firsties, they're doing what I made them for, which is really just keeping an eye on things and reporting anything they see that I need to know about."

"Yea, I've been meaning to thank whichever one warned me about what was happening to Luna," she told him, happy to have protected Luna even at the cost it came with.

"Want to get a private carriage?" Hermione asked with a smirk.

Ten minutes later, the ruffled secret-couple left their conveyance and stretched as they walked into the town proper. Immediately, they noticed something different about the town from their first foray. At every corner and in every alley, and at least two in every building, there were Aurors. Well, not entirely accurate. With every actual Auror in their red uniforms, there was an orange-clad trainee, some of which looked near-ready to pee themselves in excitement over the prospect of some semi-serious field work and the potential to bag _the_ most notorious criminal in the last decade.

Who was in animal form, playing catch with a few of them.

Apparently, friendly dogs got fed scraps.

Seeing a shock of bubblegum pink hair a building down next to an Auror Harry knew as a moderately decent woman he had interacted with in another life, Harry led Hermione over to the girl who was taking things more seriously than some of her other trainee brethren. "Wotcher, Tonks. What are the Aurors and trainees doing here?" The eyes of the Auror assigned to Nymphadora Tonks bulged as soon as she saw who had approached her trainee for the day. Elizabeth Green was one of those women who didn't give a rat's arse about a person's fame or wealth, but she could at least be surprised by a celebrity on occasion.

"Security detail Director Bones started planning about a month ago," the young woman said curiously. "How do you know who I am?"

"You wound me!" Harry exaggerated, clutching his hands to his chest in mock shock, causing Hermione to smirk and Tonks to raise an eyebrow. "Here we are, cousins and friendly and you don't even know me! The world is so cruel!"

"Snarky bugger, I'll give you that," the trainee said with a grin. "So we're cousins? That doesn't explain how you know me."

"Research," Harry said with a shrug. "Grandmother was a Black who married into the Potter family. I was curious to see if I had any family left, so I did some sniffing about. Stopped looking pretty quick since most of my closest relations seem to be right foul gits, present company and mother excluded, of course." Harry wrapped an arm around Hermione who had been watching with a critical eye, wondering how Harry _really_ knew the girl, and indicated her with his other hand. "This lovely lady is Hermione Granger. Best friend, powerful witch and brightest thing to grace Hogwarts' halls probably in its history."

"Hello," Hermione said through a blush, shaking the older women's hands.

"Huh. Well, this is Senior Auror Elizabeth Green. She's my minder for the day," the trainee said, letting the older woman shake Harry's hand. "Anyway, Director Bones wanted us out here to be sure there weren't any nasty surprises since so many kids will be here on the weekend and with Black having been sighted in the castle already. I guess she figured it would be a simple exercise for my training class and gave us an idea of what we would do in the future with security details. Just pretend we're not even here and carry on as normal."

"Well, before you guys leave, have everyone stop by the Three Broomsticks. I'll pay in advance to feed you guys in thanks. And if you guys see a Patronus running around, that'll just be mine. I always send him out to keep the dementors away from the students so there aren't any ... accidents," he explained through a mild frown.

"You can cast a Patronus?" Green asked, astounded. Every Auror capable of doing so had been selected for this detail for much the same reason, and most of them were barely capable of it.

In response, Harry drew his wand and flicked it, casting silently and causing the radiant stag to burst forth, looking even more solid than when he did a school-wide demonstration since he was using his and Hermione's first ... well, kiss-slash-snogging session as the memory. "Patrol the town and blast out if needed," he told it, getting a deep bow in response as the creature galloped off.

"Bloody hell," the two older women breathed out.

"Well, see you two later," Harry said, dropping his arm from Hermione's shoulders and walking towards the Three Broomsticks. Seeing the same dog from before, Harry whistled, getting its attention. "C'mere Scruffy! Time to eat!"

The dog bound forward, trying to knock Harry down with a pounce only to growl lightly as he was caught and levitated in the air by the bushy-haired girl at his side. "The last thing I want is a soaking meal partner," she stated archly.

"Does he look a little dirty to you, Hermione?" Harry asked, grinning wickedly. The dog whimpered and shoved his tail between his legs, trying to make its eyes larger and look pathetic. He even managed to bring his forepaws up in a begging motion.

"Not really," Hermione said, wondering what kind of dog this was that seemed to understand them so well, along with why Harry seemed to enjoy teasing it. Still, curiousity never kept her from trying an experiment. Keeping an eye on the dog, but focusing more on Harry's reaction, she put a hand to her chin. "Though, if you're seriously thinking of keeping this thing since you seem to be getting attached, I should remind you that you should really neuter your pets."

The dog went unnaturally still even as it squeaked when it tried to draw in a quick gasp. _'That thing _definitely_ understands English,_' she thought. _'I didn't know a dog's eyes could widen like that.'_

Harry burst out laughing before deciding he'd save his godfather from the near catatonic state he was in. "Nah. He's a pretty good dog. And I've seen a dog after that," he shuddered. "My aunt Marge would do that and the dog was never the same."

"I'm sure you're just imagining it, Harry," she sniffed. "Anyway, are we eating breakfast?"

"I'm not really all that hungry right now, but want to go ahead and see if Madam Rosemerta is willing to feed the Aurors tonight and I'd like to get another cask of butterbeer. I was thinking a big lunch and, while the rush is there, we can hit some of the shops while they're moderately empty."

"Hm. Why don't you do that and feed Scruffy while I do some Christmas shopping? Meet you in the curio shop in half an hour?" Hermione suggested, needing some time away from Harry to buy him a Christmas gift. Well, to be more precise, to buy the things so she and Luna could make a gift since the quirky blonde had made the request almost three weeks ago, offering to front about half of what was to be expected. Since she couldn't realistically go out and buy anything, she had made Hermione a proposal that the brunette found intriguing.

"Sounds like a plan," Harry agreed. "Do you want me to find Ron and then find you or do you expect to find him first?"

"Whatever," Hermione shrugged. "See you soon." With that, she took off at a good clip, making straight for the sweets to buy for Ron in case she _did_ come across him.

Harry chuckled and leaned down to the dog he knew to be his godfather. "Don't let that innocent face fool you. She can be downright vicious if she thinks you're doing something stupid." The dog wuffed in amusement. "Come on. Let's get you fed, watered and possibly in place to steal Neville's butterbeer again." The dog's wuff was decidedly more pronounced this time.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 18, 07:20 – Morning with Express Leaving for London**

"And you're sure it'll be at the Burrow?" Ron asked for the sixth time the next morning, putting several sausages stuffed within bread into a satchel for the train ride home before filling his plate.

"Of _course_, Ron," Harry responded again, annoyed. "Who all is going home, anyway?" He wondered aloud.

"I think almost everyone," Hermione mumbled. "I know everyone from my dorm is, along with all the lower-year girls. I think Katie will still be here, along with two of the seventh-year girls."

"We're all heading home, even Percy," Ron said after swallowing when Hermione glared at him. "He was going to stick around, but Mum set him straight. She's really happy everyone but Charlie will be home this year."

"Eh, I guess we'll see during lunch and dinner tonight," Harry shrugged, eating some oats that he put fresh fruit into and drank a fruit smash that Luna talked him into trying. It was surprisingly good. Like a smoothy, only chunky. Plus, it was blue. Somehow, that seemed to enhance it.

Several minutes later, the bells began ringing, signaling it was time for students to head to the carriages for the train ride home. Ron let out a burp, remembering to cover his mouth and excuse himself. "Well, I reckon it's time to go," he said, getting up. "And you're sure-"

"_Yes_, Ron!" Harry said, deciding to laugh about the whole thing rather than get annoyed. "Now hurry up."

"What do you think _they're_ talkin' about?" Ron asked after a second, seeing Draco and Snape talking animatedly outside where the blond boy was taking the train home.

"I don't really know," Harry said, wondering just what Draco would do once he learned there wasn't anything in his home any longer other than the basic furniture.

"Well, I'm kind of hoping he tries something on the train, y'know? He always does, and it'll be fun to put the pillock in his place," Ron grinned widely.

"You'll do nothing of the sort!" Hermione scolded. "You can and _will_ still get into trouble for it! You know he'll let Professor Snape know as soon as you try something."

Harry moved away a bit as the two started arguing to slink up to the twins. "Hey, Diabolic Duo. I was hoping to make a request of you two," he said quietly, gathering their attention.

"Of course, good man!"

"We'd be delighted!"

"How can we help?"

"Try not to do anything against Ron on the way home and maybe sit with him and Ginny? Draco's probably going to be up to something and there's no telling what he may try, yea?" Harry asked.

"We always look after our family," the first twin said, looking affronted.

"Why would you think otherwise?" The next continued.

"Well, unless you're talking about pranks." The first looked to the other with an expression of concession, shrugging his shoulders.

"Too true, brother. Too true." Unsaid, of course, was that they were still working on a prank of epic proportions against Harry for the slights they thought he had pulled against them.

"Like you looked after Ginny last year?" Harry asked, making both twins go somber.

"Low blow, Potter." The second twin said, shaking his head.

"Low blow," the other agreed. "We didn't watch her constantly-"

"-But we did let her know we were always available if she needed us."

"That's right. All she had to do was say something and we'd have helped in any way we could."

"Look, I'm just saying," Harry consoled. "I know you couldn't have been expected to notice something like what had happened, but what I'm trying to say is we don't actually know how bad it really had been or what she was forced to do other than the obvious. And I don't know about you, but she's never approached me to talk about it."

The twins looked at one another, nodding solemnly. "We think we understand, honorary brother. We'll see to it."

"Thanks guys," Harry grinned warmly. It was nice to know he could still see the Weasleys, by and large, as family.

"You said nothing but the truth, my good man!" The first twin said again, not quite coming across as jovial and still somber.

"See you after the holidays," the second said, quickly charming Harry's hair to glow and leave a pink trail in its wake.

While Hermione was arguing with Ron and Harry was with the twins, Luna was hunkered down with four different Thundercats who had been taking table scraps and were now listening diligently.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 18, 21:50 – Hermione's dorm**

Later that night, Hermione and Luna were alone in Hermione's dorm room. Since she was the only Gryffindor third year, and one of only four girls left in the Tower, they didn't have to hide Luna nearly as efficiently as before and she was even allowed her own bed. Both girls sort of missed the comfort the other provided, but could also admit they should sleep separately while they could since they never knew how often they would get the chance.

Well, at least Luna didn't. Hermione could always count on Luna's willingness to share Harry's bed if either of them wanted her to.

Harry had offered his dorm for them as well, but neither girl was fond of the idea of sleeping in a boy's bed if it wasn't Harry's, which was just too small to fit comfortably. Ron was a bit of a slob and had food and jelly stains on his sheets, they heard rumors of Dean and Seamus' promiscuity and magazine collections to not really want to so much as touch their sheets, much less sleep in the beds, and while Neville was a decent boy who seemed clean and hygienic enough, it still seemed _wrong_ somehow. Hermione felt that to a vast degree more than Luna did, but Luna didn't care to do so any more than Hermione if Harry was willing to snuggle.

"You've been looking at me like that all day," Luna said, currently brushing her hair on what she counted out as the hundred and thirty-second stroke before simply stopping and looking to Hermione. "Is everything okay?"

"I was kind of hoping you would be willing to have a potentially awkward conversation with me," Hermione said, feeling a little silly.

"I don't really see any reason why not to," Luna said simply. "Many people say I'm awkward, and I don't mind being me. I don't see why a conversation should be much different. Is it something you think I won't want to talk about? The best way would perhaps be to simply talk. You don't think I'll be upset with you, do you?"

"No. Not if you promise to talk with me," Hermione stated. "We talk, and there are no lies or secrets and we both promise to tell each other everything, then I think we'll be fine. There are a couple things I'm not allowed to bring up, but nothing really directly related to what we need to talk about. It's partly about what had been upsetting Harry and the future."

Luna's brow knit in slight confusion, wondering at why Hermione felt the need to make such a stipulation. But, her need to know and her fear won out, and she agreed. "I promise," she said quietly.

Hermione nodded slowly, looking from Crookshanks at the foot of her bed to Luna, situating herself so they could talk together and look at each other while doing so. "Harry and I are thinking about dating," she said, watching Luna's face go through a myriad of emotions, almost all of which were positive and happy except for a brief pang of hurt at the beginning that Hermione had been looking for.

"That's great!" Luna said happily. "When do you think you'll get together?"

"That's part of the thing I've been thinking about," Hermione said. "It's a little more complicated than simply making the decision and then dating. Do you remember our talk about what we wanted in partners a while ago?"

"Yes," Luna said with a nod, wondering if Hermione _honestly _thought that Harry wasn't what she would want. "We all discussed what we thought would be good for partners and I even called you two then."

Hermione smiled a little, despite her nervousness. "And you remember Harry being unsure of how to tell if one person was better than another?"

"Yes," Luna said a little slower, wondering at where this was going. Harry couldn't possibly be worried that someone may be better for him than Hermione, could he?

"Luna, I love Harry," Hermione continued, trying to explain while consciously trying to ensure she didn't subconsciously alienate the other girl. "I know it. I would do anything for him, no matter what it was."

"Well of course you would," Luna said, blinking owlishly.

"Would _you_?" Hermione asked, causing Luna's eyes to widen slightly in alarm.

"Hermione, I admit I would do anything for Harry, or for you, but you don't have to worry. I don't have any intentions of trying to keep the two of you apart. I've been hoping the two of you would get together," Luna said, hoping Hermione didn't think she was a threat to her relationship. That was one of her biggest concerns and she didn't really want to be a possible wedge between them. If she did, then she would end up losing one of them, she was sure, or possibly even both, and Luna would do anything to keep her new friends.

"I don't think you would try," Hermione said, smiling lightly at Luna to make sure the younger girl knew Hermione wasn't condemning or accusing her. "But, what I'm trying to find out is if you would ... want to _share_ Harry."

Luna was actually shocked for a brief moment. "What?"

"I can't really explain how I know," Hermione said, making a point not to frown at her lack of ability to do so. She didn't want Luna to get the wrong idea from it. "But, I am sure of a few facts. One, I love Harry. Two, you love him, as well, or at least it can and probably _will _grow into that.Three, he at _least_ fancies us both and doesn't want either of us hurt, but has no way of understanding how to handle it."

"How ...," Luna began delicately, feeling very nervous and wondering what Hermione was thinking of. "How do you get us sharing him out of this? Why are you even considering it? You've never hinted at this being something you would entertain, much less approve of. And even if I _do _fancy him, I'm not going to pursue him or attempt to break the two of you up."

Hermione blushed, but decided this had to be explained without withholding anything, for Harry's sake. And for her own if she were honest. She knew Harry. He was simply too bloody noble to date one at the expense of the other. He even said as much. She got him to agree to dating her because she promised to help him solve this. And Hermione had every intention of being greedy this once and would not let him go. Especially after that incredible, if short, snogging session! And after that second one? He would have to be pried from her cold, dead fingers, before she gave him up. "Like I said. I would do anything for Harry. I want to be with him, no matter what. He has the right, and some would say obligation, to have a second wife because of the number of families he is in control over. And to be honest, you're the only other possible girl I think he would consider. But, there is more to it than that."

"Is this why you kissed me that night?" Luna wondered, tilting her head to the side.

"I needed to know if I could possibly look to this as a truly three-way relationship," Hermione admitted with a pale blush. "It would make the situation a little easier to accept, even if it would be a little harder publicly. While I wasn't repulsed, and found it an okay experience, I wasn't really ... _into_ it, if that makes sense."

"It does," Luna said with a nod. "I found it enjoyable, myself. But I wouldn't pursue it to the exclusion of boys and it wasn't a _bad_ experience. You were rather tense, though, and seemed a little scared."

Hermione nodded, feeling a little small and vulnerable. "In a way, I asked myself how it would be different compared to how we are now. We spend nearly all our time together, we hug, you already sleep in our beds, we kiss each other occasionally on cheeks or foreheads and the like. Hell, we've even already seen you naked. In a way, all it changes is that those kisses are going to _mean_ more and in the future there'll ... er, be more to the relationship in private," the bushy-haired one said with a dark blush, thinking of what she and Harry had done a week ago and her body still craved and how she hoped there would be a lot of that later. Or _more_. Even now, she planned to Shanghai him and turn time for a little private time now that she had spoken with Luna. She had made a point of not doing anything like they did when they admitted their feelings for one another, at least on purpose. Now, there were no such restrictions. She was going to snog him until he couldn't remember his own name. And if it meant she forgot her own in the process? Bonus.

Luna, oddly, didn't blush, but merely nodded. "But why would you accept this? Why would you accept another woman in Harry's bed for more than merely sleeping? Or even another girl in his life that would be equal to you in his heart?"

Hermione wasn't sure how much she could, or even _should_ tell Luna. What was really covered under the 'tell no one else' policy Harry had been told? He had read the contract, thankfully, but he couldn't tell anyone but his soul mate. While the contract stipulated that term, Lora had specified Hermione herself and said they just had to learn to keep his secrets with his brand of occlumency. Hermione was fairly sure that was because most people didn't have to deal with multiple soul mates, but the facts remained true. And there was no telling what kind of wrath she could bring upon them for telling too much. Finally, she settled on a simple compromise.

"Luna, if you knew that at least offering this was the right thing to do, would you still do it?" Hermione asked. "The choice is yours, whether you take it or not. I'll admit, a part of me hopes you don't but ...," she trailed off a moment before speaking a little quieter. "A part of me, the larger part, also kind of hopes you do."

"Why?" Luna asked, looking carefully at Hermione. "Harry doesn't _have_ to take an additional wife or even a mistress. He has the power no one could force him into it unless every single person tried to push for it. Is it ... something more personal?" Luna asked gently. "Is it because of how often we've slept together?"

"I'm not ... interested in you like that," Hermione rushed to admit, though doing her best not to sound offensive still. "I just ... I like you. You're a really great friend. And ... I've noticed that you've been able to help Harry in ways I haven't. You can see things I can't sometimes and you can sometimes help make him open up instead of clamming up."

"Yes, I'm not very fond of shellfish," Luna said with a faint frown. "But ... That still doesn't really explain why you are okay with this. The 'right thing' is entirely based upon perception, just as our entire reality. Why are you wanting to offer me this? Aren't you worried that Harry may grow more attached to one of us?"

Hermione looked down, but her head was shaking slowly. "No," she whispered, "I don't. I think he can love us both and that we work better together than alone. I've tried to get him to open up and speak about his past, but he wouldn't. And with the two of us, he did, at least far more than he would have otherwise. But, I realized it was the right then when I considered our conversation after I woke up in the hospital wing."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked in a tone of slight fear. That entire time was something that put her on edge. Just remembering Hermione's screams made her want to go and finish the job with those three girls that _dared_ attack Hermione sometimes.

"You put them into the hospital because I got hurt," Hermione said quietly, remembering how poignant her emotions towards Luna were that day as they did their homework. "Cho, Marietta and Mandy ... You literally broke their minds for ... _me_. That day I saw something in you that I recognized in myself and I realized just how ... important you have become to Harry and I."

"Important?" Luna asked, trying to figure out what Hermione meant.

"I don't know how to explain it more than that," Hermione said with a sigh, knowing this realization and these feelings she had for Luna had nothing to do with lessons about soul mates or even romance. It was all about their actual friendship. One that she never would have even bothered to try and see if Harry hadn't defended the girl originally, causing Hermione to realize she was jealous. "You are an incredible friend. I realized how much you mean to us and how much we mean to you. I decided that, if nothing else, we all deserve to see if this can work out, and you have the right to make the decision."

"I'm not sure what to say," Luna admitted.

"Then answer a couple of questions," Hermione said, looking at Luna critically, but warmly.

"Ask," the blonde said quietly.

"Do you love him?"

"I do," Luna confirmed after a few moments. "I know I've only known him for a few months, but how long does it really take to know how incredible a man is? To know how decidedly good he is? That he is worthy of that love?"

"Preaching to the choir," Hermione said with a soft smile. "I'm not doubting your ability or validity. I just want to know if you knew or not. Or if it was still too early. People meet and just know they are meant to be together all the time in the muggle world. It may not always work out, but many times, it does. And we have several things working for us in that regard, but that's neither here nor there." Hermione took a deep breath. "Would you be willing to share him?"

"I was willing to give him up," Luna said simply. "I would happily share him with you if you're serious."

"I am," Hermione said. "It will take a lot of work, though. We have to be open about everything. We can't keep secrets, we can't countermand each other and we would have to put up with a lot of controversy about the relationship. Do you understand that?"

"I do, though I don't think it will be quite as bad as you fear save for Harry's high-profile status," Luna said. "But if I feel that there is any risk to yours and Harry's relationship because of me, I will back off. I won't allow myself to break the two of you up and I can _not_ lose your friendship. I can't go back to that. Does this mean that _we_ are together, too?" She asked, looking at Hermione curiously. She knew she already said she wasn't really interested in girls or Hermione, but if that was how to make this work better, she would happily and gladly please _both_ of her partners.

Hermione blushed, her eyes darting to and from Luna as she shifted nervously. "I'm ... not saying it's out of the question," she squeaked. "It would probably be a good idea to keep it in mind or speak up about it if we ever feel strongly about it either way. But for now at least, I think ... being friends and sharing Harry is enough." Hermione cleared her throat, deciding to avoid thoughts of the lesbian kind for now. "Now ... Do you _want_ to share him? With me?"

"Yes," Luna said with a bright smile. "I want to share everything I have and everything good in my life with both of you! That includes each other. And I apologize, but I'm not sorry."

"For what?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"For making you uncomfortable," Luna said before launching herself forward to give Hermione one hell of a kiss that left the bushy-haired one dazed. Luna had _definitely_ taken what she wanted from Hermione this time.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – December 19, 07:40 – Harry's dorm**

Harry awoke slowly from his slumber. He felt a pleasant warmth permeating over his body and something pleasant filled the air. He was on his back and his arms were wrapped around two very warm, very soft bodies that were snuggled into his side. A quick check showed his drapes had been closed and sticking charms used to ensure neither of the girls fell off the bed.

_'Check one: I don't feel a hangover and can't remember drinking last night, plus the twins left in the morning, so I wasn't likely slipped something. Check two: I _did_ go to bed alone, but now there are three of us. Check three: blonde and brunette – Thank God! Check four: clothes. Better than the alternative. What the hell happened?'_ Harry looked down to his chest to look at both girls' faces. Luna was drooling slightly onto his chest, but there were no other signs of leakage, so he could assume nothing had happened to encourage crying since there also weren't any puffy cheeks.

Mindlessly, Harry began to stroke their hair as it was something he had learned to do for Hermione during the hunt for Horcruxes and it had always calmed Luna when she was upset. Plus, it was calming for him. Regardless, both girls shifted slightly in their sleep to better feel the stroking digits.

_'Twinkle isn't here, so there isn't anything to report. Crookshanks is sprawled out on my trunk and looking a little too comfortable, so I don't think anything caused problems or Crooks, at least, would be watching the door like a hawk. I didn't wake up when they showed up, or I don't remember it, so I don't think there was anything to worry about.'_

Silently, Harry frowned, looking about the room. _'I need to pee.'_

With one girl, it wasn't so hard to shift out from under them. With two and basically being locked in via stuck curtains, however, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to do it. Both girls were sleeping soundly and he could admit to finding the situation very comfortable. But not enough to offset the need to relieve himself. Much like a few months ago, Harry's leg began to shake to help ease the stress.

"Mmph! Harry, stop that," Hermione slurred, using her right hand to smack Harry in the stomach and causing him to tear up as that made his situation worse.

"Sorry," he whispered, deciding to just get up and go, leaving both girls blinking in shock at the rude awakening as he wandlessly overpowered the sticking charms to escape.

"What just happened?" Hermione wondered, yawning. Then she heard Harry and blushed, vaguely realizing what she just did. "Oops!" She whispered.

A few moments later, Harry returned to the room looking much more at peace and gazed at both girls curiously. "Not that it wasn't a pleasant experience, but I thought you both didn't want to sleep in here last night."

"Do you remember that project I told you I would work on for you?" Hermione asked before both her and Luna sat on the edge of the bed while Harry sat on Neville's which was next to his own.

Harry knew immediately what project she was referring to. "Yea," he agreed, nervously looking at Luna.

"Well, I've come up with a simple solution."

"Really? What?" Harry asked, relieved beyond all measure.

In response, Hermione stood and kissed him solidly on the lips. "Good morning, boyfriend."

"Huh?" Harry wondered, feeling very lost.

Then Luna leaned in and kissed him on the lips, blushing while doing so. "Good morning, boyfriend. If you'll have me, that is."

Harry's first thought was to ask Hermione what kind of joke she was playing at before he realized who he would be talking to. But that still left him totally confused. "I'm lost," he told his girlfriend. First girlfriend?

"Harry, you're head of more than one family. That allows you to have one wife for each," Hermione told him gently.

"I think I remember something about that," he said, making Hermione narrow her eyes. It seemed he had the answer to the problem the entire time! "When I got emancipated, it said I'd need a wife for each vote or something. But, having more than one wife is wrong, right?"

_'Ah. That was it,'_ she considered, her glare softening to understanding. "Even as just Lord Potter, you are allowed one wife and one mistress if you want. It's about how family names and lines are important in the magical world. I was able to confirm these things with Daphne and some sleuthing. But, since you have several family lines, you can have a wife and mistress for each one if you wanted. But, I talked with Luna and we're both willing to ... er, _share_ you if you think you want to try it."

Harry was silent for a moment, looking at both girls back and forth. "Is this some sort of boyfriend test?" He wondered. "You've _never_ seemed inclined to want or be a part of something like this. I'd think you would be totally against it on sheer principle."

"I admit I find the laws antiquated and sexist, but I don't see a problem with it if those within the relationship are fine with it," Hermione explained. "I was brought up being taught that love was love, regardless of the situation because my parents wanted me to always have an open mind. It's one of the reasons we holiday in France where clothes are usually optional and they've always been open about nudity and sex. My parents used to be in a relationship like this. My mother had a girlfriend in college and, after she met Dad, they sort of become a three-way relationship, though not under the same circumstances, of course. But, the second woman, who is still friends with them, chose to back off rather than stay with them when they began talking marriage. She didn't really want to marry, and legally, it's still not legal there, but it _is_ legal here."

"While not common, it isn't _uncommon_, either," Luna offered quietly, feeling very vulnerable. Harry wasn't immediately against the idea, but he didn't jump at it, either, like she had kind of hoped he would. "At least as far as mistresses go. The laws for multiple wives are older and harder to meet all requirements. It's pure coincidence that you do for five different lines. I'm not sure if anyone else has ever done so before."

"So I have to get a wife for each family name?" Harry asked, looking terrified and making both girls smile without any real malice.

"No. You can have only one if you want, or up to ten girls total if you really wanted to-"

"-Which I never would," Harry interrupted. "I really care for you, Hermione. I want to be with you always. And, yes, I feel something for Luna as well but, are you sure?" He wondered. "I mean, this seems really weird. Are _you_ even interested for real, Luna? Are you actually okay with the idea of being one of two girls in a relationship?" He asked.

"I've grown up understanding these customs," she said with a shrug. "As a girl, I knew I would either have to lose the Lovegood name or become someone's mistress to keep it if I couldn't find a husband willing to give up his own name. The Lovegood name, while pureblood, isn't really very prominent and we don't have much other than some land and a newspaper. So, letting the name die out isn't a terrible loss, regardless of what happens. Like I said, this is common enough dealing with mistresses at least that I expected something like this for some time for myself. The difference is that this is my choice and I'm happy if you are. Daddy would never have forced me into anything and would have been happy if I married for love, but I always knew it was a possibility."

Luna squirmed uncomfortably and looked to Hermione who was smiling encouragingly. "Do ... Do you not want me?" She asked him quietly.

"That's just it, I _do_," Harry said, looking pleadingly at Hermione. "But I've been raised to believe more than one girl in a relationship is wrong and I always thought you had one partner so you could devote everything to them. I _want_ this, but at the same time, I feel like I'm doing something wrong for feeling that way. I feel like I'd be cheating on Hermione."

It was true, too. He _did_ want both girls in his life. He had felt comfortable accepting Hermione as his girlfriend because he thought she would figure out something safe to protect Luna and keep her happy. He trusted in that. And, while it seems she came through, he felt _absolutely wretched_ for even considering this in the slightest.

"Hermione," he began, swallowing thickly. "You're actually okay with this? I mean-"

"I know what you mean, Harry," Hermione said softly, going over to sit right next to him and envelop him in a hug. "Do you want to know why I decided this was worth trying?"

He simply shook his head.

"I realized very little would actually change about the three of us," she said simply. "We spend many nights together, at least me and Luna which would have been the hardest part of that arrangement to accept. We hug, kiss occasionally," she kissed his cheek, then his forehead and then his jaw to show what she meant in action and to comfort him by it. "We also spend most of our time together and we're already important to each other. Plus, when you take into account the rest, it just sort of shows that, in a way, we're already together, just without the more physical aspects of the relationship. Don't you think?"

Harry was silent as he thought about it before giving it his grudging agreement. "But the other stuff is important too, isn't it?" He wondered. "I mean, I know there's a lot more to consider, but just simply kissing in a way that isn't platonic ... wouldn't that upset either of you if it was with the other?" He wondered.

In response, Hermione leaned forward and mashed her lips to Harry's, pushing back so he fell back onto the bed and then twenty seconds later, she pulled back slightly, pulling his bottom lip back with her own. "Did that make you jealous, Luna?" She asked, slightly out of breath and blushing lightly as she realized the front of Harry's pajama pants was straining and she enjoyed seeing the look of surprise on Luna's face. Well, more surprise than it normally looked like, anyway.

"Only that I wasn't a part of it," Luna said with wider eyes than normal.

"Then your turn, and we'll see how I feel." Hermione got up and moved diagonal a little so she could watch Luna lay herself down on a surprised Harry before the blonde grinned and did something she had been wanting to do for a while now.

Luna kissed him thoroughly, doing her best to let him know how she felt in case he declined her and didn't allow this again. She put her left hand at his waist and slightly under his shirt and lifted her leg slightly so it rubbed his thigh, hoping to memorize every sensation she could. After about ten seconds, she pulled back and kissed him again, then again before finally pulling back with eyes that were hazier than normal. She felt a little proud of herself as Harry didn't seem to focus on anything for several seconds.

"Ahem," Hermione cleared her throat, gathering Harry and Luna's attention even as she tried to hide the fact that she realized she ... sort of enjoyed watching. "Jealousy wasn't a part of what I felt there, no," she told Harry, a faint blush on her cheeks from shock at her own arousal. _'God that was hot...'_

"I ... think I need a cold shower," Harry said, blushing furiously as he saw both girls looking at him.

"I have a better idea," Hermione stated authoritatively as she laid down on the bed beside him, opposite of Luna. "Harry, I really and truly am willing to give this whole thing a go if you are. This isn't a trick and I'm not going to feel bad if you want to bring Luna into this. I'm actually hoping you will. I made the offer to her freely in case she didn't want to try. She does, and I know you do. So, like we agreed to before, let's be selfish. If you think you can love us both, then understand you have two women who are willing to be with you. I know this is outside of your comfort zone, but I would like you to try this for you and for the two of us. Can you do that?" She asked, trying to show him how sincere she was.

"It's still going to be a little awkward for now, but I ... I think I can," Harry agreed.

"Good," Hermione said, leaning in and kissing him again for only a moment that time. "I know this will take some getting used to, but we have two weeks with almost no one else in this school. Christmas isn't for a week yet, too. So, we have plenty of time to find a comfortable place for all of us before we have to see about handling how others will take this. That's why we decided to let you know now rather than on Christmas, which we were considering."

"That's probably a good idea," Harry mumbled, looking sheepish.

"Now, do you know if you can explain '_everything_'," she asked, emphasizing carefully.

Harry nodded, looking between both girls in a strange sense of wonderment at the situation he was in. Somehow, he never thought something like _this_ would happen to him. "Yea. I think so. And you said something about a better idea than a freakishly cold shower?" He asked.

"I was thinking we could relax in the hot tub while we explained the history-"

"A hot tub reveal?" Harry asked in amusement, trying to offset the awkward feelings before he realized it was just doing the opposite.

"Very funny, Potter," Hermione rolled her eyes at his juvenile behavior. "What I mean is we can take time to relax and explain everything, and I was hoping to be with you to see if I get any new information. Then, I was thinking," she shrugged, embarrassed for a reason she didn't quite understand, "you could spend some time with Luna to discuss your relationship since it's fairly new."

Luna was confused about what they would have to be telling her, but considering they were about to tell her anyway, she didn't pay it much mind. Still, she felt rather curious about the dynamics between the other two. It was sort of interesting just how much Harry seemed to trust Hermione. Especially when dealing with something that seemed to come from out of nowhere and was obviously outside of his comfort zone.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – December 19, Late morning**

Draco Malfoy was aggravated. His parents weren't at the station to pick him up, which he couldn't quite blame them for considering the large number of Aurors who were trying and failing to appear inconspicuous in hopes of catching either of the elder Malfoys.

He had simply given each a superior smirk whenever they would look at him.

However, without anyone there to pick him up, he found he had to make his own way home. Luckily, he was no stranger to the Knight Bus. A quick trip to the Leaky Cauldron, complete with Aurors boarding with him and having already been there when he arrived, the boy paid the pittance the barman charged and floo'd to his home.

To be honest, he hadn't believed the reports in the Daily Prophet about anything being taken from his home or, considering his father's power and influence, he had hidden anything necessary away since they knew of the secret cache under the floor. What he found when he arrived was a manor divested of every scroll and book, jewelry, painting, rug and precious metal. He wasn't even able to filch some of his father's booze because it had been taken as well!

Even the house elves refused to answer his call.

The boy had gone to bed angry and hungry. When he woke up the next morning, he had a very unfamiliar experience as his stomach growled, alerting him to its needy state. However, he didn't want people to know that he was out of the loop of his parents' activities, or even that they may very well have abandoned him as he was beginning to suspect since he had yet to receive even one letter from the daily ones he had been sending out for more than a month.

Deciding to put on a front, Draco left for the Leaky Cauldron via floo and then went straight to Gringotts.

"Goblin! Yes you! I require nine hundred galleons from my trust fund," the blond sneered. "And make it quick." He showed his key to the scowling creature and snatched it back as soon as it was offered. He was hungry, but didn't want people to see how desperate he was for food and planned to simulate a little shopping before having a large lunch.

"Your nine hundred galleons," the teller growled, handing over a small sack. "As you did not provide one, we charged five knuts for the sack. If your business is completed, you may leave, human."

Sniffing disdainfully, Draco turned and walked from the bank, deciding petulantly that, since his parents weren't telling him anything or even sending someone for him, he would simply buy himself Christmas gifts this year, which would also allow him to show them off later if he didn't get any others.

The Malfoy heir got himself a cane much like his father's, along with a shiny new trunk in black and silver with his name embossed in gold. However, worried about his situation and showing a unique foresight that was not common with him, he chose to get one that had three rooms inside that were very large, just in case his parents were in trouble and he needed to save them or a place for them to hide out in. It was expensive, but he made sure it would have a basic sitting area with the two bedrooms.

Draco originally planned to head to the Leaky Cauldron, but he knew the Aurors there would be waiting and watching. They would surely wonder what he got and where it was going. _'Better yet. Father has associates at Belinda's. They know him there. And I can prove I'm more of a man than Potter thinks. I don't require Father's help with everything!'_ He was also hoping it could ease the weight in his stomach ever since wearing that ridiculous collar that took the combined efforts of Snape, Flitwick and Dumbledore to remove and disenchant, along with the other devices.

Feeling far more sure of himself than he should, Draco headed down Knockturn Alley and shrunk his trunk to be put into his pocket. He enjoyed the looks of fear he saw on several of the denizens' faces, believing it to be based on who he was rather than the fear that Lucius was somewhere in the shadows, watching out for his only son.

That fear was the only thing keeping the hags from snatching him up and taking him away to feast on him.

Without care of who was on the other side, Malfoy shoved the door to the brothel opened and strode to the Madame at the bar. She was the one everyone was showing respect to and was the only woman dressed fully rather than half-naked or with a rough hand groping something soft and she was drinking tea, compared to the stronger beverages around the room. She was happily sucking on a pipe and paying close attention to the activities around her, some of which were carnal, but offering enough coin to allow it, and others where men were close to crushing one another with a bottle or throwing a curse. Ignoring her raised eyebrow, he simply spoke as soon as he was close enough. "I would have a room, a woman and a meal," he demanded, scowling as the men and women around him either chuckled or laughed outright.

"A little young, aren't you, laddie?" Belinda asked. "Are you sure you'd even know what to do?"

"I know perfectly, thank you," Draco sneered. "My gold is good and that's all that really matters, is it not?"

Belinda snorted, taking a long drag on her pipe. "What kind of girl are you looking for?"

"Young and knows her place," Draco snorted, thinking it was obvious.

Belinda gave the Malfoy heir a once-over, knowing his type at a glance and deciding to choose a good switch. "Robin, send for Liz," the woman told the girl behind the counter before turning back to Draco who looked impatient. "Liz is one our better subs. She'll do as she's told. But understand the rules, boy. You will_ not_ hurt my girls. You can be rough, and you can do anything you pay for, but if she says 'no', then you'll be accepting that or the Aurors will be finding you in pieces, assuming you get found at all. Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes," Draco sneered again, making Belinda narrow her eyes at the extreme lack of respect. "Your whores will only do what they're paid for. I get it. As long as she knows her place, we won't have any problems."

At that moment, an older woman brought in a girl that looked to just barely into her seventeenth year with dark brown eyes, long auburn hair in a ponytail and with a very petite body that was wrapped in a transparent robe that ended just below her bottom and had nothing underneath, showing every aspect of her body to a potential buyer.

"How much for a couple of hours?" Draco asked, reaching into his money pouch and counting galleons.

"Two galleons an hour," Belinda said, watching dispassionately as he slapped ten onto the bar top, which were quickly snatched up by the barwoman.

"Three hours and a meal sent up soon. The girl won't need one. I'll give her something to eat."

As Draco was led off by the girl, Belinda nodded at one of the werewolves to keep an eye on things since the boy obviously had no idea what he was doing and would probably be the abusive sort. She also made sure the cook would put certain potions into his food, ensuring he would be less violent than he may otherwise have been. _'That boy is as good as dead if he doesn't check himself. I do wonder what Lucius is thinking, letting him come here. He was almost killed as soon as he walked through the door.'_

While her original thought would have been to send the boy back to the street, she didn't want to risk upsetting his father. Everyone knew the man and his style. He never committed to an action without either an exit strategy or a guarantee of success. The fact that he was attempting to assassinate the Minister of Magic and had, successfully, killed Delores Umbridge, meant that he was making some sort of very strong move, possibly making the bid to become the next Dark Lord himself. And while it wasn't common knowledge, it was known to the right people that Fletcher was paid by Malfoy to lure Greyback out, only for him to die immediately after.

A large part of this business was in the talking that men liked to do after getting their jollies off. It allowed Belinda to make the right choices in her own business ventures outside of the brothel, to say nothing of having the right dirt on the right people to keep her and her girls safe from all sides. She wasn't about to destroy that safety on one little boy's desire to feel like a man, especially when it would be one of the easier marks for Liz since she was one of the newer girls. But she was also in relatively higher demand due to her age, so Belinda hoped to give her some time to breathe in between her next client and the last since the boy wouldn't likely keep her too busy and likely fall asleep right after. And Liz knew enough to let them so they could be charged for any time they go over after.

Still, Belinda's eyes looked around with extra care for smaller details, wondering why the boy came here and why his father would actually let him. Or his mother. They usually got their girls from elsewhere, being both untainted and unbroken, leaving them the honor of breaking them in. _That_ was what they usually did.

So what was going on?

xXxXxXx

**Monday – December 19, 13:00 – Room of Requirement**

"So, time travel, soul mates, assassinations, theft from the Ministry for Magic and training for a war to come," Luna pondered aloud, tapping her chin as the water bubbled around her. "You've been a busy boy."

Hermione snorted as her eyes drooped in the pleasant heat. "In retrospect, I was more interested in the relationship rather than the rest. I guess it's good to see you have your priorities in order better than I did."

"I wouldn't say that," Luna disagreed. "If Harry hadn't already said he was willing to try, I'd probably be more worried about it than I am. But, the memories you showed included the one where he told you since you discussed this, so I'm sure I'd have been very similar otherwise."

"Well, the time-turners and ... _other_ acquisitions from the Ministry were just opportunities," Harry said, looking nervously at Hermione.

"What 'other acquisitions'?" Hermione asked.

Harry fidgeted in the water, playing with his foot before he gave it up as a lost cause. "I copied almost all, if not all, of their research on time-related magic," he began, noting her widened eyes and heavier breathing. "I also copied a huge amount of stuff from their archives, which is all stuff that's either been banned or forgotten."

Hermione slithered up to his side and latched onto his arm, her eyes getting very large and glistening in a manner that Blaise had recently come to fear from Daphne. "And you'll share?" She asked innocently. The girl didn't even know she _could_ do the puppy eyes thing, but there they were. Working their magic on her unsuspecting boyfriend.

"Of ... Of course," Harry stuttered out, blushing at such soft contact in front of Luna and finding himself out of his league.

"So, you've also been scaring the Minister into thinking Lucius Malfoy is after him?" Luna asked, making the other two look at her and be surprised to find she was on Harry's other side where they hadn't noticed her approach and already hugging the other two with a big grin on her face.

Luna liked hugging.

"Yea," Harry said, wrapping an arm around Luna and Hermione both and taking comfort in their presence. "Basically, I'm wanting him to think working against me is bad, not only for the whole Voldemort thing, but because it will hurt him, too. And by working _with_ me, he'll hopefully get more popular, richer and live longer. I also introduced some muggle ideas to him in a simpler view so he will think about doing his job properly rather than for money."

"Will you get rid of him if he doesn't?" Luna asked. "With your popularity, you could probably get whoever you want into that position."

"No," Harry shook his head. "If he's actively working against me and helping the enemy, then maybe. But, just because he isn't doing what I want or not making things easy, I won't. I can't use that to solve everything."

"That's good," Hermione spoke, glad he was thinking like that.

"What about when they learn he's dead?" Luna asked. "When a will is made, at least for the Old Families, they have a few choices to make in regards to how to find out when a death occurs. The most common option except in times of war are usually to have a Heart Stone, which will 'die' after about twenty-five to thirty-five days after the person's death. Basically, it glows until the person is dead. But the longer it's existed, then the more magic it has stored until it stops glowing, so it isn't ever truly precise. But, if I followed you right, you got rid of the Malfoys some time on the twentieth. That's literally thirty days ago today."

"Bugger," Harry grumbled. "I was hoping to get two more 'sightings' in."

"I don't understand how you could use polyjuice to become someone who is dead. From what I read, it isn't supposed to work like that," Hermione grumbled. "I know you remain as the polyjuiced person if you die in their form, but you can't change _into_ them if they're dead."

"Actually, I took a wild guess and it worked," Harry said bashfully, fully expected to get into trouble with Hermione.

"You did something stupid, didn't you," Hermione deadpanned, looking at him with the look that spoke of the patience of a saint.

"Well, it was a long conversation with goblins about how they view magic," Harry began, not noticing Hermione perk up in interest. "Long story short, I just took the hair before they were dead."

"They?" Luna asked. "I didn't think you changed into Narcissa."

"He better not have," Hermione grumbled. "The only thing I can see that could come of it would be playing with a woman's bits."

"Or diverting some of their funds from their vaults to another," Harry said indignantly. "Yes, the woman was pretty, but she was absolutely despicable. I took the hairs simply because I didn't know if I would need them or if they would come in handy."

"I was playing, Harry," Hermione soothed. "I know you wouldn't do that."

"It could be fun to be each other," Luna said simply with a shrug. "It would also be interesting to understand the differences more fully than simply _seeing_ them. But as a total stranger? That would be awkward."

Hermione refused to admit she was now curious, herself. But she certainly had no intentions of becoming a man for _any_ period of time.

"I suppose the only thing I would like clarification on is this soul mate business," Luna said, slipping down so she was lower in the hot tub, only her head poking out of the water, letting herself float to the top so various parts broke the surface and then sunk to the bottom, only to repeat with different parts. She rather enjoyed making her toes wave at her. "I am glad it isn't a matter of kissing and suddenly being married, as that would remove any ability for us to choose, but the part that has me curious is when that woman said we got out of a bond whatever we put into it, along with the bond itself and how it works and is really formed.

"She never said anything about that," Hermione said, frowning. "I was hoping for something about that, too, but Harry said he showed me every memory with her and I didn't see any new ones this time. Plus, that book she gave Harry didn't say anything."

"Hm. I suppose we'll just have to figure it out for ourselves, then?" Luna questioned, looking up to the other two.

"Seems so," Harry said. "I have a very basic idea, but that's mostly judging from what she said, and you both saw that. There's a chance for telepathy or sharing our power or anything, really, depending on us and how much we put into the relationship."

"I was actually very pleased to see that, too," Luna said. "It's nice to know we can't just be suddenly inundated with this strange power and ability and have to work at all of this like any other relationship. It helps keep us honest and thankful for what we have, I think, keeping us from taking it for granted."

Hermione smiled, having not really considered that part. "I like that. It sounds nice," she said before blinking in shock and turning to Harry. "Hey, what about that thing you did in my mindscape?"

"What thing?"

"That thing where you basically ignored the ground and such and then, when you came out, you said you were kind of aware of people around you and the like. Maybe that's a part of it."

"I suppose it's possible," he thought, trying to see how it could relate. "But if that _is_ true, why did it start before we really got together and why didn't you get the same ability or something else?"

"Maybe I did and just didn't notice," Hermione shrugged. "Maybe I got your parselmouth ability or a different language? Or something else I just couldn't tell yet? And, well, we were sort of both thinking about it. The bond had to form from something, so maybe the bond was strong enough to start with this, even though it wasn't official yet."

"Have you noticed anything new, Hermione?" Luna asked, letting her body start to float to the top of the water and then fall back down as soon as her knee hit the surface.

"Well," Hermione said, thinking. "I can always tell where Harry is in relation to me, now. Like, left or right, up or down and how far away, that sort of thing," she said. "Also, when we're close like this, I have a decent idea of his emotions."

Harry blushed and squirmed. "Sorry," he apologized. "It's just, with two pretty girls telling me they want to date and then going to a hot tub in nothing but spandex, I can't really help it."

Hermione grinned evilly, but shook her head, deciding there was time to tease later. "It isn't that specific, love," she said with a giggle. "But I'm glad you're interested, at least. How about you, Luna? Anything you can think of?"

"Nothing new or different," the blonde said, trying to maintain her buoyancy. "I've got very strong urges to snog Harry until he can't speak and cuddle since this morning, but that could have simply been enjoying what I saw you two do and then what I did."

"It may not be," Hermione said, ignoring Harry's blush and grin. "I was actually the exact same way after Harry and I confessed our feelings for one another. If you feel anything even partly like that, I'm surprised you aren't trying to ravage his mouth."

"I certainly want to," Luna continued, speaking as bluntly as usual. "But I am trying to focus on the conversation and little things like what I'm doing now in trying to time my floating."

"Maybe I should leave you two to talk and get to know one a little better," Hermione considered, thinking she could work on her Runes and Arithmancy project so she didn't get the idea to watch them.

"Er, before you do," Harry said hesitantly, "I was hoping to talk about something with you both about the relationship, first."

"What about?" Both girls asked, sitting up and paying more attention.

"I ... Look, this is going to be a little awkward initially," Harry ran his hands over his hair in mild discomfort. "Hermione, I've loved our progression and what we've done, and I know you're only three months younger than me, Luna, but you both know I want to try and keep us all equal, right?"

"Of course, Harry," Hermione said.

"We know you don't want to favor one of us over another," Luna continued.

"What I'm trying to get at is ... Well, I think we should consider thinking up boundaries for this whole thing," he rushed out.

"How do you mean?" Luna wondered.

"Well, er, Hermione and I have already snogged and, er...," he trailed off, blushing furiously. It was different to know about what you do with a girlfriend, but admitting it was a little harder.

"And what?" Hermione wondered. _'We haven't stripped, though I'm tempted at least a little, or touched in places that are naughtier yet.'_

"Well, you've sat in my lap and ... er, _rolled your hips_," he couldn't look either girl in the eye, and still found himself fighting to not smile at the pleasant memories. "What I'm trying to say is that I think we need to decide if we're going to go at the same pace with all of us, or not? I know different people don't like going the same speed, so ...?"

As Harry trailed off, Hermione couldn't help but grin at Luna who smirked back. Both girls moved forward and kissed him at the corner of his mouth on either side. "You're sweet, Harry," Hermione said, smiling.

"But we've already decided that we'll go at our own pace with you, so long as you're agreeable to it. We just won't go past certain points without discussing it, first."

"Certain points?" Harry repeated, confused.

"Think about it," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes after about four seconds when realization hit and his own eyes widened comically.

"Oh. ... Oh!" He was embarrassed that took so long to figure out.

"Did that cover what you wanted to talk about?" Hermione asked with no small amount of amusement as Luna giggled.

"Um, no," he hesitated before taking a deep breath. "Will you let me know what my limits are? I don't ... I don't want to ruin this."

"We aren't totally sure," Luna said first, wrapping her arms around his middle.

"It's different to think about it and say, 'this is far enough', compared to actually experiencing it," Hermione continued. "We know the farthest we're willing to take it at the moment, but we may want to shorten that if we feel uncomfortable before we get there."

Harry blinked, more confused than before. "So-o-o ... Just go slow and make sure I pay attention if either of you seem to get hesitant or just say no or something?"

"That'll be perfect," Hermione said, kissing him deeply before she pulled back after five seconds. "Now, I really do want to work on my project. I'll leave you two to talk or whatever. See you at lunch." Hermione got out of the water and used a drying charm on herself so no one would notice her wet hair this late in the day and was out of the door in less than five minutes.

A part of her was astonished at just how easy it was to walk out of the room when she _knew_ there would be some snogging going on in there, to say nothing of the flimsy outfits, or just shorts in Harry's case. It was an amazing amount of trust that she was showing in her new sister-girlfriend and boyfriend that they wouldn't take things too far, too fast. After all, the only limits she and Luna had set for themselves was full-on sex, mainly because Hermione wasn't entirely sure just how far she wanted to go this early in their relationship, but she was fighting with herself from going further than she thought plausible. Nothing overly serious, at least yet, but she was looking forward to ... well, what Harry and Luna were probably doing right then, minus one swimming suit. Whose it was wouldn't matter, though she was looking forward to either.

After the door closed, Harry turned to Luna and smiled nervously. "Hi."

"Hello," Luna giggled. "Is this going to be awkward now?"

"I ... don't know," he admitted. "I mean, a part of me wants this and is thrilled to have you in my life like this. But, I still feel strange about the two girls thing."

"Most boys would and will be envious of your situation," Luna said simply, unconsciously letting her body float slightly and very slowly get closer to his own.

"I'm not most boys," Harry chuckled ruefully. "Is this really and truly what you want, Luna?" He asked. "If you say yes, I'll go along with it and try my best. But if not, I won't be mad or upset. I just don't want you to feel like you need to do this just because-" He was cut off as Luna leaned forward and kissed him, pulling herself up with her arms around his neck and trying to make him understand through the kiss alone what she wanted him to know.

"I really and truly _do_ want this, Harry," she said breathily as she pulled back after several long seconds when his arms had just begun to encircle her lithe body. "Hermione and I have spoken and we both feel more comfortable with this being basically two separate relationships instead of one, three-way relationship but, that could change in the future," she said, looking down demurely.

"And you're both okay with me being with the other alone like this?" He said, gesturing between the two of them to indicate her body beside his, angled to his front so she could hug and kiss him.

"For now, at least, yes," she said, bobbing her head. "I actually enjoyed watching you two kiss and she seemed to as well."

Harry's mind blanked at that idea before he shook his head, trying to rid himself of thoughts that were not quite appropriate for the moment. "I promise I'll do my best, then." Deciding he'd had enough of being kissed, he elected to lean down and steal a kiss from the startled girl, causing her to moan as she experienced a kiss different than the others.

Nearly a minute later, she pulled back, gasping for breath. "I very much like this boyfriend and girlfriend thing," she gasped. "We're going to need to learn to hold our breaths longer!"

"Breathe through your nose," Harry stated, kissing her neck and making her let out a mewling squeal of delight.

Luna wanted more! Her body tingled, her mind was frazzled more than normal and she needed to _feel_! She threw a leg over Harry's lap just as Hermione had mentioned to be her favorite position and pushed forward, trying to press as much of her body up against his as possible. She took his advice and breathed through her nose, happily acknowledging the idea's brilliance as that kiss lasted for nearly two minutes.

"Relax, Luna," Harry said, stroking her hair and trying to get her to sit back down from where she had been standing on her knees. "I'm not going anywhere. We can take our time."

Luna nodded slowly, settling down only to squeak in surprise as her eyes widened comically. "Is that ... _you_?"

"Er, yea," Harry said, embarrassed. It wasn't nearly as ... obvious of a problem before with Hermione since both had always been wearing multiple layers of clothes. But now he was in a relatively thin pair of swimming shorts and Luna in a spandex bodysuit, which provided absolutely no resistance to feeling.

Luna rolled her hips slowly once, gasping at the feelings generated while both were wearing such thin material and smiled brightly as she saw Harry's eyes cross and heard a moan. "I very, _very_ much like this boyfriend and girlfriend thing," she mumbled before leaning forward and trying to kiss him much more softly than her body was telling her she should. Not unable, but certainly unwilling to fight the sensations welling up within her, Luna slipped the shoulder straps of her suit off and down the sides over the course of a few minutes while kissing Harry so she could feel his chest against hers, desperately craving the skin-to-skin contact, feeling their magics sparkle and bubble between them like tickling lightning, causing her to moan in contentment as the desperate need was drastically lessened now that their magics could intermingle.

It would be a valiant effort, full of trials, tribulations and guttural moans of bliss, but both would be capable of keeping their hands from the major areas of parental fears and do little more than snog each other senseless, but woe be unto the parental fear of rubbed bums and passionately kinky daughters!

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – December 21, Nighttime**

Two days later, Harry wasn't able to figure out why he was so hesitant about this two-girlfriend thing. It may have simply been the lack of others being around, as there were only five others in Gryffindor other than the Lover Triad. It may have been the copious amount of snogging and cuddling both girls were inclined to initiate at any moment.

Or it was simply the added warmth in a drafty castle during the middle of winter in Scotland.

Either way, there was a lot of cuddling. Not any different than before outside of way it seemed to mean more, which seemed to make it warmer somehow.

Whatever the case, Harry was in high spirits as he finished wrapping his gifts while the girls slept away in his bed, cuddled into one another and looking peaceful. He hummed a Christmas song as he put the girls' gifts under the tree before taking a pile to the owlry to send off to the Burrow. It wasn't any of the important gifts, just because he really _had_ been worried about sending those via owl, but it would let Ron know he was at least getting something and not to worry.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 24, 22:10 – Hidden in the halls of Hogwarts**

"_He's rather rotund," Luna told the Thundercats as Harry talked with the twins about something and Hermione and Ron were arguing again. It was curious at how Ron looked like the natural order of things had returned, but she didn't pay it much mind._

"_Rotund?" Glibby asked, confused._

"_Fat," Luna stated simply. "He tends to have a long, white beard, red clothing with white trim and a conical red hat with a white, poofy ball on it."_

"_And this is Santa?" Another Thundercat asked._

"_Indeed," Luna said with an odd glint in her eye. "_He_ is the one we must capture! He's very tricky, though! You have to expect all sorts of tricks from him!"_

Twinkle was unsure of this, but Master's Moon said this was the night they could expect the 'Jolly Man', as she had called him. And she had seemed quite adamant about appropriating his sleigh and sack that he would apparently most likely have over his shoulder.

"Sir! We think we've found him!"

"What!" Twinkle asked in shock. "Where?"

"He's heading to the kitchens now," Gargamel stated. This one was a wiry Thundercat who was obsessed with the color blue.

"Of _course_!" Twinkle clenched his furry paw in frustration. _'I should have thought of that! Fat guy who wants cookies at night! Of _course_ he would go to the kitchens! And elves! He's got an entire labor force of them!'_ Growling, he nodded once, resolutely. "Bag him!"

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 24, 22:20**

Albus had awakened early into the night, finding he needed to use the loo. But once done, he knew it would be difficult to get back to sleep. "Ah! Hot chocolate! That's just what I need! But if I summon an elf, they'll rat me out to McGonagall again. Blast Poppy and her diet orders!"

Sighing, he chose to leave on his night cap since it _was_ drafty in the castle. However, because of that, he decided he needed more than his long johns, so he put on his holiday-themed overcoat that matched the hat and some fuzzy black slippers.

Properly attired, he was about to leave his office when he considered that, since he was heading down there anyway, he may as well get some of those delicious biscuits. Amusing himself, he conjured a simple red bag the size he would use for his galleons, and left the room for the kitchens. "Albus, you sly, nefarious old man, you! You've still got it!" He chuckled to himself, thinking about how McGonagall and the crazy nurse who demanded he eat less sweets if he was going to eat so many lemon drops, would never know he got one over on them.

By the time he made it to the kitchen and was reaching up to tickle the pear, he had no idea he already had twenty followers.

"_**You better watch out."**_

Dumbledore twirled to look around him, wondering where the holiday music was coming from.

"_**You better not cry."**_

Dumbledore frowned as the music seemed to come from all around him, just barely out of sync. "No more brittle before bed," he mumbled to himself.

"_**You better not pout."**_

"I'm going to be quite upset if I'm dreaming and didn't make it to the loo," he shook his head, deciding if this _was_ a dream, he was going to stock up on the sweets now while the crazy nurse and his evil Deputy Headmistress couldn't stop him.

"_**I'm tellin' you why."**_

Dumbledore's world went black just before his fingers got to the portrait of the pear as a sack got shoved over his head and ropes bound his arms behind his back and his ankles and knees together before his wrists were tied to a lead around his waist so he couldn't shift them about. As the old man tried to yell at the evil nurse and deputy who he assumed to be behind this since he felt it was a dream, he found himself gagging on the sharp tang of a chemical-covered rag.

As the old man fell to the floor, he was clutched into the furry paws of almost two dozen Thundercats who carted him off to the prearranged meeting place.

"_**'Cause we just chloroformed Santa, toni-i-i-ight!"**_

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 24, 22:40 – Hogwarts Dungeon**

Dumbledore jerked awake with a start, looking around himself at the many faces of the Thundercats around him, all centered around the green, elf-clad form of Luna Lovegood, sitting in a throne that looked like a desk chair with candy canes stuck everywhere on it. He flicked his tongue, trying to get rid of the taste of copper in his mouth as the slight headache he felt.

"Most ingenious, my arch nemesis," Luna hissed, getting up and dingling sharply as the bells on her outfit were jostled.

_'Definitely no more brittle before bed. Tuna, alcohol, clarinet music and brittle. No more of any of them before bed.'_ Focusing on the girl in front of him, Dumbledore decided to play along. At least it wasn't those two evil women keeping him from his sweets. Though, this one seemed to have all those candy canes just out of his reach. "Arch Nemesis? I'm afraid you're mistaken, Miss Lovegood! I'm simply-"

"Oh, I know exactly who you _appear_ to be, Mister Claus," Luna said, pacing back and forth before the rapidly-blinking Headmaster. "I admit, it was quite ingenious hiding yourself as a thin, abnormal headmaster of a school, but you left far too many clues."

"'Abnormal'?" Albus asked, shocked.

"No normal person would wear such elaborate robes," Luna began, ticking off on her fingers. "It's well-known that our Headmaster has them custom-made. Perhaps by the same individual who creates his yuletide outfits, yes?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, yes! Of course, but since I always use the same tailor, it can be expected to have her do my-"

"You've the long beard," Luna continued, ticking off another finger and interrupting the old man before he could start to gather rambling momentum. "You have that twinkle in your eye all the time ... One could almost say it was a ... _holiday_ twinkle?"

"All witches and wizards like to have a ... er, trademark attribute," he defended lamely. "Severus has the billowing robes, Minerva that glare that could kill, Poppy demands quiet in her evil lair and-"

"You're also terribly fond of sweets, aren't you?" Luna continued again.

"Well, yes, but that's just my ... er, quirk."

"Hot chocolate, perhaps, too?" Luna asked with an 'I-know-more-than-you-think' tone and expression as she held her hands behind her back and rolled on her heels.

"Well, of course! But all magicals like chocolate!" Dumbledore defended, now sounding a little hysterical.

"Always trying to spread around good cheer as well, if I recall?" Luna asked again.

This time, Dumbledore remained silent, thinking the evil lair of the nurse or his Deputy Headmistress' dictator-like ways with his snacking habits wouldn't be quite so bad right about now.

"I know who you are, Nicholas!" Luna spun on her heel and marched over to a small table that she slid over before Dumbledore, yanking off the cover to show a cage filled with gingerbread men, shaking and huddled in the corner. "You were found with a sack, but it had no toys in it. I'd like you to start talking, or else!"

Dumbledore's mouth began to water. "Or ... Or else what?" He asked.

"I suppose it's necessary to show you I am capable of doing what needs to be done," Luna growled before quickly biting the head off the gingerbread man and showing the old man in front of her the decapitated corpse. "I've got twenty-three more to go! Where is the toy sack!"

"May I have one of those?" Dumbledore asked, licking his dry lips.

Luna glared and made a dramatic showing of breaking the leg off of the decapitated snack and then eating it. She turned to the table and showed a steaming pot that she began to pour into a small cup, filling it with steaming, chocolaty goodness. "I have enough hot chocolate for each of them, Claus," she said lowly. Taking a long swallow and putting the cup back down, showing off a brown mustache.

"I'm really quite thirsty," Albus said, unable to take his eyes from the treats in front of him. He really had been quite thirsty when he started the trek to the kitchens. Now? Now his throat was parched and his lips crackly.

"All you need to do is deliver your toy sack," she said, making a new cookie walk towards her outstretched hand and into it, looking for all the world as if it were expecting a hug before her white teeth decapitated yet another poor tasty delight.

"You're a monster!" Dumbledore struggled through his bindings, unable to break them, even though he was trying to lean to the table.

"It will all be over soon, Nicholas," she said. "Just give me what I want, and I'll go away."

A shiver ran up Dumbledore's spine with her last statement. A student a few years prior had a book from a curious man named Stephen King entitled 'Storm of the Century'. This was just _not_ a day for flashbacks of reading unreturned literature. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts! I am not Santa Clause!"

Luna looked at the old man for a few seconds before adopting a sheepish look. "Well then..." She quickly fed him two cookies and gave him a cup of the hot chocolate before turning to Gargamel. "Gas him," she said, making Dumbledore's eyes widen as his mouth and nose were suddenly covered once again.

Luna sighed as she trudged back up to the Gryffindor common room where Harry and Hermione were waiting for her before going to bed. Perhaps it would be better _not_ to tell them she'd just kidnapped their Headmaster.

Unless they wanted to hear the funny story, anyway.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 25, 07:40 – Harry's Dorm**

"Get up! Get up! Get up!" Luna bounced up and down on the bed with her two ... Well, she wasn't sure what to call them as a group, but they were hers. That's what mattered. "Happy Christmas!"

"Happy Christmas, Luna," the two chorused together, laughing at their energetic friend.

"Let's go! Presents!" Luna scrambled off the bed and rushed from the room to the large Christmas tree that was in the common room with the other two following.

"What! What happened!" Luna asked, circling the tree like a predator. "All the presents I put down here are gone! Snorkacks!" She cursed in her own way, turning to the other two with a sorrowful expression on her face. "I'm sorry! It's my fault! I kidnapped Santa last night, but he tricked me into thinking it was Dumbledore and so I let him go and he took our presents as punishment and now he'll probably send his elves to make us sing 'It's a Tiny World' in a bunch of different languages!"

Harry snorted in amusement, trying to hold in his laughter while Hermione tried to decipher just what she was hearing. "Who did you kidnap?" Hermione asked.

"Luna, it wasn't Santa. I sent all of our presents away," Harry explained, getting two confused looks in return.

"Why'd you take our presents?" Hermione asked.

"Not all of them, just most," Harry said with a smirk.

Hermione rolled her eyes and then kissed Harry hard before pulling back and putting her hands on her hips. "There! _Now_ can we get our presents?"

Harry laughed and gestured for them to follow him. They went back up to his dorm where he tapped a spot under the window and a large gift melted into view. "Hermione, this is your first present. It's from me. Luna, yours and my presents are all through it."

Confused, Hermione unwrapped the large gift to find a beautiful trunk made of a very dark cherry wood with soft, gentle designs carved into it. It had gold trim, but a silver latch lock that looked large and heavy. "It's beautiful, Harry," Hermione offered, wondering why he got her a trunk.

Able to pick up her unspoken questions, he explained its properties. "First, I'm the master of the locking mechanism and wards, at least for the moment. We can change that later, though. I just didn't think it would be easy to explain why I wanted your blood for it during the summer. But," he opened the lid and showed the stairs leading down. "Wanna see?"

Letting both girls go in first, Harry checked his beaten watch and nodded, seeing they had plenty of time. Once all were inside, he closed the lid and met them in the main room.

"This," he said, "is your main sitting room. On the right is your kitchen. There's a door there that leads to my own trunk, just like this one. Next to it is a storage room about the size of a classroom. Next to that is your potion's room with ventilation, of course. There's a wet bar which is just a place that'll let you keep your drinks cold. That's why I've got a casket of butterbeer there. Then you've got your library going straight back with room for about ten thousand books and room for a table for about ten people. Then your dueling room so you can practice at home if you want, though I didn't think about it since we can do that at my place and we have the Room of Requirement, so it can be used for other things that need heavy shielding, I suppose. You've got a main toilet in that room, and then three large bedrooms with full baths on them as well. I mainly got it for the library feature, though, since your mom said they were thinking of blocking off a part of the house for you."

Hermione smiled and hugged Harry. "It's wonderful, Harry! Thank you! And I love the hardwood flooring!"

"What is that?" Luna asked, pointing behind them next to the entryway in a recess where a large, stone ring sat with a strange little device in front of it.

"That is where your presents are," Harry said with a smirk. Feeling positively thrilled with his plotting, he lead both girls over to the strange device, putting Hermione in front of it and standing behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and his body flush against hers while resting his chin on her shoulder.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, slightly confused and a little happy with the warm embrace.

His right arm rose to point out the pre-set addresses, specifically the one labeled 'Granger Home'. "Type that sequence of runes, then touch the big crystal in the middle," he told her, releasing her as she did so. A couple seconds later, a new room, much more simple and basic, flickered into existence within the giant ring rather than a wall.

As did two people.

"Mum! Dad!" Hermione rushed forward, only to stop at the image, not sure what to do.

"It's a magic portal, honey!" Emma said happily, gesturing for her daughter to finish her run. "Come on!"

Hermione looked to Harry for confirmation before grinning widely and rushing into her parents' arms, followed by Luna and Harry, the latter of which deactivated the portal. "How?" She asked. "I've never read anything about that kind of travel before!"

"It's a Potter device," Harry said with a grin. "I had a guy design it for me over the summer. It's a lot safer than anything else, especially with a baby on the way when one stumbles out of the floo. I figured you could use this to see your parents more often on the occasional weekend or some random night if you wanted to."

"Thank you, Harry!" The brunette rushed him and squeezed him in a hug powerful enough to create a creaking noise from his chest. "Mum, Dad, this is Luna Lovegood. And you already know Harry," Hermione said, crying gently.

"Hello Mister and Missus Granger," Luna said, smiling widely and shaking Dan's hand before Emma hugged the girl tightly, knowing now that she was a part of Hermione's life.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Luna," Emma said happily. "Please, while you're here, act just like you would at your own home. Eat food, drink drinks and raid the fridge. Whatever makes you comfortable. Have any of you eaten? We've got a lot of food already prepared for munching on while we unwrap presents."

"No, we haven't," Hermione said happily, following her parents out of the trunk in their home and downstairs to the living room where there were many gifts, waiting to be opened and one blitzed house elf, singing far off-key and wearing elf shoes, a Santa hat and making very sure he was telling the face of the house elf in the shiny Christmas decoration on the tree that he had to be good for Master Harry Potter!

Emma glared at Dan, who was grinning nervously. "I ... _may_ have given him the wrong cup of eggnog?" He asked, making the kids laugh and Emma sigh.

"I can't drink now and so your father decided he'd continue the tradition without me," Emma rolled her eyes to show how well that went over.

"I don't understand it, though. It was only the one cup and I literally put barely anything into it. Just a cap full of bourbon! I didn't even add a touch of the brandy!"

"House elves have a ridiculously low tolerance," Harry said from experience, laughing as Dobby noticed his master and tried to dance over to him only to fall down, his cup already empty, even though he was trying to keep it from spilling. "A single drop could have done this to him."

"Will he be okay?" Hermione asked, worried for the little guy.

"Doffy be A-okay, Miss-Hurk!" The house elf hiccuped, causing him to look at his feet that were in front of him with a glare. "You's is being ba-a-a-d feetsies! Doffy is sh-Hurk!-showing you! Doffy is not using you for the whole day!" Proving his point, the elf starting flexing his bottom before he instead started to motor around, faster than any of them would have expected.

"I really hope there was magic causing that, somehow," Harry mumbled.

"I'll play Santa," Dan said, putting on a hat he got for just today and relishing in his daughter's laughter. That made it worth it. "These," Dan handed two gifts to Hermione and Luna that were moderately heavy, "are from Harry."

Both girls opened their gifts, only to drop their jaws in shock at them. They were the enchanted protection items the goblins had made. But it wasn't just that, even though the notes within them told exactly what they did, but the music and memory from Luna's that had her crying gently and happily as pleasant memories washed over her. She actually remembered the memory, too, and recognized her fairy friends' singing.

Both girls, forgetting themselves, set down the gifts and rushed Harry to hug him tightly before getting their other gifts.

Luna made out like a bandit, getting two silk pajamas in yellow, her favorite color, and a dark blue, along with a pair of footie pajamas that had soft cat ears and a tail with holes where the fingers came out of the arms, but were designed to look like they had paws on them. She also got the three Pippy Longstocking books, a trunk similar to Hermione's with her own butterbeer barrel, two books from the muggle world about animal biology, several candies and a few pictures of her, Harry, Hermione and some of them in various mixes. She also got a fancy muggle stationary kit with calligraphy pens and sheets of parchment rather than rolls from Hermione and various clothing, her favorite of which was from Hermione and her parents that had Garfield or other animals on them.

Hermione was pleased with her haul, getting two sets of silk pajamas as well, one in a pinkish cream color and one in gold, a book on animagus transformations from her parents who thought it would be amusing to see what she would become, along with some clothes and a prepaid account with a mail-order clothing supplier in the wizarding world and the muggle world, which she could get on her own or through her mother, respectively. She also got a few sweets, but not many considering her parents were dentists, after all. She also got a beginner's book on basic healing from Luna, who had discussed the possibility with her of going into that field.

Harry had also given both girls a voucher for wizarding wear that they could split between them for a hundred galleons.

Dobby received a whole suitcase of socks in all sorts of materials that he had passed out on after putting several on his feet, hands and ears. They were mostly wool and cotton, but the odd nylon and silk were included, as well. Harry had purposefully gone through and removed every copy so he only had one of each. It would help the little guy feel extra special.

Harry got several clothes, quite a bit of candy, which made Hermione blush when her parents saw a large amount of it came from her, a broom care kit, a standard Weasley jumper and Missus Weasley's meat pies. There were also a few books on dueling tactics and proper ways to exercise without hurting one's self.

Dan and Emma, despite having somewhat expected it, wound up with a small pile of baby gifts, magic and mundane, including toys and clothes. However, they were also surprised to find they had a coupon for a physical evaluation, which would divulge anything the baby was at extra risk for from Saint Mungo's after a donation by Harry, not that they would know about that part. They had also given each other, and received from Hermione, some clothes and the usual things a child would give a parent while most of their 'special' presents would be given later in private, where Dan intended the entire month leading up to Emma's due date, and the month thereafter, to include several runs with a cleaning service and nanny service so he could show her how grateful he was for this new addition to the family.

xXxXxXx

[Author's Note:] – Next Chapter! "Christmas Night"!

(1)- **Merisath**: This is a concept of my own devising, as far as I know, wherein the fairy gather together in a dance of flight during the summer and winter Solstice, singing their own songs with nothing by vocal hymns as they dance through the nighttime skies. The purpose of this is to herald and celebrate their queen, Lilith as she delivers a connection to those points where the fairy gather, interconnecting all of the fairies, even those who don't participate to instead go throughout the magical realms and interconnect those homes as the entire world becomes a source of emotional power for the fairy, sort of like an emotional sustenance. This plays on the concepts of all life in the world being connected in some way and hurting anyone or anything, most especially the earth, is only hurting ourselves, as well. The fairy, during the Merisath, connect the world of humans to the world of nature for brief moments.

(2)- That conversation about Merisath, Sarah and Xeno's worry about Luna's feelings IS IMPORTANT! Why? Can't tell you, yet. But do try to remember it. His guilt at staying away from Luna for the holiday, his immediate worry she would be upset even when she was the one to say she would like to remain with her friends and even the fairy ritual itself. All important later on in the story.

(3)- Yes, this is indeed basically the Stargate from the Stargate series/movie, except not perfectly rounded. The wormhole/event horizon effect is NOT happening, I just liked the utility of the design.

(4)- "Rights of Claimant" - Not spoiling the surprise, but it'll be brought up when Hermione explains to her parents.

(5)- Lovegood home:

Basement (storage area, panic room that is also a hidden library for family magic books),

Ground floor (living room, kitchen, library, half-bath, two closets, a palm tree growing in middle of living room) – Stairs going up to next floor will have a shield installed,

First floor (Xeno's bedroom, full bathroom, three closets – two closets are used to hold various things he has picked up from nature, suspecting a link to an animal),

Second floor (office with a working bathtub/shower randomly in the corner),

Third floor (Luna's bedroom, full bathroom, additional tub in her bedroom for baths only even though it has a shower head, closet for clothes),

Outside of house (garden on side, hidden grotto with pond and magically-made waterfall where Luna and her mother loved to skinny dip and spend time with the fairies that is warded by the fairies using their magic for the Lovegood women and their selected mate, or mates in Luna's soon-to-be case.) Except the grotto, this is just like in "Darkened Paths".

Wow. This took SO much longer than I had originally planned. In both the number of chapters and how long this chapter took to get out. I really am sorry.


	19. Christmas Night

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter18** – Christmas Night

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - This is being posted because several people mentioned I did not finish gifts for everyone. So, I figured I'd just finish off Christmas day. It's still 11K words and moves some of the plot along.

**Wanna see something funny? Youtube "Epic Rap Battles of History" and look for "Gandalf vs Dumbledore.** I also really like Hitler vs Darth Vader and, my favorite, is Stephen Hawking vs Einstein.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "The Needs of the One" by Witherwings01 (H/Hr – I recommend reading three chapters before deciding what you think of it. That's where it gets really interesting.)

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Saturday – December 25 – Various Times and Locations**

Across the country, various gifts were being opened, some more enthusiastically than others.

"Oh, he shouldn't have," McGonagall smiled warmly while opening a box from Harry, revealing two gifts within. One was a bottle of _very old_, _very expensive_ Scottish whiskey with a note that suggested it to be a reasonable path when dealing with the twins. The other, much to her chagrin, was a play set. For her animal form. A potted catnip plant and ball of yarn. "That boy _really_ shouldn't have," she grumbled, still managing to smile. Seeing a note on the bottom, she quirked an eyebrow when all it said was there was a combined gift with Poppy. "How curious..."

Poppy Pomfrey was staring at her gift for so long, she was coming up on a half hour. It was a voucher, pre-paid, for the _entire summer_ at Stoven's Spa! One for her, and one for Minerva! The only other item was a note thanking her for always taking care of Harry when he was hurt, signed by the boy himself! Poppy could not think of a better way to spend her summer than being waited on hand and foot by people who were paid to deliver your every desire. "Hm? A post-script? 'McGonagall's got the bottle to properly enjoy the vouchers? Curious..."

xXxXxXx

"Ronald! Stop kissing that already!" Molly yelled, smiling happily as everyone in her family was home for the first time in a very, very long time, and on Christmas to boot! Charlie had shown up that morning out of the blue, carrying gifts and clothes and even a dish he learned to cook in Romania to show his mother he was eating right! _Someone_ had apparently paid for his services to inspect the bluffs near Hogwarts for the feasibility of a sea dragon living on them for the week after Christmas.

"But Mum! Do you realize what these are!" Ron cried out as best he could with his lips attached to the documents in his hands. His legs were also locked around his new Nimbus 2000 to ensure no one else would sneak off with it.

"If you get them wet, they may smear and not be worth anything, little brother," Bill said, amused as Ron _very carefully_ put them down.

"But! They're two season tickets for life to _all_ Chudley Canons games!" Ron cried out hysterically. "I've even got an invite to join them for their training camp for the next two summers and get advice with _Dragomir Gorgovich_! That's the Cannons' Keeper!"

"So, what you're saying is they're going to make you worse?" Ginny asked impishly.

"Not likely! Not with a new Nimbus 2000 broom to train at professional standards!" Ron exclaimed, showing the other gift he had received from Harry, along with a note that suggested the redhead use what he learned that summer for the Gryffindor Quidditch team where Harry had tried to play off the value of the gifts. Somewhat jokingly, Harry explained he would see it a fair trade-off if Ron got him tickets after getting on his favorite team.

"Where are the twins?" Molly wondered, not feeling very safe when those two weren't to be seen.

"They were kissing another paper," Charlie said, pointing behind the couch where they were at. "They huddled down there." Charlie was looking over a series of recording orbs that had parseltongue stored with various phrases such as 'Please don't eat me!', 'I'm here to see about giving you medical attention' and, his personal favorite, 'If you let me live, I'll find you some sheep.' Harry had three sets provided for Charlie, each one an attempt (and only one noticeably different) at seeing if they could be used to communicate with dragons, along with an offer to attempt to do so in person.

"Fred! George! What are you doing!" Molly asked, finding her twins holding each other and crying.

"Harry said if we do well on our OWL's and NEWT's, he'll let us use a property he owns in Diagon Alley for our business! He even offered to fund us if he agreed with our ideas as long as we never sell a love potion!" They cried out gleefully, tearing up and clutching the promissory note in their hands. They couldn't tell if the tears were due to their dream having a strong chance of being realized, or if it was because they had to do well on their tests.

Molly thought it was the latter, but thankful all the same for the kick in the bottom for them. "Then I expect you to do exceptionally well! Otherwise, I won't hear a word about it! Understand?" The elder Weasley woman looked to Ginny, who was cradling a small casket in her arms like a baby with a brand new make-up kit laying at her feet that would make Lavender and Parvati go crazy over with the amount within it. It was a scene that made her sigh in contentment and froth at the mouth for how easily she had such a vision. "Ginny, what have you got there?"

"Harry sent me a whole _keg_ of butterbeer!" She said happily, before the happy expression fell off her face as Mother Weasley gave her 'The Look'. That one that said 'like hell!' Sheepishly, Ginny grinned. "Er, he also got me a ten-galleon voucher for a mail-order clothes catalog and a high-end make-up kit."

"Where do you think Dad's at?" Charlie asked Bill, while the oldest Weasley child paged through a copy of a warding book that he was having trouble making heads or tails of.

"I think he took those books he got from Harry and carted them off to his shed."

"What books? I missed that since I was filching a turkey leg."

"Encyclopedia Britannica," Bill explained. "It apparently explains all sorts of things about the muggle world. He seemed to be as into it as ... well, everyone else is their gifts. I swear he was sporting a semi over that crystal radio Harry got 'im. Though, I didn't see any crystals in it."

"Christmas has always been weird around here, but this is ridiculous," Charlie said, sipping the spiked eggnog.

Meanwhile, off on his own by the fireplace, Percy was smiling at the job application for the Ministry. It wasn't a regular application, as it was a request for on-the-job training, but it offered placement at the end based on his abilities. It was something that had fallen out of use for more than a century, but Harry had noted that he asked the Minister himself about such a thing and that the man had pulled it out of the mothballs for Lord Potter's friend. Granted, the man had given Harry two such applications and made mention that his Undersecretary position was still open, but it was enough to get the man interested. Percy could see that. While there was a chance his ability wouldn't matter due to his connections with Harry, it was still an opportunity that he dreamed of. And that made him happy.

xXxXxXx

Draco Malfoy couldn't ever remember having a bad occurrence during Christmas before, much less a horrible occurrence or horrible Christmas. But that was what he was having today. His Christmas was horrible. He had no gifts, no food, no house elves and no idea of what to do next.

Throwing some of the delicate porcelain plates against the wall, he glared furiously at the letter that had been delivered earlier that day via a Gringotts owl.

_Draco Scorpius Malfoy,_

_The Heart stones monitoring the Last Will and Testaments of both Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy, nee Black, have faded and cracked, signifying the enactment of their last wishes on this, the twenty-fifth of December._

_You are hereby summoned to the will readings of your parents on the thirty-first of this month._

_We offer our condolences on your loss._

_Gutwrencher,_

_Liaison of Human-Goblin Affairs_

_Gringotts, London Branch_

The Malfoy heir, who expected to be Lord Malfoy in six days, had already sent a letter to his godfather and had finally destroyed every plate in his home. But before he moved to the cups, he fell to the floor in despair and began to mourn the loss of his parents.

xXxXxXx

"Oh, that dear boy!" Molly cried happily as she unwrapped her own Christmas gift once she felt her brood was under control. Inside, it was a cookbook with new meals she had never heard of, along with another that was clearly designed for planning with weddings with a note inside about her eldest children's ages and the promise it was only a matter of time, and groceries in a shrunken box for many of those meals and a letter from Harry saying how he was unsure of how easy it would be to get most of the materials in the magical world, so he simply purchased a few culinary kits for her and put them all together in one large kit instead. It didn't matter that such a kit didn't exist beyond the single meal. What mattered is she now believed it wasn't charity, which it wasn't. Harry truly wanted the woman to experience new things, which is why there was also a small collection of wines and a warning to keep it from the twins.

The part that had her gushing, however, was a lengthy letter that showed Harry's heartfelt thanks for truly being a member of the family and that he had already paid a mind healer for a year's worth of sessions for 'his sister, Ginny'. The theme of the letter, that he saw the Weasleys as family, and Ginny as his sister, sort of crushed her heart a little, but that was overshadowed by the thought that he cared so much for them. Molly Weasley cared for her family more than anything in the world. And while she had desperately hoped Harry would fall in love with Ginny some day, it seemed her attempts at making him feel at home had worked all too well, at least for now. Harry simply saw Ginny as a little sister.

_'That can certainly change. She is, after all, only twelve. Maybe his mind will change once she starts to fill out a little more. Plus, I'm sure Harry just isn't interested in girls yet. After all, the twins didn't start getting in trouble for peeping until last year and Ron _still_ seems more interested in those gifts Harry got him than girls. Perhaps I can see about getting Ginny some nice things to wear for the summer and invite him over.'_

Molly, grinning widely, took the letter that showed Harry's generosity and went out to Arthur's shed to show him the wonderful news. "Arthur! Look! Harry's offered the services of a mind healer for Ginny!"

"What?" Arthur asked, losing focus on looking at the books he had been given. He took the letter from Harry and read it, focusing more now on the parts that were the most interesting.

_You see, Mrs Weasley, I don't know how serious being possessed is, but I have a pretty good idea. She had the evil wanker in her head for almost a year and she was only minutes from being lost when she was set free. I tried not to really think about it, but it had been really close. As I said, the Weasleys are like my family, and Ginny is basically my little sister and always will be. I found out not too long ago that she didn't remember much of the year and has been working hard to catch up. Even Hermione's impressed._

_The point is, we don't really know what happened and I learned that she was never taken in for evaluation or any sort of treatment. She hasn't even spoken to anyone about what happened. When she came to, she was frantic and nearly hysterical. She should have had someone to talk to, at the very least. I admit she may have spoken to you or Arthur, but the point is, family takes care of family. You've taken care of me. You've sent me food when I was being starved and Ron and the twins came to rescue me when I was locked in my room after a few weeks. Now, it's my turn to take care of my sister._

_Healer Smythe(1) specializes in mind-related healing and healing related to the magical core. He owed my family for helping his grandparents out, so it won't even cost much at all. Please take this and understand it isn't charity, but simply doing what I learned from you: helping my family when they need it. If you think to try and say no, I'll simply call in Ginny's life debt and make you accept it. Don't think about pride or honor. The Weasleys have both in great abundance. Do what is right for Ginny and let her brother help her out._

"Harry's a good boy," Arthur said as he began to cry.

"Can we really accept this, though?" Molly fretted. "I mean, I know we _should_, for Gin's sake, but regardless of what he says, it's bound to cost quite a bit. And we already owe him so much for saving her..."

"We'll simply owe him even more," Arthur stated fondly. "It doesn't matter. When it comes to our children's safety, we can't nitpick about our pride. Harry's even already thought of that and said he'd force the issue if he had to. Let's just accept it for what it is and think of how we can pay him back."

"Well, he _is_ Lord Potter now," Molly hedged carefully, wondering if she could talk Arthur into something that just flashed through her mind. "It'll be expected of him to take on several wives."

"Molly! We can't just-"

"Talk to him about it," Molly interrupted, changing her plan on the fly. "We just broach the subject at the start of the summer and see if it may be something he would think about. Really, that's the only thing we have to offer and, if we're honest, he _did_ save her life. Outside of that, they'd be good for one another and then he really _would_ be family. I'm just saying we offer and see if he wants to and then we can see about offering a contract or something in the future since it'll be expected of him to have at least five anyway. You know the traditionalists will push him to follow protocol anyway."

Arthur sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "We'll offer, but only offer. I know Gin fancies him and he'd certainly be good for her. But if he _does_ see her as a sister, then it won't be likely. So we'll see."

Molly grinned widely and kissed her husband hard, deciding to show her appreciation as she silently thought of the sorts of dresses she would need to either make or buy and whether or not using a potion would be necessary. _'Best be prepared,'_ she thought, before Arthur shoved her onto his work table and repeatedly showed her who was Head of their house.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 25, 15:00**

"This was a good Christmas," Emma told her husband in contentment where she sat in his lap on a chair. The three teens were sprawled out on the couch, napping in a pile after stuffing their bellies with warm food after the excitement of unwrapping presents. And considering some of the gifts, and the emotional responses for them, it only made sense they would be tired. And each girl was already wearing a bracelet that had at least one Christmas decoration added for the day, though it was impossible to see Luna's.

"It _was_ kind of nice to have the house filled with a lot of laughter," Dan agreed. "It's usually fairly quiet other than some thank you's and ripping paper filling the air. It made a big difference."

"It's amazing how comfortable around each other they are," Emma continued, staring at the kids and the almost sinfully comfortable way they fit together. Hermione had grabbed her boyfriend's hand in their sleep and was holding it to her chest, the fact they were unconscious the only thing that kept Dan from grumbling about handsy teenaged boys. That, and the fact he already moved it once and she almost immediately moved it back. But Luna had a hand under Harry's jumper, resting it on his stomach while his own hands were around their lower backs, squeezing them to him tightly. And both girls had a leg over one of his. The small smiles on their faces, even asleep, really just seemed to complete the picture. Emma had gone through four rolls of film while everyone was getting their gifts unwrapped and took three of them as they were now. "I can see why she got confused and needed the help. If they've been like this even before getting together, I can't see how a relationship will differ by much."

Dan chuckled, even though he wasn't sure how comfortable _he_ felt with how comfortable his daughter was already with Harry. He couldn't deny what he was seeing, though. Just looking at them made him want Emma close. "Luna certainly is a cuddly thing. I don't think she wasn't stuck to someone's side the entire morning. I suppose I'd agree with you."

Emma sighed happily as she leaned back into her husband and evaluated how she felt in that very moment. "I could get used to this," she whispered after a minute of comfortable silence.

"One thing I've come to appreciate in Hermione's choice of boyfriends," Dan said, kissing his wife's neck gently, "is that he is working to keep us in her life. For that alone, I'm willing to put up with a lot. And if keeping Christmas as a family affair helps keep everyone happy, I will happily support it."

Emma smiled, reaching an arm back and wrapping it around Dan's head so she could kiss him more thoroughly. "No more booze for the elves," she whispered before kissing him again.

xXxXxXx

Lora shivered as she approached the large doors to Father's domain. Questioning your boss usually wasn't a good thing. If fact, it was usually one of those things that had you put in charge of one of the locations bad people go where you dealt with tentacle monsters and door-to-door salesmen, so she heard. However, her charge's fate was important to pretty much all of reality and her boss was doing things she didn't understand.

The boss was a good individual. It wasn't likely he would punish someone just for asking questions. She knew that.

Didn't mean anyone who found out wasn't trying to talk her out of it, though.

"**Enter,"** the deep baritone voice said as the Death Angel held her hand poised, ready to knock where it had been for roughly thirty seconds.

Lora did as told, nervously standing before him. "Father, I was hoping to ask you a few questions."

"**You have no need to be nervous, Daughter. I've been expecting you for a little while now,"** the voice chuckled.

Lora's confidence was returning, albeit slowly. This being before her could smite her where she stood, after all. It wasn't pleasant. "I've been watching my charges," she began. "Hermione Granger is Potter's soul mate. Since they acknowledged their feelings to one another, the bond between them has been attempting to assert itself and finally succeeded recently. However, his other possible soul mate, Luna Lovegood, is bonding as well. I know you changed the bonds, but I feel I need to know how and what to expect if I'm to best help them. I can see ... well, it looks like the bond is influencing them to progress faster than they are, but it isn't the bond. I'm worried there may be something or someone interfering."

Only a second later, did she realize how that could be taken. "Er! Not _you_, of course! But someone _else_! Er, with Celeste, the Lovegood girl's mother, and Lily, Potter's mother, constantly dancing a Snoopy dance and singing about grandbabies, I am worried they've figured out how to reach into the living realm again."

Lora wouldn't admit how amusing she found it that Lily Potter managed to cross back over and bitch slap her son the first time he nearly procreated with the Weasley girl. Trying to smother her with the pillow was a bit much, but at least Celeste had managed to follow her over and stop her from succeeding before they could get down there and straighten things up. Especially since no one knew how the bloody woman did it!

"**The truth is that I gave the girls, themselves, control over their bonds,"** Father stated.

Lora spluttered, trying to figure out if it was a joke. "Please tell me you're joking!"

"**Indeed, I am not,"** Father said, sounding rather amused. It wasn't often he did things so daring anymore. It wasn't a burning bush, a moving statue or his subordinates on a mountain top, but to _not_ be in control over something important was certainly daring and took him back to the good old days when people simply _believed_.

"But ... Why?" Lora asked, unable to understand. "I mean, with all the powers they could acquire or the ways it could help..."

"**We would have to guide them to whatever powers they were to unlock. That, however, would also count as steering the course of events. By removing the bonds from our control, and placing it in the hands of the girls, they, and they alone, are the ones to determine how much, or how little, the bond will assist them. Their relationships with each other and with their mate will determine their futures and, hopefully, allow them more than we could have provided without upsetting the Balance."**

"But what if it doesn't work?" Lora asked. "And what about what I mentioned earlier? I saw the bonds affecting both girls."

"**It was their own doing, Daughter,"** Father stated calmly and soothingly.

"What do you mean?"

"**Both girls are unique, as most humans are. They've had very different lives. And that is the very nature of why their bonds are responding differently. Hermione, who has spent much of her life around hundreds of children, around her own age and older, and adults, has been put down repeatedly and cruelly in regard to her appearance and intelligence. Before Harry, she had not a single friend who was sincere. They used her, and didn't even hide it. For her intelligence or assistance in whatever they required help in. And she would happily provide it, feeling a need to be helpful and useful and taking what comfort from the false friendship she could."**

"I'm aware of that," Lora said as Father trailed off for a moment.

"**Tell me. What are the names she most commonly heard growing up? And what are the insults most commonly thrown at her?"** Father asked, wondering if Lora would figure out his actions on her own.

"Well, 'know-it-all' was fairly common, along with similar slurs about her intelligence," Lora said, frowning in confusion. "She also got teased mercilessly about her large front teeth, even now while at Hogwarts."

"**And...?"** Father asked, pushing for more. The ones that hurt the girl more than any other.

"She was always told no one would want to be her friend and she'd end up an old cat lady. Hermione was basically told she'd be alone forever," Lora said, quickly looking at the notes that were in red on Granger's file, referencing her strongest desires, fears and goals in her life. Since taking over Granger and Lovegood from their respective Angels and getting rid of all her others with I.O.U's, she had taken quite a bit of time to read their files and any associated readings that would help. Having made a quick-read document for each, she could pretty much tell you these things, and felt she knew what Father was getting at.

"**Hermione Granger is a driven girl. She has strong hopes and desires to better the world in general. However, even before the bond, her world centered around Harry Potter and helping him succeed. From the moment she first met him, she knew he was important, even if not to the extent. When he rescued her from the troll, her own fantasies and desires shifted to include him in every way. The bond between her and Harry Potter is one based on her strongest desires and wants, merging with Harry's. He simply wishes not to bring them harm in any way, while being willing to pretty much do anything to keep them happy."**

"Then how is the bond affecting the girls and not Potter at the moment?" Lora asked.

"**Hermione's deepest desire is to be wanted and loved. She longs to live and have the love she often reads about, but has always seemed forever out of her reach. Having read her mother's romance novels certainly didn't help when you consider the loves in those are passionate and carnal more often than not. And that is what guides her. She _wants_ to be wanted and desired. To be kissed and loved. She wishes to disprove those things she has heard her entire life. Thus, her bond, moderated by her own desire for certain limits and Harry's, has her being a more physical being with her mate. She has always seen it as an ultimate expression of love where words can never truly describe. It is something she _knows_ cannot be found written in a book."**

"So, she wants to be in a physical relationship with Potter because ... She's kinky?" Lora asked, only to widen her eyes and cover her mouth in shock at who she was talking to and what about.

"**Bwa ha ha!"** Father roared his laughter. **"For all intents and purposes, it is that, but also the knowledge that she desires him and him alone for her life partner. She never wishes to be touched by another man. She accepts that to touch and be touched by her lover is a gift allowed only to each other. Her open mind, of course, and the young age she began reading her mother's books, are what makes her not care so much for their ages in determining what to do or not do, but their maturity and an understanding of what those various steps mean. She doesn't wish to go too fast, but she also doesn't wish to hold back, either."**

"Then what about Lovegood?" Lora asked. "I mean, _she's_ the one who dropped her top during their first snogging session!" She explained in exasperation. "From what you're saying, I'd have assumed Granger would be the one to do that.

"**Miss Granger is a more sexual being. The sort of girl the concept of the intelligent and quiet ones are the ones who most hide their carnal side. That is amongst the many reasons she enjoys thinking of her lover while taking herself to climax. I believe she is aware, while unconsciously, just what it means. She prefers that carnal with the bond. Young Luna is the sensual in comparison."**

"How so?" Lora wondered

"**As you have been watching, Luna practically requires cuddles and hugs. She has been alone almost all her life. She had no friends other than Ginevra and her parents. Once her mother died, her father was difficult to live with. While he showered her still with love, it was almost frantic in nature and obsessive, letting her know he was there and loved her as much as the other way around. And since then, she spent time with only him as Ginevra wasn't allowed over any longer since Molly didn't trust Mister Lovegood's mind."**

"This bond is really going that far back to gain a foundation?" Lora asked.

"**Of course. Those are their developmental years, and much of who they are now is because of that time. And once Luna began her life at Hogwarts, she wasn't simply alone, but tormented, teased, hurt, her items stolen and ruined. All she really wanted was but a single friend. One she could trust and confide in; one who wouldn't shy away at comforting her when needed. This turned into a strong and urgent need to have some sort of companionship. It started at home, where she started with the various animals and fairies, but you know they aren't exactly the sort to go out of their way. The fairies couldn't stand to be near her while she was sad. And the animals generally only cared for scratches and pets or the food she would provide."**

"And this all turns into her bond?"

"**Luna wants the love from Harry and the bond, most importantly to her, in a spiritual or loving emotion. Where Hermione sees the ultimate expression of love as being partners and sharing the one act that means the full extent of their feelings for one another with each other and no one else, Luna sees it in cuddles and kisses in a more sensual sort of expression than carnal. Little, meaningful expressions of love. While Hermione acknowledges and respects those as well, she feels sex is one of those things you don't just do for fun without a partner to mean it. With Luna, it is more the meaning behind _all_ the acts, but the smaller ones most importantly."**

"**Both girls are similar with regards to the ways they choose to express their love, ultimately, but where Hermione would prefer many times and until both are worn out, Luna would prefer to take it slow and gentle, for a simple way to describe it. That is why she removed her top. She desperately craved the physical, skin-on-skin contact between her and Harry. Not for gratification, but comfort."**

"But Hermione's been thinking about doing the same thing," Lora complained, not seeing much of a difference. "I mean, I get what you're saying. Hermione is more carnal to Luna's sensual, even though it's just in their leanings. But, Granger's been considering going full monty since their first snogging session. That's the main reason she even brought up that hot tub. She wants to get on with the groping. If Luna's doing that already-"

"**Luna did it not for the sexual pleasure,"** Father interrupted. **"She wanted to feel her body and Harry's as they kissed to relish in the sensations to enjoy them, rather than lead direction to a release. _That_ is the primary difference. While she has no problems obtaining a release, or even helping Harry with his, she likes to enjoy the feeling of every moment, enjoying the warmth and love in them to their fullest. Hermione enjoys that, but also wants to feel that sexual energy on top of it. _That_ is their driving force and why their bonds are affecting them. Because they are altering the bonds themselves. In short, the bonds are simply helping them to make a decision to do what they want, rather than fear the limits imposed upon them through society or social upbringing. Basically, Hermione and Luna take comfort and assurances that Harry's love for them is real through loving, but prurient and fond gestures simply because those are the things they most feared to be without and so strongly desired, respectively."**

Lora finally understood. It wasn't the acts the girls were after, but how much they enjoyed and what they shot for in each situation. Where they took out their ultimate joy. Granger wanted her touches slightly naughty because she felt wanted, desired and loved. Lovegood was a cuddler who wanted skin contact because she felt the same and preferred to to feel her lover rather than clothes. "So, Potter doesn't have to worry about either of them becoming obsessed with anything special ... This is all about their general leanings, and not a standard for how they'll always act, right?"

"**Indeed."**

"Can you tell me about their abilities the bonds will offer? They were talking about it and I'd like to see what I can tell them when I next speak with Potter."

"**As you heard, Hermione will be able to sense exactly where Harry is in relation to her. This is in distance, elevation and general direction. That means she'll know exactly how far he is, primarily for their apparition or shifting, should he teach that. She couldn't begin to tell the distance in actual measurements, however. It's only a feeling of saying 'Harry is here, so I will make myself there, as well'. Luna and Harry will likely gain that, as well, or something similar. But at the moment, I do not know. Hermione and Harry's bond has been tentatively formed, signified by her release. The one with Luna has yet to get that far."**

"Tentatively?" Lora asked, worried.

"**Her end of the bond is attached to him, but his end must attach to her, so to speak. When they shared the Room of Requirement, Hermione let herself go to what she was feeling. Harry, however, held back, not wanting to go too far. He is worried his more adult mindset has him trying to go further than the girls would want right now. Therefore, while she is now fully committed, he is not quite yet. Harry and Luna were close, but both were worried about going to far, too fast, especially when Harry noticed she was topless. He held back far too much. But once their bonds are fully formed, especially considering they have control and will get out of this as much as they put into it, there is no telling what they could do. They could even become as powerful as a medium-level deity, though only if they worked together perfectly."**

"That's ... Frightening," Lora stated nervously. "Are we willing to let mortals have that much power?"

"**They would have to make extreme strides," **Father stated simply and dismissively. The odds of it happening without immortal assistance was negligible to the extreme. **"And they would be three where any deity is one. Still, I would not fault them for it, should it occur. I would have only myself to blame."**

"So, in the end," Lora continued, realizing something annoying, "you don't know what powers they have or will get, because it's entirely based on them?"

"**Yes."**

"Is there anything I can do to give them a hint on what to do to try and get abilities? The point of this bond, even without meddling, was to help Potter do what he needs to do."

"**If they want an ability, they would simply need to work at trying to make it happen,"** Father stated. **"The ability to get more power is theirs and theirs alone. After relinquishing control, I've lost the ability to take it back without their permission. But doing so would be worse than them gaining nothing from it."**

_'Well crap,'_ she thought.

"**I heard that."**

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 25, Dinnertime**

Peter, in his rat form, was really quite proud of himself. He had made his way to Hagrid's hut and had created a little nest for himself under the man's fireplace where he could keep warm and make quick work of any food he happened to find. Granted, those cakes he was fond of worried him since it was like chewing on stone, but much anything else was edible and the bumbling oaf thought he either wasn't making as much or his slobbering coward of a dog had taken some of it instead.

But most importantly, it was safer than anywhere in the castle right now. With the owls suddenly killing every fat rat they found and those bloody Thundercats after his tail, there just wasn't a safe place anywhere. And with Sirius sniffing around the school, outside wasn't too safe either. So, the pudgy man knew his best bet was to stay on the grounds, but hidden so he wouldn't be found, but he could still hear about what was going on.

For a decade, the animagus had thought that he had it made. He was fed, he never had to do anything but lay there and sleep and he was free to roam wherever he wanted. And now, he had to worry about threats from everywhere! He would let himself be 'found' right before they headed home and then stay at the Burrow where it was safe. That was where Peter had wanted to be right then, but he had overheard the Weasleys planning to remain at the school, so hadn't bothered, only for them to change their minds!

The Potters' betrayer rushed from his new home under Hagrid's hut into the house proper and changed into his human form, quickly grabbing some cheese, sausages and a bowl to put some water in and then hid it under the floor so he could eat it later. Quickly grabbing a scarf the man half-giant had knitted, he shoved that down the hole as well before changing back and then taking his haul where it would be better hidden.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 25, 19:50**

"Harry, could I ask you some questions?" Hermione asked later that evening after her parents had tucked in for an early night after watching the children sleep. She handed him a bit of alcohol-free eggnog and took a seat next to him, curling into his side, trying not to think of her parents' perky attitudes on their way up.

"You can always ask me anything," Harry said from where he was cuddling with Luna, who was drowsing with her head in his lap.

"I hadn't considered it until earlier today while we were opening gifts, but if you know Sirius is innocent and that Scabbers is really Pettigrew, why haven't you caught him to free Sirius yet? Don't you want him freed?" She had only really learned who Sirius was, or rather _what_ he was, after he had revealed everything to Luna and then discussed more with them both. She now understood why he was playing with the dog whenever they went to Hogsmeade.

Harry sighed and looked suddenly quite miserable. "Desperately," he responded to her last question first. "I really grew to like him, even though I never had much time to really get to know him very well. But he died coming to my aid because he knew I was in danger. That, more than anything, tells me he cared for me. And I really _do_ want to free him. But something happened at the end of the year that I am sort of hoping I can either recreate by allowing it to happen or something new will happen that will allow the same thing."

"How do you mean?" She asked, putting her head on his shoulder.

"What I remember happening was that Sirius caught him and was going to kill him, along with Remus, for what he did to my parents and Sirius. But I stopped them, thus saving his life. Sirius later told me he owed me something called a life debt because of it. I looked them up and decided that, if I could, I wanted to get him to owe me another one."

"I've heard of them," Hermione said. "It may be close, but it could certainly have happened. But it allows you to call in the debt in many ways. I owe you one, you know. From the troll."

"You don't owe me anything," Harry said with a smile, kissing her temple. "We're friends and now in a relationship. Plus, you've been with me through so much, I think it's safe to say you'd have paid any debts several times over if one ever really existed."

"It did and still does," she stated. "You risked your life to save mine with no thoughts of rewards or getting anything out of it while I was in mortal danger. That created the life debt. I haven't actually done anything to repay that. I've gone into danger with you, such as at the end of first year, but I did that voluntarily. It takes quite a bit to pay those kinds of debts off."

"I won't argue about it, but I think we weigh the events of our friendship differently. I don't acknowledge that you owe me anything because there aren't debts like that between friends. I'll agree that maybe, _maybe_, I did at first. But we're even now."

"I guess I can agree with that," Hermione said with a grin.

"So I have to risk my life to save another person's?" Harry asked. "I can't just save their life from certain death?"

Hermione frowned, suddenly unsure. "That's what I read, but the book was all about magical bonds in general. It didn't go into extreme detail on many of them, so I guess it's possible. I'd have to research it to know for sure. It was just a general treatise on them with stories for each and a few that are more fairytale than anything."

"Well, I was hoping to use the life debt later on to make Pettigrew give us information," Harry said with a shrug.

"Harry, from what I can tell, you've changed almost everything about this year," Hermione said carefully. "You already changed a large portion of that night from what you told me. Buckbeak is not on trial because you got to Dumbledore before Malfoy could and you already know about the time-turner. You've already had contact with Sirius twice now. The odds of getting that night to happen like that again are practically non-existent."

Harry sighed again. "You're right. But a part of me doesn't want to capture him because his actions are what led to the path where Voldy would come back in a way that I already know about. If Peter's taken out of action, then that leaves me heading pretty much blind in that regard."

"If we're honest, I think that's already done," Hermione warned. "You've already ... taken out many of his more powerful supporters. That route may _already_ be closed off or it may happen in a different way or time."

"I didn't think of that," Harry said morosely, pinching the bridge of his nose. This was exactly what Lora had warned him about on the train while leaving Hogwarts last year. "I guess I'll think about it for the next couple of days and make a decision. I mean, if I can find him, I can prove Sirius' innocence and we can go from there."

Hermione looked to the stairs, slightly paranoid about her parents coming downstairs, and then back to Harry to kiss him deeply, letting her tongue lightly dance with his own for several long, blissful seconds. "I'm with you either way, Harry," she said at long last. "And if you want to discuss your options, I'll gladly be your sounding board."

"I'll take you up on it," Harry said with a huge grin that usually followed Hermione's kisses. "Anyway, I'm off to visit my parents. Your mom wanted me to spend the day with you guys, so I decided to do that first rather than this. But I'd like to do it before it gets too late."

"Would you like us to come with you?" Luna asked from his lap.

"Sorry," he stroked her hair in apology. "We didn't mean to wake you."

"I wasn't asleep, just resting," Luna said, grabbing her new mittens.

"If you want to come, that'd be okay. I can introduce you to them," he said happily. "Will your parents mind, Hermione?"

"We'll leave a note, just in case, but I doubt it. And even if they did, it's their own fault for 'going to bed' before the sun was fully set anyway."

xXxXxXx

_Draco,_

_I must admit, I am disheartened to hear that Lucius is gone from the world, and grieve with you for your mother. I do not know how this could have happened, especially since my contacts tell me Lucius was seen just over a week ago. It is distressing in that the Heart Stone he would have used for his will lasted only that long, meaning it must have been quite fresh. Since it is updated when a will is, it is imperative that we learn what may have changed._

_It is most likely that you will be the new Lord Malfoy. Even if the rumors regarding your father were true, which I do not believe they are, he has no other heirs I have ever been privy to. If that isn't the case, you needn't worry. I'll take care of that little problem if it arises._

_I'll be coming to the manor at noon. We will discuss whether you wish to be emancipated or under my care since both options are now available to you. Both have their uses. Since you stated it appeared the manor was ransacked, I will bring some food from the kitchens here. We will need to decide how we are going to play this. With your actions in the common room in the last month, you could find yourself in dire straits if anyone you've offended chooses to retaliate._

_Be warned. Should you emancipate yourself, your betrothal to Parkinson will activate immediately. So think through your options and I will see what you have to say tomorrow._

_I do not know what may have happened to your elves. I was told nothing about their being sold or deaths, so whatever occurred must have been after Lucius perished._

_Your Godfather,_

_Severus_

Draco tossed the letter onto his table and stared into the fire he had been forced to set himself. He really had no need to think on what he would do. He had been pestering Pansy for a while now to do some serious snogging, but the girl was adamantly against it. Emancipation would mean marriage, which would mean she couldn't tell him no. But even more serious, was that Potter was emancipated. To not do the same would show that Draco Malfoy, _Lord Malfoy_, did not believe he was ready to be Lord of his House. It would prove, beyond any doubt, that what Potter accused him of a month previous, had not only been the truth, but that Draco himself agreed with it.

There would be no alternative, regardless of what Severus thought.

It also mattered little about what those in his dorm thought, as well. Once he was emancipated, then he would take up one of the Lord's quarters, for those who were still in school, but by circumstance, had been forced into their role earlier than normal. They were also the same as for married students. But neither had been used in a very long while.

Potter didn't take up either. But Lord Malfoy would. He would also demand the respect that his position earned. He would get his respect from the students who would mock him. Respect from the staff who would take Potter's side. Respect from Potter who thought he was better than everyone else. Respect from Potter's mudblood who didn't know her place amongst the elite as little more than a toy or pet. Respect from his fiancé who would never tell him no again. Respect from his Godfather who still saw him as a child. Respect from the goblins, filthy little creatures, who would know power and wealth when it was in front of them.

_'Respect,'_ Draco thought with a dark smirk, suddenly feeling like he had direction in his life. _'In a few more days, I'll be an emancipated adult, married and showing everyone what it means to be a Malfoy. Perhaps, Father, your death will be the best thing to have ever happened to me. I _am_ sorry Mother had to go too, however.'_

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 25, 20:10 – Godric's Hollow: Graveyard**

Harry, Hermione and Luna faded into view in the graveyard in Godric's Hollow, just outside the gate. They were each bundled up in some of their new clothes, as the pajamas they had been in most of the day weren't ideal for being outside in the middle of winter. Still, Harry provided wonderful warming charms since they hadn't received new coats and, technically, Harry was the only one able to use magic still since the girls hadn't quite yet accepted Harry's aegis officially.

Both girls gave Harry's hands a squeeze to comfort him while Hermione put the large basket she had in her hand into the crook of her elbow as she walked with the other two into the graveyard, the snow crunching beneath their feet. It was very quiet around them. The sun had already fallen and the moon was surprisingly bright, lighting their way though Harry seemed to know where he was going.

Both girls, however, were gaining an eerie sense of deja vu. They would almost be willing to swear they had been there before, on either side of Harry as they were now. The lack of noise, even of the animals in the dark, and the sound of nothing but the wind, their breathing and the crunching snow seemed repetitive as the world their eyes saw was seemingly beginning to warp to the same thing, only with more fog along the grounds and less moonlight.

"We're here," Harry said, breaking both girls from their near trance as they shook their heads, the image fading before it really took hold.

**James & Lily Potter**

_**Beloved Husband, Beloved Wife**_

_**Beloved Parents**_

Hermione read the beginning aloud as Harry traced the carved words with his fingers. His head dropped and both girls moved in to hug him tightly. They stood there, holding each other for almost two minutes of silence, which was horribly shattered by a loud squeal.

"Don't our children look adorable together!"

Harry was already in the middle of casting a blasting curse as he spun before the light gathering at his fingertips faded and all three gaped. Standing before them were four individuals. James and Lily Potter, Celeste Lovegood and Lora, who was looking very irked.

"That they do," Celeste said with a bob of her head that was identical to her daughter's. "And our grandchildren are going to be absolutely _gorgeous!_"

"Well, are you all going to stand there staring all night, or do you plan to hug your family?" James asked, opening his arms wide and grinning like a loon.

"What?" Harry asked, feeling lost.

"How?" Luna continued.

"This is the part where we get hugs," Celeste stated, holding her arms out to her daughter who flew into them, causing the older woman to grunt from the impact. "I'm happy to see you, too, honey."

"_Well_," James grunted. "I can see who's loved around here."

Harry rushed forward and hugged his parents, deciding it couldn't be a trick since Lora was there, too. "How?" He asked.

"This _is_ Hallowed ground, Harry," Lily stated. "That means more than a place to rest the dead. It's not common, but spirits can sometimes come back to help their loved ones for short periods of time."

"Then how come you never did before?" He asked, trying to memorize how his parents felt and smelled and everything about them to make them more real to him.

"We have, but since we fully crossed over, it's harder than you'd think," Lily said, smiling at Hermione. "And thank you for being there for him. Without you, all of the other paths he could have gone down were very dark. Some even had him becoming the next Dark Lord and succeeding."

"Thank you," Hermione said with a mild blush. "But, if you're spirits, how can they hug you?"

"Because they're breaking the rules," Lora growled. "Just like last time!"

"Last time?" Luna asked.

"Boy Wonder there his first time through was love potioned up with that redheaded tart during his sixth year and they were about to seal the deal when Red here burst through the Veil like vengeance personified and bitch slapped him and tried to smother the girl with a pillow!" Lora ranted. "Do you have any idea what kind of paperwork this entails!"

Harry pulled back to look at his mother with a look of hurt on his face. "Bitch slapped?"

"To be fair," Lily blushed, "you were about to sleep with a woman that looked like your mother. I've never seen you have a history of an Oedipus Complex, but I wasn't about to let one start from mental trauma."

Harry blinked, not seeing his two girlfriends blanch. "That's fair," he agreed. "What about the other time?" He wondered, his curiousity growing as Lily and Celeste both blushed.

"I don't think we need to-" Lily began, only to be cut off by an irate Lora who wasn't above shaming the spirits for breaking the rules.

"They weren't fully crossed over to this side like they are now and were nothing more than voices you couldn't really hear," the Death Angel said, suddenly moving quickly to keep the two mothers from shutting her up. "It was that time you remember Luna on the hunt with you. They were constantly trying to tell you three to get on with the grandbabies and it was beginning to work since you were all interested in each other anyway and MPHF!" She was cut off as Lily dive-bombed her.

"Look, we don't have much time here," James, frighteningly enough, was being the voice of reason. "Lora _will_ have to take us back, so why don't we use this time to talk rather than make an impression that we're crazy?"

"Too late," Hermione mumbled to herself.

"Harry, look," James began, running a hand through his hair much like Harry would as he stepped closer to his son. "We're so very proud of you it isn't even funny. You've surpassed mine and your mother's hopes and expectations of you long ago. You've become an incredible person and we're very happy with the man you're becoming."

"We also couldn't be happier about your choice in women, too," Lily grinned brightly. "Celeste and I have been friends for a long time. We had hoped, even before you were born, that you and Luna would possibly bring the families together if you grew to love one another. We can't really believe you've managed it without us there to introduce you!"

"I'm also very proud of the woman you are, and are becoming, Little Angel," Celeste told Luna, who pressed her face into her mother's shoulder bashfully. "I'm disappointed in the way you've been treated, but am _so very_ happy that you have found two loves who will take wonderful care of you, just as you will them."

"Thank you, Mother," Luna said as tears fell in earnest.

"Is this going to make it so you can't visit as often?" Harry asked Lora, who had been watching fondly, despite the increase in work this was going to cause her. Considering she only had the three clients, however, even if they were a lot of work, meant it would be fine.

"No. If I had brought them, then yes. But since Red here keeps figuring out how to escape on her own, it doesn't. Normally, I should be taking them back immediately, but...," she shrugged. "'Tis the season and all that."

"If ghosts are allowed to remain, why can't they?" Hermione asked. "I mean, they _look_ like their barely twenty, so it doesn't seem like they've aged at all."

"And they don't look like ghosts, either, do they?" Lora asked rhetorically. "They crossed back over _fully_. That means that they are, for all intents and purposes, alive right now. Plus, as we've already said, Red here is like freaking Houdini! She knows _far_ too much about the other side to be allowed to come back over. That's why souls aren't normally allowed to remember they died when they need to come back. Otherwise, you get bastards like Riddle who try and cheat the system."

"Not to mention," Celeste said as she slowly stroked her daughter's hair, marveling at how she had grown, "Lily and I are still attempting a hostile takeover of their library."

"Damn right we are," Lily growled, only to look at Hermione and shrug as the brunette blinked at her curiously. "Imagine something similar to the Room of Requirement that has every book ever written, even if it was a personal journal or a part of a reality that no longer exists any longer because Time had to be reset and it was never written. We would still have it."

Hermione whimpered.

"Harry," James began, looking at his son again with a somber expression this time. "I know this isn't really a good time to bring it up, but I wanted you to know that you're doing very well this time around. You're making the hard decisions that _need_ to be made that Dumbledore never could. Just remember your actions _will_ have consequences you can't always see right away and they will sometimes lead to new enemies, even if you remember them as friends."

"Like Ron," Harry stated more than asked, thinking he was being told about his friend's desertion tendencies. "Or even Ginny and those bloody potions."

"Well, you've probably helped out a lot, there," Lily said with a giggle. "Nice gifts, by the way. A mind healer should recognize any darker tendencies or thoughts in Ginny and Ron would probably sell his own kidney for a chance at what you gave him."

"I meant in general," James stated, bringing them back to task. "While it's necessary, a lot of kids are going to lose their parents because of who they are, for example. Or any Ravenclaws you've pranked, regardless of your reasons. Plus, with your political power now, any politician is going to either love you or hate you depending on their own goals. And with your independent streak, you _know_ Dumbledore is going to get frustrated."

"I understand," Harry said, pleased beyond measure at _finally_ getting advice from his parents.

"Sorry," Lora spoke up with a sigh. "But your time is almost up. I can't remain for much longer and I still need to give them some last minute advice since I had to come down here to get you three."

All the parents immediately hugged their children, deciding on a few last words as quickly as they could.

Celeste leaned down and kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Remember I love you and will be here waiting to meet you after you've had a few children that we can watch grow up, Little Angel. And you can tell your father I'm happy he's finally met someone."

"I love you, Momma," Luna breathed out holding as tightly as she could, hoping in the back of her mind that if she held on tightly enough, Lora couldn't take her back.

"Harry, please tell Severus that _all_ his victims are waiting for him to pass on," Lily said, tears falling quickly down her cheeks as she held onto her son tightly. "He'll probably say something snarky, so tell him Pond Lily said she can forgive the word, but not the actions and she'll have her heart back."

"What?" Harry asked, confused. "I don't understand."

"That's okay, son," James said with a stony gaze. "_He'll_ understand. That'll be enough. But if you happen to get him sooner rather than later, that would be best for everyone. And if you could, let Albus know that Arianna doesn't fault him or Aberforth for anything and she's looking forward to spending a few centuries as a family again?"

"I can do that," Harry said, hugging both of his parents tightly, only to look up as three other sets of arms encircled his family. Hermione, Luna and Celeste were all hugging each other and the Potters, smiling happily.

_'This sappy crap is making me sick to my stomach,'_ Lora thought in the safety of her head where Red couldn't hear. That woman was vindictive enough without a reason. It wasn't as though it was _her_ fault her son couldn't keep himself alive!

"Last thing I want to tell you three," Lora spoke up, getting the kids to look at her. "Remember that whole thing about getting out of a soul bond whatever you put into it?"

"Yes," all three said as one.

"The big guy took off all limitations. For all intents and purposes, you have complete and total control over it while the girls have the majority of the control regarding its progression between you all since Harry honestly wants you to have that control. That means we can't influence it in any way. It will make you want to do the things you already want to do, but nothing more than that. So, if you find yourselves being driven to do something, that isn't you being manipulated. That is you or your bond mate desiring whatever the urge is. You won't feel it if the both of you aren't willing to go so far," she warned.

"Can you clarify that?" Hermione asked, blushing lightly as she thought about the hot tub and her own thoughts on that matter.

"You'll have your own desires," Lora said. "If you want to kiss or touch something, that will be your own thoughts and feelings. But the bond will give you a push that's a little different if you _both_ want to do something. So, if your hot tub experiment makes you wanna go starkers, you'll feel that if you want to, like normal, but you'll feel driven to do it, almost like you need to, if Boy Wonder there wants to, also. But it _won't_ push you into doing things you're not willing or ready to."

"And you," Lora stated, slightly glaring at Harry and ignoring Lily glaring right back. "You can't keep holding back, thinking your older mind is making you want to do things now. When we say you get out of this whatever you put into it, that doesn't mean just your love for each other. But the things you do and how much you give of yourselves to each other. If you hold back on what you feel, then it's going to make the bond weaker. So, if you feel the urge to kiss them or do some bloody fondling, then do it. They'll tell you to stop if they want you to. Or ask permission or something. But your hesitation stopped you from bonding to both girls."

"What?" Harry asked, worriedly. "I can't bond with-"

"I said it 'stopped' it," Lora interrupted. "Hermione bonded to _you_, but you didn't bond to _her_. And both you and Luna haven't bonded quite yet, but are close. Your hesitation to just accept the situation and go with it is stopping it. That's why Hermione can feel you, but you haven't noticed anything new. Same with Luna. That drive to kiss and touch each other? That's the bond trying to assert itself. It started when you both admitted your feelings to each other. Now it's trying to finish."

"Oh," Harry said with a blush, not sure how he felt about discussing this around his parents and Luna's mother. So far it was awkward and uncomfortable. He didn't really like it. He could practically feel their eyes on him.

"What does this mean about the abilities we may be able to get?" Hermione asked.

"Anything you want, you just try to do like when Harry was learning wandless magic," Lora shrugged. "We can't manipulate it to give you any powers, but you have free reign. That means _nothing_ is beyond your reach. You just have to try. So, if you wanna practice telepathy, just start trying to talk to each other in your heads and it'll slowly become available and get better. Get it?"

"And _anything_ we try and do will work like that?" Hermione asked with a gleam in her eye.

"Yes and no," Lora said with a shrug. "Telepathy is one of the easiest things to do. It's a lot like talking, so your mind already knows what it _should_ be doing. It just finds a different way to go about it. But, if you were to try and share each others' power, for example, that would take a while longer, but is possible. But then, combining that power to do anything with it as a group would be even harder. So, anything is possible, but probable? That depends on how hard you work at it, how long, and if you've learned enough to be _able_ to do it. You wouldn't be able to combine your powers for a spell without learning to combine your powers first outside of doing the spell at the same time for the same effect and simply combining the effects rather than the spells into one larger one."

"That's still very helpful. So, we basically need to think of what we want to try and do, and figure out how to do it?" Hermione asked.

"Yup," Lora said with a grin. Why couldn't Harry have been female? Girls were _so_ much more fun to talk to and easier to get along with! Cuter, too...

"Before you guys go," Harry started, "I just want to know. Are you really trying to take over the library there and are you _really_ that interested in grandchildren? You just seemed ... _Enthusiastic_," he stated, trailing off after being unable to find a better word to describe them acting something like children.

"It's a good-natured rivalry war with the head librarian there," Celeste said while Lily smiled sheepishly. "We have eternity and having fun is a way to pass the time unless we choose to return to a new life in the living world. But that almost never happens for souls who have someone in the living world to wait for or to watch grow such as children or grandchildren. And none of us are going to leave our children alone, even if we can only be there with them in spirit."

"That, and I _really_ want the head librarian position!" Lily gushed.

"You _really_ think you can take it from a woman who's had it for nearly two and a half thousand years? Even Rowena couldn't best Arsinoe(2). That woman was the first to control the library of Alexandria and she _knows_ how to kick butt!"

"I can take her," Lily growled.

Lora rolled her eyes before turning to the kids. "Anyway, this wasn't a scheduled visit, so I can't really discuss more than this for now. I should be around again in a month or two. Remember to follow their advice, especially your father's." Looking back at the adults, she allowed her face to morph into one of apology. "Sorry guys. But it's time to go back."

"Goodbye kids!" The three adults called out. "We love you!"

And then they were gone, before the three teens had a chance to say anything back. The silence was back, as was a biting chill that seemed to have been held back during the visit. For more than a minute, the kids stood there, watching where the adults had disappeared from, finding the entire situation very surreal.

Finally, Hermione came to her senses, looking at the other two sympathetically. "We should go," she whispered.

Harry nodded and gathered both girls back up, shifting them to the cave he remembered Sirius was holed up in. There, Hermione put down the basket she had been holding as Harry approached the dog in the corner.

"Hey Scruffy!" Harry called out, a little happier now that he had someone else to 'meet'.

The dog, disturbed from slumber, rose quickly, yapping at whatever spooked it before it saw the laughing kids. It cocked its head to the side curiously.

Finally, Harry stopped laughing and grinned widely at the beast. "We don't have a lot of time, but we figured you may know someone who could use the materials in that basket," Harry said, pointing at the one by Hermione. He moved back over to the girls and wrapped his arms around their waists before winking at the mutt. "Happy Christmas, Sirius. And Mischief Managed." Then they were gone.

The dog, shocked to his rickety bones, shook himself perhaps ten minutes after they had left and approached the basket warily. He wasn't sure how they found out who he was, but since they obviously did, he couldn't take any chances since they surely thought he was guilty of betraying the Potters.

His nose approached the basket, sniffing a mile a minute as it tried to determine what kinds of traps or poisons might exist within its aromatic confines, but eventually found nothing but mouthwatering smells. Turning back into a human, he opened the basket, with a stick of course, and waited for something to pop out. When nothing did, he approached and found a vastly expanded compartment with a note on the top, a bracelet below that, and a vast amount of food on the bottom.

_Hey Padfoot!_

_I know this is probably a lot to take in, and I can't really explain much of it. But, I know you're innocent! Yup. No trial and no pranks makes Sirius a dull boy. Still, I'm aware of Peter, but he's gotten off somewhere. But I know he's a rat and animagus, just as you're the mangy mutt I fed while in Hogsmeade (I knew this when I gave you that bath, by the way. I just couldn't pass that up.) You're probably wondering why I've not done anything other than help your dog form get fed. I can't really explain that. I had originally planned to do something about Peter, but it was pointed out to me that it was a long shot and had little chance of succeeding. I have a new plan, one that doesn't involve Peter. I'll be telling you about it soon. But it should have you free by the end of this Hogwarts year if all goes well. Probably much sooner. But I want you to get healthy and fit before we approach it._

_The bracelet is a portkey to Potter Manor and the cave you've been hiding out in. It's voice activated only. Put it on and never take it off! To go to Potter Manor, just say, "Snuffles, go home" and, for your cave, say, "Padfoot's evil lair"._

_I never said I was good at making up a workable password. But at least you aren't likely to say those things in a normal conversation. We just shouldn't let anyone know about the second one until after you're free, I think._

_I know I'm not sticking around for long tonight. I want you to get to the Manor and bathe, then eat, maybe bathe again, and then take a long, nice nap in a comfortable bed. This will be your new home for a little while. I don't mind you coming to Hogwarts during Hogsmeade, but me and my girls can come by to see you occasionally other times. No one will even miss us._

_I want you to get healthy for two reasons. First, when you come back into the public eye, I want them to see you as close to your prime as we can get you. Plus, it'll mean you'll stick around longer, which is always a plus (unless your McGonagall, yea?) Second, I'm going to be needing your help soon. The dark tosser isn't actually dead. I'm not sure how aware of things you are, but there is a HUGE amount to tell you. You can't trust Dumbledore. I'll explain that soon, too. I'll be coming to see you on the first of the new year, though I don't know if anyone will be with me yet. I'll probably bring Moony during another time (yes, I know about him, his furry little problem and he's currently our DADA professor. Who'd have thought Moony would turn out respectable, huh? He's almost an adult now!)_

_I'll tell you all about me when we meet, Sirius. How I remember you, how I know the things I do. I can't explain it all, there are rules, but I'll explain that, too. _

_I'm going to make a couple requests of you. Please try not to drink more than a small cup of alcohol on any one day. PLEASE eat well and exercise and PLEASE take care of yourself. I need your help and I'll need you in decent shape to help me. Like I said, the Dark Wanker isn't dead. Not fully. Burn this paper after you read it, because I'll tell you now, he's made horcruxes. If you know what they are, great. If not, then I'll explain later. But they're horrible and keep him between life and death. Last year, he possessed a girl and almost came back, but I stopped it._

_I'll explain my plan to free you when I next see you and see what you think. If you don't like it, we can try something new._

_Your godson,_

_Harry_

_PS: There are clothes in the house. Feel free to burn what you're wearing. I've left marshmallows by the fireplace, along with graham crackers, chocolate bars, a poker and a pumice stone._

Sirius put the letter down, but didn't let it go, unwilling to risk it flying off in the drafty breeze. "What the hell?" He wondered aloud, shaking his head. Still, he had no plans of disappointing his godson ever again. Even if that meant he had to give up on the chase for Peter right now.

Putting the letter back in the basket, he drew out the bracelet and put it on, then cleaned up the cave as best as he could before nodding resolutely. "Snuffles, go home!"

As soon as he landed, he shifted into his dog form and started running in a circle in case he had to fear any incoming spell fire, only to feel rather silly as he saw a home he remembered fondly. Turning human again, he moved to the door and carefully opened the door, unsure if he would be hit by the Manor's defenses or not. _'So far so good,'_ he thought. _'Maybe I actually got lucky.'_

xXxXxXx

Next Chapter! Moody and Dumbledore meet!

(1)–** Healer Smythe**: This is a person that I THINK came from Ruskbyte's "Backwards Compatible"? Time-travel Harry, Luna was an insane genius, Harry/Hermione, Luna/Ginny (Harry/Luna for comfort sex before he went back but that's only history, nothing on-screen) and technomagic. I haven't read this story since it was last updated, so I may be wrong. But that's just where I got the name, I think.

(2) – **Arsinoe (the first)** – She was the Queen to Ptolemy II who, in THIS story, is the first to design and have built the Library of Alexandria (it's actually unknown if it was Ptolemy I or II's reign when it was created.) This woman was much like Hermione and Lily in this story, a bibliophile who practically lusted for new knowledge. Her husband, Ptolemy II, gave her her heart's desire in that library as thank you for their three children (and the incredible night before she made her proposal of it, for the amusement factor.) Ignore the factual history where she was accused of plotting against him and went into exile, please.


	20. I Will Follow Him

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter19** – I Will Follow Him

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Character Death, Murder, Suggestive Language, Nudity, Lemon (Not too bad, but 'grinding', basically)

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

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**[Author's Note:]** - **WARNING! WARNING!**** There is a section with [Lemon Start -] on it. This is some advanced kissing, touching, topless nudity, etc. You can skip once this section starts to [Lemon End] if you don't wish to read it.** Three such scenes. Two right next to each other, one at the end with almost nothing bad. They aren't overly explicit or bad, but it's still more than a 'Lime'.

**REMINDER!** **Harry, Hermione and Luna are in two, separate relationships. Harry/Hermione, Harry/Luna, with the occasional Harry/Hermione/Luna to the extent of the scenes within here where hormones cloud their internal fears and struggles. In other words, it's to tease Harry and when they aren't alone with him.** I admit the girls WILL care for each other and love one another, but they won't be interested in girls except each other whenever Harry is somehow involved or for comfort, meaning they won't do much except some VERY friendly stuff on their own (kissing, caressing is my planned extent of it for this story.)

The chapter title, "I Will Follow Him", is a reference to the song, which I am referencing as Hermione's thoughts and a musical representation of her and Harry during a scene at the end of the chapter. You WILL know it when you see it.

I wanted to go with the chapter title I mentioned before, but I remembered I wanted to try and keep the word count down. "Boom! Goes the Dynamite" will be used next as fallout for this.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Potter and the Eyes of the Serpent" by MariusDarkWolf (H/Hr – Dom!Harry & Sub!Hermione which isn't a part of the challenge, but several takers seem to have made it a part of it, Challenge from Proud Mudblood, not really sexual, but has several minor suggestive themes and brief nudity so far. Realistic dom/sub relationship with Hermione in control of how much/far it goes)

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Saturday – December 25, Potter Manor**

"Rub-a-dub dub! Black Doggy in a tub!" Sirius Black sang as he sat in a steaming hot bath, using a loofah on his back and dancing on his bony bottom as he sang the song his godson forced into his head. A bath was a simple thing in every respect, but when you hadn't bathed in over a decade, it was the sort of rapturous luxury that bespoke of a freedom that simply made one giddy. As a schoolgirl.

Which was probably why Black was giggling like a loon, if it wasn't just the madness that had set in during his stay in Hotel Azkaban.

Sirius had been in the tub for two hours, having had to change the water three times. The first time through, the water was black and rancid within minutes. The second time, he allowed a painfully hot, painfully efficient scrubbing of his entire body, getting rid of that decade of grime using a pumice stone that Harry had left the man. It had been a joke item, of course, but turned out useful since it did, indeed, help. And now his third time through was for the really clean job where dirty water wouldn't reduce his efforts.

"Remember, kids," Sirius laughed to himself, imagining being at the front of a classroom. "Don't do the bad things to get you into prison or this could be you! Or at least don't get caught...," he mumbled, shaking his head before mentally retracting his usual addendum. Doing anything suspicious would not do. Not until he had someone to share the misadventure with. The perfect prank, much like the perfect crime, was supposed to be committed by a single person. However, that removed any gloating potential and thus, was completely worthless to the twitchy Marauder.

He felt like a new man as he later burned his prisoner's clothes and munched on anything he could find. He was emaciated and weak, but there was a whole stock of potions to promote physical development that his most incredible godson had left him, along with several others to work on healing him and helping ease his achy joints and a long list of directions of taking them properly.

Sirius knew he would likely never make his previous fitness level again, even with a potion to induce a growth spurt that Harry promised to give him once he was a little healthier so it didn't cause more harm than good. His body was just beyond the ability to adapt as it grew rather than age. He wasn't too old, chronologically, but he had been aged beyond his years by the dementors. Those beasts didn't just suck out your soul, but your very life force, feeding on the years a person had left. He knew this better than anyone. Only spending most of his time as a dog so they didn't focus on him had left him with enough time in general to mentally heal from their assaults upon him, allowing him to keep his sanity, such as it was. Even then, though, he still physically aged faster as a dog, which was almost as bad and, in some cases, worse.

But now, he felt safe and secure in a home that had always been there for him. No one could or would find him there and he had everything he needed to regain his health and help his godson. That was something he would _not_ fail in again! Harry made requests of him. Even if he didn't understand them, and knew he would hate them, he would do those exercises as though his own and Harry's lives depended on it, since he believed they may very well.

"Two birds," Sirius murmured amusedly, shaking his head in awe at his little godson. The last time he had seen Harry, he was just a tyke! Walking around to the point you practically needed a bell around his neck, still talking with those annoyingly cute baby words, knew exactly when to make doe-eyes at women when Sirius would sneak him into the muggle world to pick up a girl or two and messing his nappies with that prankster grin as he knew who would change him. And now, he was a confident teenager with a girl on either arm! "At once! Even _I_ never managed that feat! Well, not with them _knowing_ about it, anyway," he giggled again, thinking fondly on his past. "The blonde's a bit of a looker and the brunette ... Well, she's plain, but has a pretty smile and a unique charm to her. Plus, she's quite curvy. Good on you, Harry. You've made me proud!"

He would take a few days to rest and regain what strength he could simply by sleeping, eating and taking many, many, many baths. He'd probably find a nice pile of dirt to roll around in as a dog, too, just because he could.

Speaking of...

"Hm. I wonder if Harry would find out...," he pondered. _'I always wanted to run around James' house naked...'_

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – December 25, 21:40 - Hogwarts**

The Lover's Triad made it back to Hogwarts later in the evening, leaving a note for Hermione's parents that they were going back since they couldn't risk getting in trouble. Each had their goodies in conjured sacks that were expanded or, in Luna's case, in her trunk Harry had originally intended for himself, when Luna voiced a concern.

"Harry, where should I keep all of these things?" The blonde asked, looking about Harry's dorm room. "I don't really even _go_ to my own dorm anymore and an extra trunk will be obvious in here or Hermione's dorm. Plus, I don't fancy the idea of anyone getting curious and trying to get a peek that isn't you or Hermione."

"Uh, I don't know," Harry wondered, looking around and hoping something would spark an idea. Well, other than the idea that her comments created, of course. It was innocent, as was Luna, but he was a hormonal teenager. Having their mind in the gutter was part of their duties.

"**You could reopen the Lord's quarters, Father,"** a soft, smooth voice entered Harry's mind, causing him to look around, trying to identify it.

"What?" He asked.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Both girls asked, looking at him in confusion.

Harry frowned as he felt an impression to follow a once well worn path from the years that hadn't seen use in a long time. He silently gestured the girls to follow, leading them down the stairs of his dorm and to a corner furthest from any of the high traffic areas of the common room that would also allow subtle entry from the entry of the common room. There was also little to cause someone to look in that direction and let them be seen if they were to go straight to the corner. Hesitating only a moment, he raised his hand and placed it upon the stone wall, feeling magic pulse like the castle's heart beat. "Create a new room," he commanded, speaking to the castle directly. "Lord's quarters. Accessible to only myself, Hermione and Luna. And healers," he added as an afterthought.

With cracking, splitting and the sound of stone grating and crumbling, a new door appeared out of the stone wall as if pushing forward, so heavily laden with protections that even to their naked eyes, the new, heavily-reinforced, wood and metal door was hazy. Anyone else would feel an aversion to come within nine feet of the door and would see either shadow or wall depending on how much attention they were paying and, given the power of some of the wards such as notice-me-not, disinterest and directional aversion, that wasn't likely to be much at all. Only those who had learned to sense magic would notice a concentration of it there. But with the wards so strong, they would need a strong will to see through them.

The door opened, allowing the three to enter the room where they found a small sitting room about a quarter as large as the common room they just came from, each wall filled with sunken shelves and several books from who knew where, plush furniture, a small kitchenette and two bedrooms, each with their own facilities, though they shared a pool-sized bath reminiscent of the Prefect's bath, and King-sized beds. The carpets strewn across the stone floor were each very thick and covered most of the room, particularly in front of the fire and sitting area.

"That's ... impressive," Hermione admitted after a few moments of looking around. Her eyes continually trailed to the deep-set shelves where books that _couldn't_ have existed moments ago if this room really had just been created at Harry's order, but they were thick, appeared to have very old bindings and if they _were_ new, then she'd be the first to crack open their pages. It would be like opening a copy of a new book before anyone else could.

Harry quirked an eyebrow at the sense of elation and bashfulness that seemed to come from all around him, radiating from the walls, floor and ceiling. He suddenly suspected he knew where that voice had come from and what had happened, even if not much beyond the obvious. _'Good girl,'_ Harry thought affectionately, lightly putting his palm against the wall. He would have to visit Hogwarts again. "I think Hogwarts did most of the work," he admitted. "But, I guess this can be a good place for Luna to store all of her things that aren't with us. I'll still keep her two sets of clothes and a pair of pajamas since it's less likely to draw attention if I ever have to get them for her, though."

"I still think you just like my knickers," Luna said with a mischievous smile. "But I agree. I would like to keep the fairy statues in here if you're sure no one else can get in."

"I doubt they could," Harry said after a moment's thought. "But someone like Dumbledore could probably do so, or Professor Flitwick, maybe. But no one we need to worry about. Plus, I think Hogwarts will protect the room for us."

"Should ... Should I start sleeping here?" Luna asked, trying not to let how much the idea of doing so hurt. She was very fond of cuddling at night, now. It was so much better than being cold, alone and occasionally in pain.

"I'm perfectly happy having you any time you don't want to be alone," Hermione stated, hugging the younger girl tightly.

"Me too," Harry said, hugging both girls. "But this can be another place to get rest when you need to turn time, Hermione. Or we can do extra work in here instead. We just need to decide the day before or morning of, so we don't cause problems running into ourselves."

"Would you like to try this bed out tonight?" Luna asked, leaping onto the large mattress and giggling as she bounced a foot into the air. "I like how close we have to be in the usual beds, but this one is larger, and ours, rather than smaller and either of yours. And it's _bouncy_!"

_'It figures Luna would see anything as hers as belonging to us all and anything else was our own,'_ Hermione thought. _'Still ... it could be fun.'_ Looking to Harry, she smirked. "I'm game if Potter is."

Harry chuckled, looking around the room and shrugging. "Works for me. I prefer firmer beds anyway. I want to take a shower first though. And I'll skip my training tonight in the Room," he said, referencing his dueling with his evil alternate ego the Room of Requirement had created for him and the simulation Death Eaters that it had begun adding as he got better. While his own double was always just slightly faster and more powerful than himself, the Death Eaters were more to train in numbers like he did at his Manor during the summer.

"How about we use Hermione's hot tub?" Luna asked. "We aren't actually dirty and it's always fresh water anyway. Plus, the heat would help us sleep and make us feel cleaner." As she shoved her face into the fluffy pillow, delighting in the smooth silk, she couldn't help but contemplate just how badly she wanted to feel Harry. She could actually feel a dull ache on her flesh that craved his contact like the crackliness when her skin is overly dry or, more aptly, the pain in her stomach when she needed sustenance.

Hermione looked to Harry, silently asking what he wanted since she would follow either way. But then again, this _was_ why she wanted the hot tub to begin with. And she was _sure_ she could get some excellent snogging in and the idea of Luna watching them? _Thrilling_! Not that she liked another person there, of course. She simply enjoyed the heat in her cheeks when she knew Luna was watching her with Harry and the things they would do to each other.

"Works for me," he said with a shrug, mentally leaping in joy. The hot tub meant spandex! "Let's just get Luna's things moved in first, which should give you both a chance to get into your suits. I'll do the same and get her fairies from my wardrobe."

Twenty minutes later, the Triad was gingerly sitting themselves into the bubbling water, each sighing contentedly as the heat began to permeate their bodies. Both girls allowed Harry to sit down first so they could cuddle into his sides.

"Did you both have a good holiday?" He asked after a minute of comfortable silence, wrapping his arms around their shoulders.

"Very much so. Thank you for the wonderful gifts, Harry," Hermione said, scooting up to kiss him long and softly on his lips, running her hand over his chest where she let her fingernails run down lightly, leaving little white marks that faded quickly. After several seconds, she let herself fall back down and sighed again happily as the electrical or magical waves ran around her body from her lips. She didn't know what the energy was, but she knew where it came from and had every intention of kissing him repeatedly that night. That energy was addictive in the best of ways as it arced across her body and centered and focused on erogenous areas of her body and raced along her spine.

"It was incredible, Harry," Luna said, looking up at him and smiling brightly, making her partners feel her happiness just like her smiles always did. Hermione was seriously beginning to wonder if Luna was hyper-emotive and able to broadcast her emotions. "I can't believe I met Mother again! Thank you." Like Hermione, she leaned upwards and kissed Harry, though she moaned lightly when her tongue met his in his mouth as the tingles spread throughout her body from anywhere their bodies touched. Compared to Hermione, Luna felt the energies spread in waves over her body, less sharp, but just as enjoyable and just as addictive.

"Did you enjoy yours?" Hermione asked after Luna released Harry's lips, appreciating how the girl pulled his bottom lip out to nibble on it with her own.

"It was easily my best Christmas ever," Harry responded with a grin. "I can honestly say it was because of both you."

"I'm happy you were both able to meet your parents again," Hermione said, smiling wistfully as Harry's arm tightened around her shoulders.

"It was definitely unexpected," Harry agreed, "but I'm happy to have seen them again. But it was all a lot to take in. And it was so sudden and ended so quickly, it just kind of took me by surprise. I still feel like it was a dream and not totally real."

"I know what you mean," Luna sighed, speaking sadly and quietly. "I had begun to forget little things like how she hugged and how she smelled. I mean, I _knew_ what those scents and feelings were, but I couldn't remember that unique way it revolved around her. I still miss her, but I'm comforted to know I'll see her again, eventually. I always believed, but never ... really _knew _if that makes sense."

"It's nice to know we won't just cease to be and that our actions aren't for nothing after we go," Hermione agreed. "I mean, I've never been very religious, I need more fact than faith, but I always hoped it wasn't this short period of time and then nothingness for the rest of eternity."

"I know what you mean," Harry said, hugging both girls tighter and kissing their temples. "With all the stuff I have to go through – _Have_ gone through – I used to wonder if it really meant anything. There were a lot of times I just wanted to give up and just not have to deal with it anymore," he finished quietly, causing both girls to look up at him in shock and horror at what that could mean.

"You ... don't feel that way _now_, do you?" Luna asked, moving her hand to his chest at the same time Hermione did, both trying to see his face better and worried that he didn't care enough about staying with them to try and win. Their hands moved in subconscious motions to keep him where they could try and ensure he didn't do something stupid or dangerous by holding him down.

"Of course not," Harry smiled. "Even then, I never really meant it. It was just something I thought about when things were bad. But, I knew that if I was gone, it'd leave my friends to do it all alone. The people I care about ... there aren't many of them. Not really," he said with a shrug. "Hermione was _always_ important to me, and by extension, so was her family. Luna, you were usually important to me as well, but for some reason, there were things that would sometimes keep us apart. But I always thought of you as a friend that I wanted to be there for. Tonks, Professor Lupin, the Weasleys even if there are times I don't know if I can really trust them, Hagrid. I couldn't just leave you guys alone to do this without me."

"I'm glad," Luna said with a small pout, trying not to think of Harry giving up. "I like you much better alive and cuddly."

"And the snogging isn't so bad, either," Hermione said with a grin, hoping to make things less serious. She wasn't as good at throwing in levity into any situation as Ron, but she _really_ hated to think of Harry admitting that he thought of those things. Especially when she knew just how bad he felt with the things he was doing now and how low things had to have gotten for him with the future he described, if not just his past at the Dursleys'.

"Don't worry, girls," Harry said, kissing both with a passion that had both heavy-lidded and clutching tightly to him. "I'd do anything for you both. And if that means fighting the blighters bare handed a hundred to one, then I'd do so."

**[Lemon Start – Brief nudity, snogging, touching]**

"And we'd kick your arse for being stupid enough to do it," Hermione grumbled, leaning upwards to kiss him again, this time with more fervor than simply getting a kiss. The last they shared made her hungry for more and she wanted them _now_! Her hands trailed over his chest again, going further down to his stomach where she flattened out her hand and rubbed him lightly. On his other side, Luna was in the same boat and kissing Harry's neck, happily and almost lazily letting her tongue lick him and her hand working on Harry's chest still, resting steadily on his sternum where she held him in place as she nibbled on his neck, jaw and shoulder.

Several seconds later, Hermione allowed her lips to kiss their way along his jawline as her right hand lowered itself to Harry's thigh, squeezing gently while Harry turned his head to kiss Luna solidly, making the girl mewl in delight as his own hands began to roam with more purpose than they ever had before.

"Remember," Hermione breathed out heavily into Harry's ear, sliding her body up so her spandex-clad chest slid along his body, "we'll let you know if you go too far. And we can't hold back if we want our bond to be as strong as possible." She nibbled on his earlobe and then gently sucked on it, silently thanking Bob and Lora that she had an excuse to say that, putting her right leg over his and sliding it to cause friction that sent shivers up their bodies.

Harry stopped kissing Luna, who panted lightly as she forgot to breathe through her nose while Harry was ravishing her mouth delightfully to look at his first girlfriend. "What if-"

"Touch me, Harry," Hermione said, grabbing the hand that was holding her around her waist and placing it on her breast, leaning forward and kissing him. "I want this. You won't hurt me or upset me. Just be gentle for now. We can learn our limits later. But I want to be touched by you."

Harry needed little more encouragement and gently palmed Hermione's right breast, marveling at its firmness and how it was still so very soft. He very gently squeezed the lemon-sized orb and twisted the whole handful slightly, letting it go back to normal as his fingers slid to her nipple, only to pinch gently and roll, causing her to gasp in pleasure and tilt her head back, thus allowing him to lean down and steal her breath in another kiss as he felt Luna's lips working down his collar bone and to his own nipple, sucking for a brief moment before her teeth scraped it lightly and went back to immediately feast on his neck enthusiastically.

Hermione's left hand took place of her right on Harry's thigh, beginning to stroke dangerously close to his erect manhood as she squeezed and scratched mindlessly, but without enough pressure to cause pain, and tilted her head back so Harry could kiss, bite, lick and suck on her neck, causing a large assortment of reactions in her body.

Luna, seeing Hermione's hand beneath the water, began to kiss down to his chest and back up Harry's body to his neck again while she shimmied the top of her spandex suit off, wanting to _feel_ his hands upon her bared flesh as she raised his left hand from where it was massaging her side where he knew it was safe to her own chest, letting him know she fully agreed with Hermione. She let out a high-pitched gasp and jerked slightly as his fingertips massaged her budding breast gently. Since she was smaller than Hermione and just enough for him to grasp, he couldn't do the same wonderful things Hermione was enjoying, but she greatly appreciated the care he was showing to the whole fleshy globe rather than just the soft pink nipples. She always felt the rest of her breast would feel left out if only her nipples got enough attention.

Squeaking as she held her breath, trying not to moan as loudly as she wanted, Luna's right hand grasped Harry's left thigh, stroking up and down before sliding over to his manhood and grasping it, giving it two powerful strokes at the same time he had leaned down to nibble on Hermione's exposed collarbone, causing him to bite a little harder which caused Hermione to smile and moan out a guttural, '_Oh yes-s-s!'_ at the same time Harry grunted from Luna's pleasuring hand that left right after to go back to his thigh.

Harry couldn't allow such a wonderful burst of pleasure to go unanswered. He turned away from Hermione, who had begun to knead her other breast far more violently than he was doing to her other and under her own clothes to his blonde second girlfriend, only to look on in shock at what his hand was fondling. The spandex felt nearly identical to the distracted boy as her skin, so he only now realized just how far he was being allowed to go. While his left hand was massaging her left breast, her right was still playing with his thigh and occasionally ghosting over his erection while her left was against her mouth, her knuckles being bitten as she fought off the urge to moan aloud and to diddle herself. She didn't want to touch herself again until Harry did so first.

Harry suckled on Luna's earlobe, happily noting her whimpering as she fought the urge to get loud. "No holding back, Luna Love," he whispered. "I want to hear you."

Immediately, Luna let out a breathy '_Harry_' as she rotated and straddled his left leg and kissed him hard and began to roll her hips, feeling the friction between his leg and her most sensitive spot, making her squeak out with each thrust. "I like feeling you touch my little kitten, Harry," the girl said breathily, smiling as pleasure coursed through her in sharp bursts with each enthusiastic thrust of her hips.

Hermione blushed darkly as she saw Harry begin to kiss Luna's cheek as the blonde waif of a girl threw her head back, beginning to get louder with the nearing of her orgasm, then down to her jaw, her neck. Hermione saw his tongue snake out and swirl around her clavicle and then dip lower, stopping at her chest where Luna looked down in delight, nodding at him.

"Please!" The blonde begged, her and Hermione both watching in wonderment as Harry's mouth clamped down on her right breast, the one that had the least amount of attention paid.

**[Lemon End]**

That was the blonde's undoing. She threw her head back and her hips jerked erratically and she screamed out Harry's name.

Hermione was no longer hoping for her own release as she saw and felt a myriad of colors burst from Luna's chest and rush into Harry, who didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary as his lips worked on the blonde girl's nipples. The Gryffindor girl gasped as she felt Luna's magic, for it felt exactly like the girl, pulse with the same feeling and intensity as the orgasm that obviously hit her. She could feel a slight tingle within herself in the same way she felt a tingle with Harry, but knew it wasn't a connection to the girl she felt, but a connection to her that now existed in her soul mate like an echo. Harry would feel it, and Hermione was simply aware of it.

Lights in soft pastels burst from Luna like expanding arcs of lightning as though she and they were part of an atom until they began to focus around her chest and back, forming an expanding image of large, glowing wings unfolding up and out. Then they burst into light motes that disappeared after several seconds as she stopped screaming Harry's name in her release, continuing to roll her hips gently and very slowly.

_'I never took her for a screamer,'_ Hermione thought, that being the only coherent sentence she felt she could have in that moment. The incredibleness of what she just saw was astounding and made her wish with everything she had that Luna had been able to witness such a beautiful thing when she bonded to Harry. She could feel him ... not so much lost as adrift, some sort of emotional or hormonal high as the two cuddling teens merged slightly together.

Luna cuddled Harry's head to her small chest, shaking for a few seconds as her orgasm subsided. After nearly two minutes, she pulled back and kissed him gently on the lips.

"You both bonded," Hermione said after several long minutes when she could feel Harry's awareness returning. The awe in her voice was hard to miss.

"That felt _much_ more incredible than anything I've ever done myself," Luna said softly, clutching to Harry and planting soft kisses wherever her mouth landed as cuddle mode came to her with a vengeance, just as it had with Hermione when she had felt herself bond with him.

"What did?" Harry asked, confused, but still clutching Hermione and Luna to him all the more tightly as he came more to his senses from the delightfully pleasant feeling of simply drifting with his girlfriends. It was the same sort of haze he felt immediately after snogging Hermione the second time; a sort of relaxed calm.

"I had a powerful orgasm that I can _still_ feel affecting me," Luna said bluntly, making Harry blush. "My little kitten is still quivering delightfully."

"Oh," he squeaked, surprised.

"I did when I bonded with Harry, too," Hermione admitted with just a small amount of embarrassment. If Luna can be that blunt, she could, too. Plus, it wasn't as though she wasn't hoping for the same, herself. "I think that's part of the bonding. I sort of did the same thing as you did just now with Harry the second time we snogged and that was when we bonded, I think. Harry, did you climax with us yet?"

Harry blushed brightly. He was loving every minute with his girls and getting more comfortable, but nothing in his life had really prepared him for these kinds of discussions with girls as of yet. "Er, no," he stuttered out after a few seconds of hoping not to have to answer.

"You think having an orgasm is a part of creating the bond?" Luna asked to reiterate what Hermione said. Soul bonds were extremely rare, but that sort of held with the popular belief that they 'finalized' after consummation, or a kiss in the children stories. If that were what _created_ the bond between the two, then that would explain the romanticized belief. After all, the bonds were rare enough people likely didn't understand that the bond shaped and grew as the bonded couple lived and loved together, as Lora had said seemed to be the case.

"It seems to be," the intelligent one said with a shrug, wondering how it would feel to cuddle chest to chest with Harry and no clothes between them like they were. She would have to try that the next time. "Harry did more with me today than we did before when I bonded with him. All I did was kiss him and grind against him kind of like you but through my clothes. When I came, I bonded. That's when I noticed a change between us, or at least in me, and there was nothing else that could have done it and Lora already said I've bonded to him, but he didn't bond to me."

"So, what," Harry wondered aloud. "I just go to the loo and take care of things and we're bonded?"

Luna giggled while Hermione smiled indulgently. "Harry, if you're meant to bond with us, we probably have to help with things. All sorts of things in magic are really symbolic. This seems to be one of them. You know I '_took care of things_' myself during the summer and we didn't bond, after all. Luna and I both got our jollies by grinding against you when we bonded. Maybe we can-"

"No." Harry stated firmly. "Absolutely not!"

"What?" Both girls wondered, hurt. "Why not?"

"I won't make _either_ of you do something like that just to start a bloody bond of questionable power or use!" Harry stated firmly. "When things get that far, sure. I'm all for it. But I don't want to force you two into anything just so-"

"Harry, you wouldn't be forcing us to do anything," Hermione said, slightly exasperated. "Don't you think we're just as into the idea of helping you with that as you are with us doing it?"

Harry blinked, honestly shocked by the revelation.

"Of _course_ you didn't," Hermione rolled her eyes, smirking at the same time. It was slightly exasperating how low Harry's confidence and sense of self-worth were in the relationship, but still somewhat cute and endearing that he wasn't on the other end of the spectrum and expecting to get into their knickers just because they were soul mates. _'It'd be nice if he would at least _try_, though,'_ she thought to herself. She had a lot of frustration that had just been building up the past few weeks. The only reason she wasn't more upset is because she was fairly sure it was the same for him. The difference, however, was Luna usually stayed with Hermione, meaning she couldn't take care of business like she felt Harry could.

"I didn't really want to assume anything," Harry explained. "I mean, Lora was right. I'm worried that I want to go further because that's what I think I could have expected before since we were older. I still sometimes feel like I'm doing things I shouldn't be or I want to do things I shouldn't."

"What do you want to do?" Hermione wondered, quirking an eyebrow as he blushed again. Apparently, it was naughty. _'Good boy.'_

"Harry, we will let you know if you go too far," Luna soothed, placing a hand gently onto his cheek. "We won't get upset just because you cross a line. Only if you cross one that should never be crossed or one you know we don't want you to would we be upset. Hermione made you play with her breasts. She told you she wanted it. You provided that enjoyment and we're all happy. I had to give you permission to suck mine and I enjoyed _that_. Had you elected to use your hands to bring me that wonderful orgasm, I would have been _very_ happy with _that_, too! Right now, I believe the only limit _I_ have for you is any actual penetration. And if I'm honest, that's just because Hermione and I feel we should discuss it first and make that decision as a group, which I fully approve of. We're just a little young for that, yet. But if you ever want to pet my little kitten, or do these things again, I'm all for that, at least."

"I feel the same," Hermione explained. "At least, so far, the only thing I can think of is any penetration that I'm against. I reserve the right to change my mind of course, but ... well," she shrugged before grabbing the top of her spandex suit and yanking it down to her waist in a deliberate motion, a grin growing across her face as Harry's eyes glued to her revealed breasts. Her grin grew into a large smile when Luna jumped in his lap and made a sound of surprise as she felt his member brush against her calf as it became hard again. She wouldn't have taken it quite this far had Luna not first and if she hadn't already seen his member poking through his boxers occasionally in the mornings when waking up with him, or simply waking him up. She felt turnabout was fair play since she hadn't really gained his permission those times, even if she was only waking him up. The peeks in their dreams and fantasies didn't really count since it was assumed that would be seen, and usually searched for since it was a part of the game.

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and put it to her breasts, letting his fingers trail over her light brown nipples as they hardened in the cool air. "I'm happy we're together, Harry. And I'm happy you so obviously find me attractive," she gestured with some amusement at his lap. "I'm comfortable with this and if I'm ever not, I _will tell you_. We both will. And I am certainly interested in helping you along and getting you bonded to us," she finished with a wicked grin that Harry could honestly say he had never seen on her face before.

**[Lemon Start]**

"Would you like to see if we can bond right now, Harry?" Luna asked gently, reaching down and grasping his length and stroking gently, making him groan.

"What do you want, Harry?" Hermione asked gently, leaning forward to kiss him and put her hand on him at the base of his member while Luna slid her hand forward to take the tip as easily as possible through his shorts.

"Yes," Harry agreed, looking at both girls with darkening eyes.

Luna lifted herself up while Hermione pulled his shorts down, the blonde leaning in and kissing Harry hard while he lifted his bottom enough to let Hermione free him. Almost immediately, he rose free and butted against Luna's firm bottom globes, causing her to giggle and wriggle her hips to feel his heat slide against her. "That feels nice," she stated simply with a half sigh, lowering herself so that her lower lips were atop the middle of his girth, the thin fabric of her loose spandex suit the only thing keeping her from having the full contact she craved with what she liked to call her 'little kitten'.

"Slide your hips, Luna," Hermione spoke into the other girl's ear, reaching around her to cup the younger girl's breasts as Luna turned her head to lock lips with Hermione as the older girl pulled her back so Harry could watch the show.

"Oh God," Harry groaned out, tilting his head back as he felt Luna's hot crevice split open atop him just enough to feel her heat on himself and causing her to squeal into Hermione's mouth as her most sensitive bundle of nerves gained direct stimulation from the veins on his throbbing erection. Luna wasn't able to stop herself from thrusting her hips quicker to slide along his length below her as Hermione pinched her nipples.

Hermione broke the kiss with Luna, _very_ happy she decided to try something new. It wasn't as good as she was hoping for herself, as she _definitely_ preferred watching or being watched than doing this with Luna, but having Harry watch them? She was going to gain her orgasm tonight, for sure. She could feel her core tingling most pleasantly. "Do you like to see your girlfriends play with each other, Harry?" The kinky brunette asked, rubbing her chest against Luna's back as the younger girl began to squeak with her eyes closed.

Luna was beginning to find that working to her second orgasm after such a powerful one was simply too intense without learning to tolerate it. She couldn't stand how much she was feeling. Plus, Hermione hadn't had a release and Luna was very good at looking out for her friends. "Hermione, trade with me. Too intense!"

Harry watched Luna move to the side, her lower half of her spandex suit showing exactly how aroused she had been, only to have his eyes snap to his first girlfriend as she stood from the hot tub, the water pouring off of her and showing her body off to him as she lowered the top of her suit a little more. "Er, are you going to take that off?" He asked, somehow looking at her face rather than the precious jewel he thought she was about to show him.

"I'd like to," Hermione said with a nervous expression, "but I don't want to risk an accident if either of us get too _enthusiastic_ during this. Is ... Is that okay?"

"Of course it is," Harry responded, holding out his hands to help her into his lap. His middle appendage twitched as he watched her come very close, her core practically in his face, before she slowly lowered herself, giving him time to watch her as each part of her was before his eyes. He engulfed her into a fiery kiss as soon as she landed, her butt resting against his erection as he squeezed the fleshy globes and parted them, kneading them in a way that made her mewl and rock her hips and he knew drove her to distraction.

Harry's hands then moved to her hips where he pushed her back from him, and then drove his hips forward at the same time he pulled her close to him, causing her eyes to widen and a gasp of intense pleasure at the shocking display of dominance as her aroused core was slid along his length and then hit his pelvis hard enough to cause a jolt of pleasure to ripple throughout her body.

"Oh God, Harry!" Hermione moaned. "Do that again!"

Harry did, causing Hermione to breathe heavily, only to have her squawk in shock as both of her breasts suddenly had mouths sucking them hard with tongues flicking her hardened nipples violently. She allowed her eyes to open to see both of her partners suckling her, which caused Harry's attention to part from his previous goals and allowed her to simply roll her hips and grab them both by the back of their heads and pulling them tightly against her chest.

Harry's hands found their way underneath Hermione's spandex and began to massage her bottom in such a way that she shivered in his lap and bit her lower lip. She could readily tell that the spandex, while allowing an incredible amount of sensation to pass through, also was like rubbing through regular clothes, only smoother, deadening the sensations she desperately wanted. With a whimper, she moved her hips from side to side to allow the loose spandex covering her treasure to the stretch slightly, allowing Harry's girth to spread her heated lips delightfully and gain direct friction along _all_ of her most sensitive flesh, something that caused both to groan in appreciation as heat met heat. They began to both roll their hips furiously, the water splashing around them as both began to pant aloud.

Luna smiled warmly as she watched her two best friends get close to finding their release together. She knew their focus would narrow as they got closer to it, as well. But she wasn't upset. The quirky girl would have stayed out of it except Hermione had tried to help Harry along by teasing her. It had definitely seemed to be working, but it was just more than Luna's body could handle. She had never came so hard in her life and _any_ attention was almost too much.

That didn't mean she couldn't return the favor though.

So she had begun sucking the brunette's breasts since Hermione had kissed her and Harry was going for that spot anyway. However, now, Luna sidled up behind Hermione and grasped the older girl's breasts firmly, pinching and rolling the nipples between skilled fingers that had been trained on herself and pulling them outwards, abusing the older girl's sensitive little nubs just as she had watched her doing to herself nearly a half hour before.

Hermione lost it immediately.

The brunette pulled Harry's head towards her and mashed it into her wet breasts where Luna's hands were still playing with them, only to feel her boyfriend jerk below her violently as his own orgasm hit.

[Lemon End]

Luna's eyes widened as she saw a brilliant burst of white, silver and blue light erupt from Harry like an explosion of fireworks. A dome encased each of them as the lights seemed to shift into thousands of long poles that centered around his heart as if skewering him there and fanning out as they left his body. The light, however, when it went through her and Hermione, felt like pure radiance. Like the very nature of Harry himself in the light as the poles of light glowed. Luna would swear she saw wings made of feathery light form on his back, as though disillusioned, only visible in the light that was coming off of him.

Luna could feel Harry connecting to her and, through him, knew he was connecting to Hermione as well and thus, knew what the brunette was feeling like it was a discussion being held in another room she could just barely hear. Hermione slumped forward, into Harry, and Luna followed, holding her friends tightly and sandwiching Hermione in between them as the older girl panted. She could still feel Hermione shuddering as her own orgasm ripped through her, and could feel the tip of Harry's erection twitching at her own crotch since Hermione's weight was holding it down.

The three held each other for several long minutes before Hermione came to, having apparently blacked out from the overload of her senses. Harry had come to his senses a few moments before, but wasn't about to be the first to end a good thing and took his time planting kisses along any stretch of skin he could find while one hand caressed Hermione's back and the other Luna's.

"That was _good_," Hermione mumbled, wriggling just a little to feel Harry still right where she had left him.

"Very much so," Harry said, hugging both girls with Hermione still stuck in the middle.

"We should dry off and get to bed," Luna suggested. "We've been doing this for about an hour and a half. We're getting all pruney and wrinkly."

"Just five more minutes like this?" Hermione asked. "I can't get the energy to move my legs quite yet."

Luna giggled, but kissed Hermione's shoulder and got out, taking off her spandex, and enjoying Harry watching the show, and dried off, putting on her Hogwarts robe and nothing else, since she had only worn the spandex underneath of it to get there.

Harry lifted Hermione, chuckling as she grunted in displeasure at being removed, and set her on the side of the hot tub, just so he could lean in and kiss her passionately. "I always figured you had some instinctual thing to be incredible at anything you put your mind to. Now I've got proof," he said, kissing her again and then hugging her close.

"You already got off once Potter. That's enough for tonight, so you don't have to bother with flattery for now," she said playfully back, smiling to show she still appreciated it.

"Tough," he said with a grin, getting out of the water to put his robe on as well. "If you're going to be dating me, you'll have to learn to deal with compliments and anything else I can think of to make you happy."

"That's doable," Luna said, coming up and hugging Harry, still feeling the effects of her own orgasm as her body felt heavy, tired and simply satisfied. The physical pleasure part was mostly gone, and this was certainly the longest it had ever lasted and had been simple aftershocks spreading through her body for the past several minutes. But the mind numbing happy glow that comes from after a really good release was still present, as was a sense of joy that she had helped her partners find their own release. Much like Hermione, she didn't care so much for being with a girl, but she would do anything to make this work and make them both happy. And since she was far from against it, and didn't mind returning the favor Hermione had provided, it wasn't a big deal.

Granted, Hermione was hoping to test the waters, as her mother had put it, and also liked the idea of Harry watching them, but Luna didn't know, or really even care, about that. Friends shared. With these two, that just meant a whole new way of sharing.

By the time they got to their new quarters where they would leave Luna's things that couldn't readily be hidden in a dorm, the Triad was sleepy, exhausted, and in one hell of a cuddly mood. Each put on a pair of panties or boxers and crawled into bed, not bothering with the pajamas they had laid out. They wanted to cuddle and they wanted the contact. Plus they couldn't wait to see how it felt when they woke up since this was going to be a rarity for them, they knew.

It had been a _great_ Christmas!

xXxXxXx

Lily and Celeste looked at each other with huge grins as they watched their children get into bed and snuggle. They hadn't felt comfortable watching the previous hour and a half, but they simply _knew_ what had happened. Call it 'Mother's Intuition' if you want, but they simply _knew_.

It helped when Lora exclaimed, "_Finally!_" while throwing up her hands, of course.

"I know girls like babies, but this just isn't right," James sighed, looking into the distance where the two women were doing their Snoopy dance. _Again_. _'Maybe Salazar would like to prank Godric again or help me filch some Ambrosia and we can see who comes up with the wackiest stories again.'_

"Grand babies! Grand Babies!" The duo sang.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 26, Mid-Morning, Malfoy Manor**

Severus Snape's eyes widened fractionally as he entered Malfoy Manor, seeing it practically gutted of anything of value. Things were worse than he had thought. "Draco!" He yelled out, seeing as there wasn't a house elf to call on or escort him.

Seconds later, Draco entered the room, looking like his normal self, if perhaps with a strange new spring in his step. "You're early. I didn't expect you for another ten minutes."

"Let's go to the kitchen. We can eat there and discuss what we know." Snape narrowed his eyes as he watched Draco step to the side and wave his arm wide, gesturing for his godfather to lead the way. Something was off about the boy. _'I'll get it while we eat and his mind is distracted.'_

Once in the private dining hall, Snape unshrunk a basket with food, mostly things for sandwiches from the leftovers from the night before since it was quick and easy and even a dimwit like his godson could put meat between two slices of bread. "Tell me what you know."

"As much as you," Draco responded, eating with a calm air of detachment that had Severus on edge. The spoiled brat didn't even sneer at the 'commoner' food he was brought. "I simply stopped receiving messages from Father and Mother about the same time as the Umbridge fiasco in the paper. I've read what is in the Prophet and then on Christmas day, I got a summons for Father and Mother's will reading in five days. The Manor has, indeed, been divested of anything of value and the various hidden areas all open for anyone to see should they walk through. I don't know if it was the Aurors or not, however. If it was, I think it would be in the papers. Since he's dead, I believe we can assume someone else has stolen them, though."

Severus leaned back as his godson chewed on a turkey sandwich. Normally, the boy would complain about doing much of anything when there should be a servant to do the work, or he just simply believed as much. More disconcerting, however, was the curious monologue. The boy _almost_ sounded as though he knew what he was talking about. He also seemed to be waiting. The older man had seen this kind of attitude in someone who had thought they won something over on someone else, and many times on the face of Lucius Malfoy after successfully destroying someone's entire life. What it could be, he didn't know, but it was likely to get the boy into trouble.

"Then we know as much as anyone else," Severus stated after a moment of thought. He would miss Lucius, as the man could procure him pretty much anything. And he had been eying Narcissa for some time in hopes she would grace his bed, one way or another. _'Such a pity,'_ he thought of the loss. _'So much for being rid of Lucius and gaining the Malfoy power through her and Draco.'_

"Without knowing who did this or what they wanted, especially considering the power of the wards here, emancipation is too dangerous for you," Severus stated deciding he needed to protect his ward until he could gain control over everything from the brat.

"I've decided upon emancipation, actually," Draco drawled, clasping his hands together and taking a pose he had seen his father perform many times to make those he was speaking to believe they had his full attention and should do likewise.

"Don't be a fool!" Severus hissed. "You'll be prey for the nundu! You never learned patience from your father, nor have you any sense of subtlety and you make enemies everywhere!" Severus quickly sent a probe into the boy's mind, deciding against warning about that particular flaw, and elected to see where the boy's thoughts were. He was immediately disgusted. This was all coming from Potter's words about not being a man and remaining pathetic! The brat's plans were certainly ambitious and were it someone capable, Snape would have enjoyed watching. But this! Draco would lose his power, his fortune and his pride, most likely, because the brat couldn't do anything right!

"Potter is doing as well as one could expect from a half-blood mongrel raised by some pathetic muggles!" Draco scoffed. "I've been trained since I was born to be a Pureblood Prince! And someone needs to put that sorry excuse for a wizard in his place!"

"And just how do you expect to do that?" Severus asked angrily. "You can't best him in a duel! He has more power magically and politically than you! He already has allies in some powerful people!"

"So do I!" Draco yelled back.

"Your _father_ had allies! And most of those were bought!" Snape roared back, making the little shit flinch and smiling darkly. "But if you wish to play adult like a big boy, let us see how you do," Severus offered with a silky hiss to his voice, watching Draco's eyes narrow.

"What do you mean?"

"It's very simple," the Death Eater continued, now feeling in control again. "You have everything you need in order to become Lord Malfoy. While it is true your ancestors bought the title and you have no land with vassals or serfs to truly claim a real Lordship, the title is enough with your money. However, you must also show yourself competent and _capable_ of holding onto your position. Let's see if you _can_."

"Of course I can!" Draco confirmed more petulantly than he would have liked.

"Can you?" Severus asked with dark amusement. "After all, you will be living on _Potter's_ land with _his_ rules, for the most part. That alone requires you behave a certain way. Upset him too greatly, and he can challenge you for everything you have. And we _both_ know he would win."

Severus got up and spun on his heel, letting his robes billow as he paused dramatically, knowing theatrics were everything to the little ponce. Of course, the little details were important for everyone, even if they didn't always catch them, too. "Understand that if you get yourself into trouble and require my help to get you out of it, I'll demand something of you if you choose to emancipate yourself. You have until the will reading. I'll be there as well as I'm mentioned in it also. Goodbye, _Lord_ Malfoy. And may your endeavors succeed, because failure would cost you _quite_ heavily."

Draco glared at his godfather's back, knowing better than to try and hex him. But he envisioned it, along with many other horrible thoughts at what he could do once he had the power of his father's might. "Blast it! I'll need to purchase a new house elf first thing," he bitched, looking at his sandwich in disgust and then around his home. "Perhaps I should upgrade the wards here since someone was able to get Father and Mother," he considered a little more scared now that he thought of that. While no one knew exactly what happened to the elder Malfoys, the Aurors were reported to have had to call in curse breakers to get past the wards. Draco wasn't even sure if any wards _were_ active.

Severus' lip curled in disgust as he turned from the entry to the dining hall where he was spying and went back to the floo, his silenced feet pounding quickly. This was one plan ruined, but he had contingencies in place for such an occurrence, considering who the boy's father was. Though, he had honestly expected anyone who killed Lucius to keep Narcissa. She was far more valuable alive than dead.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – December 26, 11:00 – Lord's Chamber (Luna's Room)**

Hermione let out a contented growl as she came back to the land of the living that sounded more like a purr. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled brightly as her gaze fell upon the sleeping form of her boyfriend. However, as she stretched languidly, she blushed as she realized what Harry's hand was cupping, even as she enjoyed the warmth his hand brought on her panty-clad bottom. It took her only a moment to realize both her and Harry were almost totally naked and she was sure Luna was as well if her mind didn't fail her. Considering she could feel the blonde's bare leg draped over Harry's and her own, she was quite sure it hadn't.

She was also quite curious to note she didn't feel a lick of embarrassment at just how thoroughly her body was cuddled into his side, drawing on his warmth.

"You look very peaceful when you're asleep," Luna said softly over Harry's chest, making Hermione look over at the peaceful expression on her co-girlfriend. "You're usually up long before I am, and all the other times we've slept with Harry, he usually wakes us up, so I've never noticed before."

"Thank you," Hermione said a little bashfully. Images of the night before flashed through her mind's eye. "I'm sorry about what I did last night. I know we didn't talk about it. Or ... er, agree to it."

"Why did you do it, then?" Luna asked curiously, not incriminating or blaming, but honestly wondering what had caused the brunette who was the one to specifically state they should try friendship first to play with her.

"I...," Hermione swallowed, a little embarrassed at her thoughts. "I wanted to tease Harry. Help him want to be with us and get more into it. And, well, you always hear how boys like the idea of two girls with each other. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I thought it might help him."

"Form the bond?" Luna asked after a moment where she looked to Harry's sleeping face.

Hermione was quiet for nearly a minute as she thought on that and really considered before she shook her head slowly so as not to rouse him. "No," she whispered barely audible. "That may have been my excuse," she said a little more firmly, "but I..."

"What?" Luna asked near inaudibly.

"I _wanted_ him to _want_ us. I wanted him to _see_ us _together_ and be with us, maybe a little jealous or maybe just lost a bit to his lusts. I ... didn't really think. I just ... knew what I wanted him to feel and I guess I'm a little curious about it all. Just nervous, too. I'm not opposed to it ... But I'm not really _for_ it, either. I guess I'm just a little curious. I've never really been interested in girls, or even really thought about it, but now I'm faced with the idea. And I know he's sort of been fighting an ingrained ideology that says it's wrong, kind of like I did just because I'd never considered it before. I accept it happens and don't think poorly of anyone who prefers it, but never thought I would be a part of anything like this."

"I think I understand," Luna said with a forgiving and accepting smile. "I don't mind if you ever want to do that again. It was an enjoyable experience, but I think it was more because Harry was a part of it and I was very turned on."

Hermione shifted nervously at Luna's forthright bluntness, unsure of exactly what it was that statement made her feel. Sleeping with Luna and sharing a dorm room with other women, to say nothing of the environment she was raised in, had left her pretty much immune to the hesitance of being physically close to another woman, in concept. But until Harry had come clean about the future and the soul mate situation, she had never once entertained the idea of being romantically involved with girls. Well, other than joking to herself that a lack of male interest would lead her in that direction if her love life didn't change at some point. The fact that she had little actual desire to be against it and simply preferred men, or Harry at any rate, was basically the main thing that confused her. It just seemed like a much better idea in the middle of their play time to go for it than it did when she was sober and her hormones weren't telling her it would be fun and enjoyable.

"I'll try not to do it again," Hermione promised. "At least not without bringing it up first."

"If it's for Harry," Luna said after a moment, "I don't mind. Like we've discussed before, I am not really interested in women, but I also don't mind working to make this relationship work out, in whatever form it may take. Even if that means we become lovers, I can happily do so for you both. I may find that I enjoy it, anyway. I wouldn't know if I didn't try, after all. I'll admit things were a little fun last night, regardless."

"Luna," Hermione reached up to gently cup the younger girl's face. "We want you to do what you _want_ to do. Neither of us will be happy with ourselves and would be hurt if you did things you didn't want to. _Please_ don't subjugate yourself for our sakes, okay? Be and do who and what you want. Even if I want this in the future, and you don't, I would rather not do them."

"I agree with Hermione," Harry mumbled sleepily, grinning contentedly as he hugged both girls a little more tightly. He always liked waking up with them at his side. It was extremely comforting and gave him a sense of happiness to feel their warmths and bodies in his arms. "I like both of you for who you are. And you're both your own individuals and unique with likes and dislikes. We won't always want to do the same things or do everything together. We just have to learn to find a good medium or middle ground."

Luna smiled and kissed Harry's shoulder next to where her mouth was lazily. "I see things in one of three ways. Either I want to do it, I don't mind one way or another, or I don't want to. The first two, I'll go along simply because it isn't a problem. Being lovers with both of you falls into one of the first two categories depending on my mood. And you've never, not once, asked or suggested I do something I didn't want to."

"And we won't," Hermione promised.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Luna chided gently, stroking a finger up and down Harry's chest. "We already know a war is coming. We'll likely have to do things and ask things of each other that we will try to forget after it's all over."

"But where _we_ are concerned, together, you can be sure we'll take your feelings into account," Harry said, kissing Luna's forehead. "You're both precious to me. And I don't want to control either of you."

Luna squeezed her body to make it hug Harry's tightly with a deep and happy sigh. "This is really nice."

"It's really hard to believe it's only been a week since we got together," Hermione said even as Harry agreed with Luna and she followed their lead and cuddled in. She was somewhat glad to be under the covers so Harry didn't see a physical response to the situation. "Especially after ... last night."

"Are we going too fast?" Harry asked, looking just a little concerned.

"I don't think so," Luna stated, playing with her bellybutton. "I would certainly enjoy cuddling fully nude, but agree that could end up farther than we care to go, especially since I'm likely to find something to play with on someone. But at the same time, you know I enjoy a lack of clothing."

"But the rest?" Harry asked. "It isn't that I didn't enjoy it, because I definitely did, but ... we've basically been together for a week and we're already doing things together that your parents are likely to kill me for."

"I think," Hermione began, knowing she was the one that preferred the more advanced stuff, "that as long as we know what we're doing, are comfortable with it, and aren't in it just for our jollies, we should be fine. It's more than just sex stuff for all of us, after all."

"I don't want to give it up," Harry agreed after a minute with a whisper, referencing his new relationship with the girls and how it made him so happy, the previous night not really being a major factor in that happiness, simply a wonderful bonus of it. "Or lose it. Not the perverted stuff, of course. Just ... My time with both of you."

"You don't have to," Luna said, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. "We're here. We've bonded and we want this to work. As long as we always try our best and hardest, there's no reason to think we won't always be together."

"I have every intention," Harry said, stroking the hair of both girls lovingly and causing them to purr in contentment as their eyes drooped in pleasure, "of trying my hardest in everything I do from now on."

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 31, 14:15 – Ministry for Magic**

Draco Malfoy strutted into the Ministry for Magic with a proud, vicious smirk adorning his face and a swagger that, to be honest, would have been more in place on his mother or a rooster in a hen house. Today was the thirty-first of December. The day he became a man. A man, a Lord and Master of his own House.

Lucius Malfoy never trusted a non-human, including goblins, so his will was handled through the Ministry for Magic as much as Gringotts itself. It was very rarely done, since it was easy enough for anyone with a little gold or enough fear behind them to gain access to and change one person's will for another. It wasn't _supposed_ to be that way, of course, but the place was rife with corruption. After all, it would also be very simple to ensure lordships went one way or another, as well.

Goblins loathed most humans, a byproduct of humans hating and attempting to destroy anything totally abnormal from their reality and what they consider normal, but were happy to deal with their financial accounts since they could enjoy their own independence while causing plenty of hardship and misery for those they disliked or who treated them wrongly via incorrectly filled out legal forms. Plus, it was simply amusing to them to fine a wizard's accounts for breaking the treaties long ago agreed to that meant they agreed to certain measures of respect on Goblin land, such as Gringotts. It was especially amusing since the Ministry stopped teaching about those treaties, thus allowing their children to be fined repeatedly. Raising your voice to them, threatening them outside of a business negotiation, which goblins found normal, or when the human was slighted first and other such things meant they could basically take a human's gold without having to do much. And the Goblin Nation quite happily took from those they didn't also make a profit from or feared losing when such things happened.

There were a rare few who had earned the respect, and even assistance, of the goblins, but they were few and far in between, usually having strong political power, financial assets and a lack of discrimination, such as Harry tentatively held.

By and large, the relations between the two races were poor, but a mix of honor and fear kept the two playing their roles, so most magicals used them to execute their wills since they, at least, were not likely to accept bribes to change a will and the magical verifications the goblins used were first rate and hard to get past, even for the goblins.

Therefore, the Malfoy patriarch demanded two separate wills, one at Gringotts written in the man's own blood, where it was safe, and another copy that had his family crest infused with his magic, which had to be confirmed as a match to the magic in his blood copy. It was impossible to mimic the magic infused into the golden crest. Well, that is to say it was impossible once the gold had set, which also kept the will itself from being altered in any way. Until then, it was easy enough if you understood what to do. Should there be a variation, the will from Gringotts was considered official. By and large, it was simply a way to ensure the will from the Ministry was not altered or switched with a fake, since Lucius also knew not to trust anyone there.

A copy written in blood, however, could simply be done using stolen blood, which wasn't hard to obtain for anyone who wasn't squeamish. Also, that blood could be removed, at least a little, and used for nefarious deeds, which was why the evil man was unwilling to leave it laying around where his enemies could get it within the Ministry. Thus, the will from the Ministry was also to ensure the Gringotts version was valid as it was nigh impossible to alter both pieces as those who had power in the Ministry generally held none at Gringotts, as a power base in one meant stepping on the toes of the other. And if you _did_ happen to have power at both, it wouldn't be enough to do much of anything. Therefore, the only viable option was two-fold.

That was why everything was being done within the Ministry. Having planned ahead, the blond Slytherin had paid in advance to have a goblin representative travel to the Ministry since the Ministry officials were unlikely to leave the comforts of their lairs, or rather offices, despite what some may have thought they might get.

"Mister Malfoy," Cornelius Fudge smarmed, greeting the boy as he passed the checkpoint and gave up his wand and smiling widely at the knowledge that the boy's father was now dead and no longer a threat. The older man's only regret was he didn't know how long it had taken for the Slytherin to die. Well, perhaps that and a lack of a body to piss on. As it was, he was now hinting that he and Lucius had dueled during their last meeting and Malfoy Senior was now dead due to wounds suffered during that event. Only one or two of the dozen he'd run the pseudo story by believed him, however. "Lucius' reading will be held in fifteen minutes in the liaison offices on the third floor."

"Good," Draco sneered, looking forward to gaining his lordship. "I will expect a swift transfer of all my father's assets to myself."

"You'll get everything that's coming to you," Fudge stated with a hint of malice that made the Malfoy scion pause only long enough to shake his head and regain his confidence.

"I intend to," Draco stated, turning as a hint of familiar movement caught his eye. Severus Snape strode in with his billowing robes, getting some very nasty glares from the younger individuals who weren't in Slytherin who had very powerful memories of the hateful and spiteful man.

"Ah, Mister Snape," Fudge greeted a man even _he_ hated with a well-practiced grin. "The reading shall start in just a few minutes on floor three in the liaison's office. I'm sorry for both your losses."

"Indeed," Snape hissed. Then, without looking at Draco, he went straight to the elevators as Draco followed petulantly. He didn't like being ignored, especially on his big day.

Ten minutes later, the two were in the liaison's offices. Rather than enter the room devoted to goblin relations, they simply held court in the main office, which was more accessible to those who would want to listen in at the door in the hall, specifically two that Fudge had told to do so.

"I am Tendonblade," a goblin spoke as he entered the room. "I was sent from Gringotts to verify the last will and testament of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy."

Draco withheld the urge to snap at the wrinkly sub-creature and make him get on with things, but only just. Instead, he quickly took in a deep breath and then let it out heavily through his nose in impatience. It caused the goblin's upper lip to curl in disgust and quiet rage while Severus quietly snorted.

After five minutes of casting his goblin magics and the wizard from the legal department casting his own verification spells, the magics within both will documents proved to be a match.

"I'll handle the reading," the wizard said, casting a glare at the goblin as he pulled both documents away from the nasty little creature with a jerk. "Ahem!"

_This is the last will and testament of Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, dated February 19, 1993. Any wills dated earlier are hereby rendered magically null and void and, should the magics within work properly, they should turn to ash._

_Should my wife, Narcissa Malfoy, previously Narcissa Black, survive me in life, she is to receive a ten-thousand galleon allowance each year until my son, Draco Malfoy, takes up his lordship duties. However, if she is found to be responsible for my death, I demand satisfaction for my honor by either calling for the death penalty, or should my son desire it, he may bind her to him as his slave with all rights taken from her. Should she be innocent of my demise, I grant her rights to control the Malfoy Estate to the extent of maintaining it, but she may not sell anything without Draco's acceptance except in the course of needing it to maintain the Estate, which shall be from items in vault 1211, which have been set aside for this reason._

_To my son Draco Scorpius Malfoy, I leave the Malfoy lordship to accept when he sees fit. Until he chooses to accept it, or should he be found unfit for the position, I leave his guardianship to first his mother, Narcissa Malfoy, followed by his godfather, Severus Snape. Then, in order, to the Parkinson, Nott, Bulstrode, Goyle and Crabbe families. All lands, properties and titles are to be granted to Draco upon his majority should he not accept them sooner. Also, should he accept his lordship, he is to get the items in vault 1211 for the same reasons as Narcissa, unless he elects to do otherwise with them._

_Until Draco accepts his lordship, I authorize him a yearly allowance of one thousand galleons a year, plus whatever is needed for his Hogwarts supplies and tuition, or such an addition to any other magical school he finds himself attending._

_To Severus Snape, my friend and son's godfather, I grant fifty thousand galleons. Also, I leave the cache of potions supplies, which you know the location to already and I also ask that, should it prove necessary, you take care of Draco._

_To any of the families that end up with Draco's guardianship, should there be one, are to get a yearly allowance of five thousand galleons a year, as well, for his care._

_Should both my wife and son be dead, and I have no other heirs, all my holdings are to go to Severus Snape unless he is proven to be responsible. _

_Should anyone be proven responsible for my death, I demand satisfaction and will demand their death via Dementor's kiss or the Veil of Death unless they prefer to select a firing squad of no less than thirty aurors firing cutting curses. However, if Draco requests, they may be bound to him as slaves so they may serve the family they attempted to destroy._

_Lucius Abraxas Malfoy_

"I'll be taking my emancipation and lordship immediately," Draco said with a grin.

"We still have your mother's will to go through," Fudge said quickly, hoping there was a flaw somewhere he could use to keep the boy from getting any of that power or money.

"The names are different, but everything is to go to the boy," the wizard stated, reading Narcissa's will. "The only difference other than exchanging Lucius' name in place of hers for young Draco's inheritance, her own funds, still existing from her dowry, is to be given to her sister, Andromeda."

"What?" Draco ground out angrily. "That muggle-lover isn't even _here_! That should disqualify her from getting _anything_!"

"It is not a requirement to attend a will reading," Tendonblade snorted. "Otherwise, it would be far too easy to control inheritances."

"Are you sure you wish to emancipate yourself, Mister Malfoy?" Fudge asked with an expression on his face that would appear as though he had sucked on a lemon.

"As quickly as possible," Draco said with a grin.

"You are aware that would have you considered an adult?" The wizard who was reading the wills asked gently, hoping to ingratiate himself to the young, impressionable youth. "It is my understanding you have a standing betrothal contract that is made to activate when you come of age. While you will not be of age, you will be considered as such, legally, including activating this and any other legal documents of a similar nature."

Draco Malfoy, _Lord_ Malfoy, grinned evilly as he realized what that would mean. Pansy would not, _could_ not, deny him any longer. He would get much more than a simple kiss from the prudish girl now. "I am aware and accept it."

"That would require marrying her before midnight tonight," Snape stated amusedly. "Otherwise, you forfeit a million galleons for breaking the contract that was designed to wed the two of you on your birthday as you came of age."

"So be it," Draco said with a wider grin, ignoring the rise within his pants as he looked forward to it. "I'll send a letter to Pansy and her father immediately following this."

"I shall have a Ministry representative ready to officiate and be on call within an hour. Come back by here whenever you're ready after that and we can formalize your bonding."

"I'll have her here soon," Draco stated happily. "Is there anything else I need to do or sign?"

"Yes," Tendonblade growled. "You cannot legally marry until after you accept your lordship and sign the documents authorizing as such."

"I, however, am ready to sign to accept my part of things and shall be ready to leave," Snape motioned to the papers on the desks. "I would like to be done with things and get back to Hogwarts where I have duties."

Several minutes later, Draco had sent his letters with Ministry owls and had returned to his home to change and laugh as things came to a head. He couldn't believe his luck! His lordship, a wife and vast wealth!

_Freedom_!

"First," Draco muttered as he put on his best robe, just purchased, "will be to get a new bloody elf. Two, in fact. And have them get some new furniture and house supplies."

"Hoo!"

Draco looked up to see an owl, one he recognized as the Parkinson owl, swoop down and land on a chair and hold out its leg. "Finally got a response, eh? Let's see what the in-laws have to say." The boy snapped the wax seal and unrolled the parchment.

_Lord Malfoy,_

_Congratulations on your new lordship. I offer my condolences on the loss of your parents._

_I must say that I had never expected to give my daughter away at such a young age, and I was quite upset at such a short notice. I am quite displeased by your heavy-handed method of meeting this situation, but understand you likely had other things on your mind during such a trying time and warning us of your intentions probably never entered your mind._

_Pansy and our family will see you at the Ministry at four o'clock this evening for you to accept her as your wife._

_Sincerely,_

_Nicholas Parkinson_

Draco snorted in disgust, once again, and tossed the letter over his shoulder. "Who the hell does that fool think he is, telling me I'm being 'heavy-handed' and what does he think I care about his being upset?"

The new _Lord_ Malfoy finished his tie and struck a pose in front of his mirror, trying to decide how regal it made him look and if he should take it while taking Pansy from her family. "Perhaps Pansy will just have to learn she will take any punishments her family earns her." The boy chuckled darkly as he thought of just how to go about it.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – December 31, 21:00 - Hogwarts**

For the whole of the week following Christmas, the only time Harry, Hermione and Luna were separated was in the evening of the first two days when Harry would go to the Room of Requirement and battle against his doppleganger. However, when the girls learned just how extensive that training had become, Luna was curious about where her and Hermione stood in comparison. Against Harry, they lasted as long as he allowed them, able to overwhelm them at his will.

Against their own dopplegangers, Hermione lasted about eight minutes and Luna almost a full fifteen. It wasn't their ability to fight against their other selves that caused the problems, as the doppleganger was only marginally better than they were themselves by design, but the fact that their duplicates didn't tire. They always had the same amount of magic, didn't slow and were just as tricky as they were themselves. And those were one-on-one duels.

Harry was fighting his own duplicate and eight of what he called 'standard Death Eaters' with their 'usual nasties', claiming he had been doing this the majority of the summer and most nights in the Room of Requirement and basic, animated dummies at his own home during the summer. When one Death Eater was felled, another would take its place after two minutes, giving Harry a chance to take them all out and go toe-to-toe with himself.

Hermione lasted a minute and a half while Luna didn't last the minute against a duplicate and one additional enemy. Neither girl took their defeats easily or with good humor. Well, that isn't to say Luna seemed upset. But forcefully stating she would put the duplicate on her 'cute, dimpled bottom' instead of the other way around as though scolding a child was about as upset as she had ever been seen outside of when Hermione had been hurt. Harry had never seen the blonde stamp her foot and huff before.

In that week, the Triad spent more time together in cuddle-mode than they did doing much else, never going as far as they had Christmas night again. Each day was repeated with the use of a Time-Turner so that Hermione could get in her study time, which Luna quite happily followed into, along with study in the library and work on their assignments and so they could spend their second time through at Potter Manor, lazily cuddling and snogging outside of Harry's self-imposed, mandatory, daily exercising.

They found they now greatly enjoyed the 'cool-down' period since it now involved gentle kisses and caresses in the hot tub.

They also took an extra couple of hours at the end of each day to eat with the Granger parents, just simply getting a feel for each other while the parents simply paid attention to how the three worked together, hoping to help out their daughter by noting any potential problems. The only problem was there weren't any outside of the lithe blonde's apparent need to appease everyone, which Harry and Hermione had well in hand.

In a moment of crystal clarity, the elder Grangers would admit to their only daughter that they were extremely surprised, but pleased, by how well the three worked together and didn't ignore each others' needs or wants. Their only concern, other than the growing frequency of the physical touching and how close they wanted to stay with each other, was that they were planning on trying to keep it as two separate relationships, which was harder in general, they knew. It was the happy expressions as both girls liked to stay with and cuddle with Harry and the lack of signs of resentment that made the adult Grangers think it would work out if they could keep it up.

However, after both girls' actions Christmas night, they felt it best to give each other time with Harry alone for their personal snogging time. Two hours each, which was also with turned time so they didn't lose any time of the day where they were all three together, was for their own version of enhancing their bonding while the rest of the day was all for innocent cuddling.

Hermione had grown extremely fond of having a constant sensory input of pleasure, be it from kissing, fondling and even just simple touching in traditionally inappropriate areas such as Harry resting his hand on her tummy under her shirt, just because it was more meaningful while being something reserved for someone special that meant a lot to her. But mostly, she enjoyed the kissing and didn't seem to get enough, particularly while Harry's hands kneaded her bottom. She could be content with simple, appropriate and public-approved cuddly activities, but truly felt happy when there was a naughty overtone, even if just very slight.

She had made a game of it with Harry, letting him know each garment in her panty drawer and giving him hints as to which she was wearing. Other than making him flush, she grew to appreciate the simple game. Especially when he guessed right, not that he had quite yet. Should he, however, he'd get to see them. While she was still wearing them. That appeased the naughty witch in her so she could go most of the day with no real inappropriate contact, according to the school rules, anyway. So that would be their game when they couldn't be alone once the term started again.

Luna, however, absolutely adored to cuddle with as much skin contact as possible and preferred to have Harry's hands simply hold her by her chest or her backside while they hugged gently unless it was a position where he could stroke her hair, usually with her head in his lap, which was usually what happened when they cuddled on the couch since it was innocent enough. Though she would ask once, and only once, each time if he wanted to go further during their alone time. Harry was still unable to decide if she was pleased or disappointed that he didn't take her up on her offer. She seemed content to simply be loved in whatever form it took and only really cared to get naughty when either of them were in the mood.

By the end of the week, Harry had learned that Hermione wasn't focusing on the sexual side of things, but felt desired and _wanted_ through a form of contact she had realistically given up hope on ever really achieving any time soon in any meaningful fashion. She just couldn't get enough of that feeling. Though, neither her nor Harry realized how much of that drive was pulled from the Abyss from a part of her that refused to ever be lost. It was a part of her that had always driven her when Harry was involved. It simply had a much happier outlet now than keeping the death-prone boy alive.

In _every single_ version of her life, even if she hadn't been aware of it, Harry had never really made an overt gesture of love or affection for her outside of risking everything he was and had to protect her.

When it was her, Luna and him in the tent, they had budding looks and lingering touches, hinting at more about to happen if they crested that last barrier, but it had never happened. She had, in every one of those lives, loved him deeply. Even while suffering from Amortentia and loyalty and lust potions for Ron, her love for Harry was absolute and unfulfilled. That desperate want and desire, that _need_ to be Harry's girlfriend and lover, is a large part of what was driving her. Not pushing her, but the instinctual knowledge that she was making up for lost time.

The same held true for Luna and her desire to simply feel loved and cherished, which had always been her strongest and deepest desire. Just like Harry's need to protect Hermione and not fail brought him memories of past lives where he could change things to do just that and urged him to push himself that little bit further, both girls had parts of their most powerful emotions coming back to them, albeit in much lesser forms than the boy who had actually crossed that barrier more times than he ever wanted to know about, causing him to punish his body daily to be the best and strongest he could be.

Luna had several different lives, just as Hermione had. But Hermione had always been in the thick of things with Harry where there were ultimately minor changes in her life. People were sometimes different, like when Luna joined them on the hunt, but most things happened very similarly. Luna, sadly, was Harry's other soul mate and always befriended him, eventually. She was always going to be a way to alter things one way or another and most of her lives involved loneliness, suffering and utter hopelessness to balance any new attempts at a time line. That, in a very large way, was what caused her to want to cuddle with her friends as she did and, because she, too, cared for Harry, usually loving him almost immediately, is why she desperately craved the contact of his flesh against hers. To her, it was like holding her lover in the afterglow of love-making, all the time. That same contentment and warmth, emotionally, was there every time they simply held each other.

So, while both girls desired these things in their lives, living them over and over again amplified them somewhat as both girls had their strongest desires echo throughout the Abyss in a manner similar to bouts of intuition or sudden knowledge flooding a mind. It made them want to have Harry the way they craved him more thoroughly than they otherwise would have. Past wants and desires flowing through them so they could get what they wanted in every life.

Of course, there was no way the three would let the adults they were heading to meet that Friday night know any of those things that urged them on, not even aware their bond assisted them with the echoes of the desires of their other lives' selves, urging them to get and take what they wanted.

"Luna, _please_ put your shirt back on!" Hermione pled as the two girls got ready for the trip to meet the Grangers and then head to the Lovegood home for what was bound to be a New Year's party any normal person would either run screaming from, or have a week-long hangover to gloat about.

Hermione fully believed in the former, but decided to see how her parents responded.

"I decided to wear a different one," Luna chirruped. "Or maybe go with a summer dress since it's winter. I have this pale yellow one. What do you think?"

"Did you always have one of those in your things?" Hermione asked in confusion, having a pretty good idea by now as to the blonde's wardrobe. "Why on earth would you have a dress at school?"

"No, I didn't," Luna said as she held the happy-colored dress in front of her to gauge her appearance in a non-existent mirror and liking the results. "Actually, I still don't. It was the pair of panties I was wearing before my snuggle time with Harry."

Hermione's head jerked up, but not for the reason you may think. "I thought you and Harry agreed you wouldn't remove your knickers when you were alone to make sure you didn't go too far."

"That's why I take them off before our cuddle time," Luna answered matter-of-factly. When Luna wants full contact, she's quite adamant about semantics. Harry simply refused to remove his shorts or wear less than that, though he agreed to remain topless as well for her benefit, mostly. He did, after all, agree that some feelings just couldn't be replicated otherwise, and the feel of her chest on his when cuddling was too nice to give up. "I ask him if he wants to do more, but we've been happy to mainly just cuddle with a little light kissing for the most part. He's oddly fond of trailing his fingers over and down the middle of my back. Won't touch anything he hasn't on you, too, however. I think he's wanting to keep things even between us. I told him I don't mind being stroked around my middles, but it makes me shiver."

"Devious little kitty, aren't you?" Hermione accused with a sly smirk at her double entendre. "You never did tell me why you call it that."

"What else would you call something with soft hair that likes to be petted?" Luna asked, looking slightly bewildered. "Plus, it makes me like to make purring and squeaking sounds like a kitten. Thus, it's my 'little kitten'. Not to mention it looks forward to its first taste of 'cream', as well."

Hermione smiled, even while shaking her head at the blonde's impish grin and poor-quality joke. "_When I first met her, I felt if she ever started to make sense, I'd have a reason to worry_," the brunette mumbled. "Definitely the dress, then, as long as you're sure it won't change back until you want it to. Just make sure to wear some knickers underneath of it, just in case. I know you prefer not to most of the time, but the last thing we need is for our parents to get a good look at your 'little kitten' if a gust of wind makes it fly up or something."

Luna's responding grin was something dark and evil. "Can I wear those black ones with the green cat eyes of yours?"

Hermione face-palmed. "This cat thing this year is ridiculous. Yes, you can."

A few minutes later, Luna had on her pale yellow summer dress that went to mid-shin and her hair now in a loose French braid courtesy of two Thundercats who had learned from some muggleborn first-years and, not having considered pockets, decided to put her wand behind her ear for safe keeping, sticking it through one of her braids and deciding she rather enjoyed having it there. It would also save her trouble deciding what to do with it should she elect to not wear clothes in the future during the summer, as was her wont. One never knows when the urge to swim or slide in the mud can strike, after all.

Hermione, taking Luna's advice as the girl was putting on the brunette's panties, had taken a robe and transfigured it into a pale blue dress very similar to Luna's, but a few inches shorter to just above her knees so Harry could get a glimpse of thigh on occasion if he was looking and because she preferred shorter dresses regardless. She trusted her transfigurations, but had no idea who else would be there and wasn't about to risk her dress turning into something that wouldn't cover her. Hermione also elected to tighten the chest area a touch to emphasize her small breasts and show off her almost totally flat tummy. _'A simple thank you to Harry for the exercise,'_ Hermione thought with a grin. She hadn't had much fat on her tummy before, but if she poked herself, she could get in about an inch of unwanted flesh, which was now almost totally gone. And to be honest, she absolutely loved the feeling of being somewhat sexy and desirable she had gained in the last few weeks that had started during the summer with Harry's flirting. This was the culmination of that: a girl who now felt secure and confident enough to be a little more bold for the sake of being noticed.

For her own hair, Hermione had decided on a simple, three-strand braided ponytail. She and Luna both wanted to grow their hair out like they had seen their older counterparts in Harry's memories do, to say nothing of the longer hair they saw in some of Harry's dreams. Neither was sure if they'd let it get so long as to hang to their bottoms, as that was just too much work and a nightmare to dry, but they were in a unique position to alter things they disliked about what they saw and liked how their elder selves looked. What most girls would kill for, they had in knowing how they would age in the next few developmental years and had the opportunity to better themselves based on what they wanted.

Which was part of why Hermione was trying to emphasize her bust and ran a little more often. She was rather proud of what her older self had shown while Luna was undressing her and couldn't wait to reach that point, especially with a smaller stomach. Luna, sadly, still had quite a way to go since she had only recently started growing. And while Luna would end up a bit smaller than Hermione, they had learned from his memories she'd end up getting almost half way there some time by that time the next year. The blonde couldn't _wait_ to grow her own and stop playing with her clones' in Harry's head. Maybe he would stop getting so flustered.

As they got down to the common room, they saw Harry waiting for them in simple black slacks with a silver buckled belt and a very dark green, button-up shirt Hermione had personally selected for him the previous summer, though the shoulders and chest were a little tighter than they had been as he had grown a bit.

"You both look wonderful!" Harry exclaimed, seeing them come down the stairs. As he got up, he grinned widely and pulled both into a firm hug and kissed them gently so as not to smear the small amount of make-up he noticed they had put on, though unsure of exactly where it had come from. Neither felt inclined to tell him they turned time an extra hour to speak with Emma about procuring the necessary items for that night. The mother had been almost _giddy_ to do the girly activity with her daughter and friend.

As had become a habit, the moment his hands hit the small of the girls' backs and the hug started, the three sighed contentedly and held it for a bit longer than most would feel made sense. Of course, they wouldn't know it made the three feel centered and calmer while their new bond tried to stabilize, finding a middle ground between all three through Harry so they could all be comfortable. As they hit the minute mark, they pulled away slowly with happy grins shared between them.

"Are you ready to head to the party?" He asked, rubbing soft circles on their tail bones.

"We need to go to my parents' first," Hermione said, licking her lips as the delicious feelings left as she led the way to Luna's trunk in the room they had been sharing since Christmas to Gate to her parents' home. _'I wonder when it became _their_ home rather than just simply _home_,'_ she pondered. _'Probably when I stopped spending so much time there. Only two months a year for seven years can estrange people from their families if not careful, I guess.'_

Roughly twenty minutes later, the Triad and elder Grangers had Gated to the Lovegood home into a room that was what appeared to be a mix between an office and a room made out of stacks of paper that two knew to be Mister Lovegood's office.

"Welcome!" Xenophilius exclaimed as he entered the room. "Perfect timing! The others are downstairs! Eat, drink and be Mary! Or whoever you want to be, really. We don't mind if you want to be someone else and some people encourage it if you plan to drink the wassail. I myself like to be Steve on occasion."

The Granger parents, who had stopped half way to the strange man where they intended to introduce themselves, blinked owlishly, hoping to get rid of their confusion.

"Daddy! You know very well that when you're the host, you must be Xenophilius!" Luna chided. "Daddy, these are Hermione's parents, Daniel and Emmaline Granger, but they go by 'Dan' and 'Emma'. Dan, Emma, this is my father, Xenophilius Lovegood, and certainly not 'Steve', at least not today. Daddy, whatever embarrassing things you do, you must take responsibility for later, regardless of others pretending to be other people so they don't have to take blame for it. That's a tradition on New Year's parties here," Luna explained to the amused group she arrived with.

Xenophilius shook the Grangers' hands with great enthusiasm, mentally chuckling as the two smiled and got into things, choosing to be amused rather than disturbed. _'These two seem like good people,'_ he thought to himself, deciding to tone things down since they passed what he felt was a fairly important test of character. "It's a pleasure to meet the two of you! I've heard excellent things about Hermione from Luna's letters and wanted to thank you for raising such a wonderful daughter. My Luna's been much happier with her and Harry's friendship this year."

"A pleasure to meet you, too," they responded as Emma continued. "Luna's an absolute darling! It's been a pleasure to get to know her!"

Xeno positively beamed at the praise of his daughter for a moment before turning to the girl in question who was holding Harry's hand. "Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to take her to meet someone. Luna?"

Luna nodded and kissed Harry on the cheek before following her father downstairs. "Everyone will be downstairs and we'll have the yard charmed to be warm throughout the night," Luna said as she stopped at the stairs. "There is food downstairs, as well. Please enjoy yourselves while I meet Daddy's new lady."

Harry chuckled and led the others downstairs as well with Hermione's hand in his, somewhat surprised to see a moderately large number of people meandering around inside and out. He had expected something closer to ten, but it looked more like fifty, and many that he knew. The Weasleys stuck out like a sore thumb, but there were also the Bones family, Longbottoms, Diggory's and the Tonks family along with another two dozen or so that Harry was unfamiliar with.

"Come on," Hermione began, dragging her group to where she saw the redheaded family. "Let me introduce you to the Weasleys!"

While the Grangers were meeting with the family they'd read about for a while now, Luna was introduced to a short witch, about five foot one and only two inches taller than Luna, herself. She had warm, gray eyes, a pleasant smile and pale brown hair tied into a ponytail. She certainly wasn't fat, but she was a little dumpy and had very wide hips with powerful-looking legs, much like Madam Sprout, though this woman's were like Luna's which had very powerful thighs due to hiking. Her ears were also a little pointed on top and had simple studs in her lobes, enchanted to allow her to understand several spoken languages. Those, however, were nearly obscured by her light brown hair that hung to her shoulders, showing signs of going gray and being bleached by the sun.

The older witch was also wearing simple brown cargo pants, whose pockets were stuffed with things only she knew of, and her shirt was a bright yellow thing with blue and pink animals on it, chosen specifically for the color in hopes of making her boyfriend's daughter a little more accepting as the older witch was hoping their first meeting was a good one. She was also a little self-conscious about her rather flat chest, being roughly the same size as Hermione even though she was fully grown, and was hoping people would look more at the designs on her shirt than the lemon-sized globes hidden underneath. She rarely cared about how people saw her, being alone more often than not as a naturalist and preferring the company of animals, but during semi-formal or formal events, the new witch was extremely self-conscious since she wasn't comfortable around large groups of humans.

"Luna, this is Sarah Dempsey. Sarah, this lovely creature is my daughter, Luna Celeste."

"Hello Luna," Sarah greeting happily, if a bit nervously. She had no idea as to how to do this properly. "I've heard a lot about you."

Luna took in this woman with a quick glance. The woman certainly _looked_ nice enough, but it was her pale blue, nearly gray, eyes that told Luna all she needed. The woman was nervous and a touch on the scared side. That unique ability to read people she had made her feel as though she was meeting herself, only right before befriending Harry. She liked animals more because they didn't hurt her or mock her. "I've heard about you, too. You're Daddy's new love interest," she stated simply and, to anyone who didn't know the new her, almost accusingly, which the two adults picked up on and felt a small blow to their hearts, thinking she didn't approve.

Sarah actually flinched and looked at Xenophilius nervously. "Er, yes. I am."

"Do you care for him?" Luna asked, looking directly into the older witch's eyes and not wavering in the slightest, showing a frightening amount of determination. To what, Sarah had no idea.

"Of course I do," Sarah stated, sounding equal parts offended and confused.

Luna nodded once after two seconds and then turned to her nervous-looking father. "And do you care for her?" She asked.

"I do, yes," he admitted carefully.

Luna smiled brightly and then took a step forward to hug the befuddled woman. "Then that's all that really matters," she said, pulling back. "I then pronounce you boyfriend and girlfriend. You may kiss your lady."

The two adults looked at each other and blushed, each feeling nervous by the situation and relieved by her acceptance. Still, the nervousness rose as the young lady raised an eyebrow and looked at both expectantly. Slightly mortified, Sarah allowed her boyfriend to give her a simple kiss on her lips and then smiled nervously at his daughter.

"Now then, why don't we get to know one another over some wassail(1)?" Luna asked.

"You know better than that," Xenophilius said firmly. "I may allow you some of the spiked punch, but the wassail is far too strong for you."

"Snorkacks!" Luna cursed, crinkling her nose in defeat. She'd been trying to get into that bowl ever since she was four. The adults _always_ seemed to be very giggly and happy after drinking from it. While she now knew why, she was still highly curious. Even if it _did_ have apples.

While Luna was meeting her father's girlfriend and trying to trick them into giving her booze, Hermione was introducing her parents to the Weasleys in a more personal, or at least less rushed, setting than the Leaky Cauldron the previous summer.

"Harry, we wanted to thank you for the reference to Healer Smythe," Molly explained at the same time she smothered Harry in her expansive bosom, getting a smirk from Hermione as Harry's arms flailed for a moment and a disapproving frown from Emma. The woman seemed to mean well, but she had no apparent respect for personal boundaries. Still, her daughter and Harry took it in stride, so she wouldn't get involved. Plus, Emma didn't know what the woman was referring to, but at the very least, understood 'healer' and assumed Harry did something for the family. If they were as hard up for money as their clothing suggested, then a face to the bust and a sincere smile while doing it was probably less to be overbearing and mothering than it was honest gratitude. Plus, Emma's grandmother, who was a little eccentric, hugged like that and it was usually due to a deep-rooted care of family as it was with Great Grammy Betty.

"We've had Ginny visit the man and he confirmed there was quite a bit of lingering damage and issues that we wouldn't have known about if we hadn't looked for them. Thank you! He said they could affect how she acts and thinks if untreated for more than a few months and thinks it could have already started making her more like that spirit! While he can't fix any damage already received, he's confident it won't go any further and we didn't notice anything, then she should be fine. Thank you, Harry!" Harry's face imprinted upon the mother Weasley with another hug, this one only lasting for a brief moment.

"No problem, Missus Weasley," Harry responded after taking a deep breath once released. "Does he have any idea how long it'll take before she's back to a hundred percent?"

"Perhaps a year," Arthur stated. "Maybe two. With her still going to school, it'll take a bit longer, too. We can't realistically pull her from Hogwarts, but she needs regular treatments or she'll just regress, from what he said."

"What exactly is wrong?" Hermione asked.

"Healer Smythe described it kind of like mental scars where the thing possessing her was attaching itself to her. It's kind of like an orange," Arthur explained. "It's supposed to be whole with all the different parts that make it up, but the scarring is where the wedges that make it up were separated. So, it was put back together when Harry saved her, but the parts never reattached, so to speak, and the residue could make her a lot like the spirit was. Healer Smythe said he'll help clean up her mind so it doesn't spread anymore."

"So what does that actually mean?" Harry wondered, surprised something as bad as this sounded had gone unnoticed and unresolved as far as he remembered in the previous time lines.

"For all intents and purposes, she knows how to act and who she is with all her memories, but she isn't quite yet whole. Parts of that evil spirit are still between parts of her mind that aren't reattached and while they are, they're a part of her and will make her react differently than she normally would. It's just thanks to you that she hasn't already started acting differently. For the most part, she's regressed back to her eleven-year old personality with a little of her older self that was slightly changed, though we can't tell much of a difference. But Healer Smythe said her own mind would have become a bit stronger while trying to fight off the spirit but may have eventually just tired out."

_'That explains a lot,'_ Harry thought. _'The twins and Ron always talked about this really vivacious and spirited girl. But I never saw anything of that for a few years. And when I did, she could lie excellently and if she wanted something, she did whatever it took to get it.'_ Unable to explain his thoughts, Harry simply shook his head. "But Smythe thinks he can heal her?"

"It'll take time, but yes," Molly responded thankfully. "Thank you again, Harry."

"Harry!" Harry and Hermione looked over to see Ron making his way to them, looking positively giddy. Harry was honestly worried he was going to get a hug similar to the boy's mother. "Harry! Thank you! I loved my presents!"

"Mum, Dad, this is Ronald Weasley, my other friend," Hermione introduced a little nervously. Her and Harry hadn't told Ron about them yet and she was unsure of what his reaction would be if he found out here. "Ron, this is my mom and dad, Dan and Emma Granger."

"Hello," Ron said with a wave. Muggles always made him a little nervous.

"Honey, why don't you and Harry enjoy yourselves with your friend?" Emma offered, feeling they wouldn't want to spend all night with adults. "We can get to know the Weasleys and mingle."

"Hey, yea!" Ron exclaimed. "All the food's out on a table over here! The twins keep trying to get into the punch bowls, too."

"They _what_!" Molly bellowed, glaring over at where she saw the two hiding under a table and only their hands, blindly grasping for the crystal punch bowl to take under with them. The house wife straightened her back and gathered up some steam and then stomped over to dispense with mother-approved justice as ancient as magic itself by grabbing them by their ears and taking them to a corner to threaten various aspects of their life like any proper mother would.

"I'm going to pay for that when school starts back up," Ron stated glumly.

Hermione's parents turned to Arthur and engaged him in a conversation, regretting it soon thereafter as they fell prey to the man's muggle fascination. It amused them, but also concerned them that the man knew next to nothing about their culture and was supposed to be an expert in their government about it. He seemed to see muggles and their technology as people look at monkeys in a zoo using tools like rocks and sticks to help them with things.

"Xeno seems friendly enough," Dan said in response to Arthur's first question about how they took their first meeting with the man who was strange even by wizarding standards, or so he said.

"He seems a bit like Mister Magoo," Emma claimed, confusing the Weasley Patriarch.

"It's been kind of boring around here," Ron said as he led his two friends to the buffet. "Neville hung out with me for a little while, but then Susan Bones showed up and dragged him off somewhere. Cedric Diggory is here, too, but he's chatting up some girl with pink hair, so I've just been eating and watching the twins do things to people I don't know while keeping them away from my plate."

As they walked behind Ron, Hermione and Harry caught each others' eyes and the bushy-haired brunette darted her eyes to their mutual friend and back to Harry, pleading with him. Harry took a deep breath and sighed. "Ron, there was something I'd like to tell you."

"Huh?" Ron asked, turning to look at his suddenly very nervous friends. "What's that?"

"Well, Hermione and I decided we wanted to see if we could give it a go and try dating," Harry said as calmly as he could, trying not to show any sort of emotional or physical trait that could suggest weakness. He'd learned that Ron was far less likely to rage at someone who he felt was more assured or capable.

"I can't say I'm surprised," Ron said lowly after a few moments. "I figured you'd end up dating either her or Luna sooner or later."

"What?" Both asked, shocked. "Why would you have thought that?" Hermione continued.

"Are you kidding?" Ron asked incredulously. "The two of you were always hanging off of him or laying all over him any chance you got. Practically everyone's been thinking it!"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other guiltily. They had no idea they were being that obvious. Even before they had really gotten together, even.

"To be honest, I'm not really thrilled by it," Ron explained. "I mean, it's always been the three of us doing things together, y'know?"

"We'll still be doing things together," Harry tried to mediate.

"That's right," Hermione agreed. "We won't really be doing anything different compared to before."

"That's not really true. It's already different, 'innit?" Ron mused wanly. "We already spend less time together. The two of you and Luna are almost always together now. Other than classes, we mainly hang out during meals or when we see each other in the common room."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, once again, this time with expressions of guilt. Looking back at Ron, Harry sighed. "I'm sorry, Ron. I never really noticed that it was happening." Not true, really. He had, but didn't realize _Ron_ had noticed. It had always been a part of his plan to distance himself a bit from the family, hoping there would be less cause for them to risk giving him potions. That had been a part of why he was giving them the gifts that he had, Ginny especially. He just hadn't expected for Ron to actually notice. "It's just ... We know the dark tosser is still around and trying to come back. He did both last year and first and I had to fight the bugger. I just figure I need to train up some since he'll probably keep coming back and will probably get a body eventually. And since you didn't want to do those things, I guess we've just been kind of drifting apart. I'm sorry," Harry finished a little sadly and with no small amount of guilt. He had underestimated Ron's intelligence and been caught, at least in part. At the same time, it _did_ hurt a bit to lose a guy he had always considered his best friend, even though he had been preparing for this for months now.

"I've figured it was coming for a while," Ron sad quietly, looking down and scuffing his shoe on the Lovegood's hardwood flooring. "I've seen you getting closer and had a lot of time to come to terms with it. Especially when you got upset at me when you let the Slytherins in on your personal training."

Harry frowned, thinking that should have been a little more obvious that he just wasn't being biased or bigoted, but decided against saying anything for the moment. This was going far better than he had hoped for both bits of news. Hermione was thinking the same, which was why she was staying quiet. Not to mention she and Ron had never really gotten along too well. Without Harry, they'd end up rarely talking, much less being friends. "I still plan to be your friend, Ron. But, what I said before was serious. With the Dark Wanker after me, I really have to focus on learning more and making sure I can survive. That just means I have less time for chess and lazing about, even if I _would_ rather be doing that most of the time. That's one thing I've noticed I miss is being able to relax with you and keeping me grounded and sane," he said, trying to appeal to Ron's vanity and thankful Hermione seemed to understand and not question him.

"I get it, mate," Ron said with a heavy, but accepting sigh. "Look, I don't mind, just maybe try not to make a big deal of it in front of me, alright? I'm happy for you getting together, but I'll probably feel like my best friend was taken from me for a little while."

"Of course not," Hermione said. "But, there's a little more to it," she continued, pinking a bit as she considered the best way to tell this. She _really_ hoped Ron could take this next bit maturely and was _really_ doubtful he would.

"What d'you mean?" Ron asked, confused.

"Well, you know how I'm the head of a couple of families now?" Harry asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, apparently, people would try to marry their daughters off to me and I _really_ don't want to do that," Harry said. "They just want to do it to try and get stuff. Anyway, if it was just Hermione and me, they have a good chance of forcing me to marry someone like Millicent Bulstrode, or Daphne Greengrass and, I'm not totally sure, but I think Blaise Zabini was trying to get my attention..." Harry trailed off as both him and Ron made faces of disgust while Hermione did her best to keep from giggling. When Daphne had told her about that, she couldn't help but warn Harry and watch his reaction.

"You're kidding, right?" Ron asked.

"No," Hermione spoke up. "Several girls are supposedly under orders of their families to get together with Harry using 'any means necessary'. Daphne was, too, but she doesn't want to and so we're letting her spend more time with us so her father thinks she's succeeding and her little sister isn't forced to instead. But she's warning us that several girls have been receiving letters and love and lust potions to try and get pregnant with Harry's kids to steal his family lines. She said two were told they would get potions over the Christmas holidays to slip him when they get back."

"So, how does this affect you guys?" Ron asked. "Is that why you're getting together now?"

"It wasn't, but it'll help," Harry stated, smiling at Hermione. "But, apparently, there are laws in place that could force me to agree to a marriage if they pushed hard enough with enough votes to 'save my family estate'. Anyway, er, I've also started to date Luna, too," he said, causing Ron's eyes to go comically wide.

"Seriously!" The redhead hissed, wanting to yell, but trying his hardest to keep his voice quiet. "Luna?"

"She's a wonderful girl, Ronald," Hermione glared, causing Ron to wince. His full name was usually only used when he was about to get in trouble or hexed. "And you said yourself you thought it might be her instead of me."

"Okay! Okay! It just took me by surprise is all! I mean, it's _Luna_!" He tried to explain, stressing her name as if that would win his argument. "I mean, _her_ rather than someone like Daphne Greengrass? Sure, she's a Slytherin, but she's really cute and for our age, she's already got _huge_-"

Smack!

"Ow!" Ron cried out, grabbing the back of his head where Hermione whacked him and stepped away from the glaring girl who was huffing with her arms crossed under her chest, which only now caused the boy to focus on what was revealed there. Just as his face was pinking and thoughts were about to go where they shouldn't with a mate's girlfriend, his mind kicked in and he glared at the girl and opened his mouth to speak with a sarcastic comment.

Just then, Neville Longbottom stumbled into the room, his hair severely mussed and his clothes rumpled from being held against a wall and snogged senseless, an expression of shock or horror on his face, or perhaps even both considering the puffy lips and almost zombie-like gait. Susan Bones, who was attached to his arm, looked rightly pleased with herself as she led Neville over to her aunt, who looked at the boy with a very stern expression that the boy was simply too out of it to notice, which caused a twinkle to appear in Amelia's eye. Not because he was ignoring her, but because he was agreeing to whatever she said and thus, giving her permission to have her Aurors randomly check in on him. At least until Susan butted in and said she could handle herself and that her best friend, Hannah, would always be with them.

Not that Amelia had to know Hannah was a Hufflepuff whose loyalty was to Susan rather than Amelia and was rooting for Susan on that front and happened to find Neville's lack of understanding, until probably that night, highly amusing.

"Neville?" Ron asked, shocked, while Hermione looked ecstatic that her prediction had been correct.

_'Take _that_, Trelawney! No inner eye my arse!'_ Hermione held only a small grudge against the loopy Divination professor.

"Looks like everyone is getting together over Christmas," Ron finished a little petulantly. A very large part of him, one that thought he was at _least_ a better wizard than Neville, suddenly felt left behind and alone.

"Speaking of," Harry jumped in, hoping to keep his friend from getting angry as he was wont to do. "I hear Lavender's been eying you."

"What!" Ron squeaked, blushing. Lavender Brown, a beautiful blonde, which Ron could claim to prefer, was one of the prettiest girls in Gryffindor and was also one of the first to develop, which had certainly caught Ron's attention, along with most males'. She was also willing to talk to almost anyone, but other than flirting, didn't really appear interested in anyone other than Harry Potter, like most girls her age. But she was also friendly and had a bubbly personality, which made talking to her fun and easy, assuming you could get past the girl-speak.

Hermione, seeing what Harry was doing, along with hearing a bit about their future romance during a wonderful cuddle session, decided to help Harry keep his friend a little longer, hopefully, as well. After all, this wasn't exactly a lie, just a very slight exaggeration. "Mhm," she agreed. "She learned you were being taught advanced magic from Harry. She's a bit put out by how you talk with your mouth full, though. But, if you're also interested, I can help you out."

"I dunno." Ron looked curious, but also apprehensive. A quick glance at the twins, who were _still_ being berated by their mother, gave tell to just what he was worried about. But a glance at the smiling Susan Bones showed he was seriously curious, too.

"Don't worry about the twins," Harry said. "Let's face it. If they teased you for it, it would only be out of jealousy. I mean, _they_ never got a girlfriend, especially a pretty one, so young. Hell, they _still_ don't have girlfriends. And I'm pretty sure I could talk them out of teasing you, too."

"You sure?" Ron asked, his cheeks and ears red.

"I promise I can make sure they don't tease you or, if they do, it's while you're alone and they won't do anything to risk your relationship if you decide to try for it," Harry assured. He silently hoped he could get this to work out. He knew some of the things that Lavender liked and disliked and things that would catch her attention. It was just getting her to agree to _try_ that would be the tricky part.

"Hullo," Luna greeted as she approached the original Gryffindor Golden Trio.

"Welcome back, Luna," Harry greeted, wrapping his arm around the girl's thin waist and squeezing. "We just told Ron about our strange little relationship and about Lavender."

"She snores, you know," Luna said, looking at Ron who blushed. She elected not to mention the Harry Potter plushie since the goal was to get Ron and Lavender together.

"Er, so do I," the Weasley boy countered.

"Come along, Harry. We only have four hours to dance and mingle before it's the new year and you promised to dance. Plus, if we do it long enough, we may be able to get a cup of wassail while no one's looking." Sadly, she would never get the chance since there was an age-barrier on the bowl.

Indeed, after four hours of dancing and just a little mingling with the adults Harry was familiar with, and a healthy dose of respect for the Lovegood Patriarch's ability to befriend people who didn't care who Harry was, Harry, Hermione and Luna were outside and swaying gently as the last song of the year played when the grandfather clock, which had a sound amplification ward on it, chimed loudly across the property.

"Happy New Year," the three said, leaning forward and sharing a three-way kiss they had practiced all of the day before to ensure they would get it right.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – January 1, 12:00 - Hogsmeade**

Albus Dumbledore walked into the Hog's Head at noon that Saturday, the first of the new year. He knew Alastor Moody was paranoid, but felt the man deserved his quirk. It had kept him alive far longer than most who had lived through two wars could ever claim. But, it also helped make the man a touch predictable.

The date was certainly not coincidence. Most people, magical and muggle alike, would be totally hammered on the first of the year. Probably still blacked out until around this time, anyway. Half the adults still at the Lovegood residence certainly were. Moody hadn't provided a time because he knew it wasn't needed with Albus. The ancient wizard knew him well enough to know earlier was better while too early meant there wasn't enough time to watch for possible traps.

That, and they always had lunch together when they met if they didn't have pressing things to work through.

"Good afternoon, Abe. How are you today?" Albus asked his brother as he came in and saw the other man wiping down his bar. The younger brother, however, simply glared hatefully at him and turned away. Since the day their younger sister, Arianna, died, Aberforth Dumbledore hadn't said anything to Albus other than to curse his name and blame him for her untimely demise.

It was Albus' greatest wish to gain forgiveness from his brother and his sister. He had been impetuous in his youth. Hotheaded and full of dreams, which had eventually led to her murder. Whether it was by his own wand, Aberforth's or Gellert's, he had no way of knowing. Even looking at the event in his pensieve was fruitless. So much magic was in the air and the fight so vast with spells ricocheting off of each other at such great speeds, there was just no way to know.

His greatest duel, and it had cost him his sister's life.

From that day forward, he had sworn to always give others the chance that he desperately craved from his own family.

Albus sighed regretfully as Aberforth kept his back to his older brother and moved to the table where no entrances or exits would be out of his sight and sat, chuckling in good humor as Moody became visible in front of him. "It's good to see you again, old friend."

"You too, Albus," Moody said. "How have things been going?"

"Fairly well. Youth today is a little more rebellious than in our days and a little less likely to listen to reason, and my glasses must be replaced a touch more often, to say nothing of the more frequent trips to the loo at night. And yourself?"

"Don't interact with brats anymore," Moody grunted. "Gave that up when I left the Aurors. Still don't need glasses, but my leg has me drinking a little more pain reliever than I used to. And I just spend more time in the loo so I don't need the extra trips."

Albus chuckled again. "May I assume you had something you wished me to come here to speak about? It's been nearly two years since I last heard from you via owl post."

Moody knew he couldn't really hide anything from Albus. The man was a politician and a friend, so he knew how to read the few tells he had left. But that didn't mean he couldn't misdirect. "Something's coming. I can feel it in my bones."

Dumbledore sighed and nodded. "Indeed it is, my friend. I fear dark times are fast approaching. A few years, at most, I believe, and the darkness shall rise once more."

"You know something the rest of us don't?" Moody asked somewhat accusingly. Dumbledore had _always_ been careful about how he said things. He never committed to anything without planning to in advance. He also never said anything about events without being very specific about them, as well.

"I fear a dark lord will be rising again soon," Albus admitted. "I do not know when, I am afraid, but I fear it will be soon."

Moody's eyes held Dumbledore in their gaze before the glass one began scanning around again. "I've got sources, Albus. They're tellin' me that Voldemort isn't as dead as we thought and there's a prophecy about the Potter boy."

Albus paled significantly, which was more than enough confirmation for Moody. His next words, however, cemented it. "Whoever your source is must not tell another soul!" Albus hissed in urgency. "If at all possible, you must find out how they learned of it and obliviate them of the knowledge!"

"So it's true, then?" Alastor asked, choosing his next words very carefully. "It'll basically be between the brat and the dark lord?"

Dumbledore sighed regretfully. "I'm afraid I cannot let you know more than you do, my friend. It isn't a lack of trust, but that this most certainly isn't the place and I am unsure when would be the correct time to let you know. For the Greater Good, I'm afraid it must remain quiet."

"What are you teaching the boy?" Moody asked, hoping to find out how much the Potter boy had been honest about.

"I will teach him when he is ready," Albus stated. "I would like to drop the matter, as they say. Would you like to have a meal with an old friend and catch up, or must you be on your way?" Dumbledore asked, half expecting the man to leave immediately and shore up his defenses.

Moody didn't like being brushed off, or the casual way Albus felt he had all the time in the world. No one sane would plan for a regulated amount of training time to be sufficient to defeat a vastly superior opponent over training as fully, and for as long, as possible for that success. That meant Albus was either planning for the boy to die, or was 'round the bend. Neither option sat well with the retired Auror. "I'll sit and eat with you, Albus."

What followed was a conversation led by Moody to see how much of their past the old wizard remembered and see how much he knew of current events, which led the battle-hardened warrior to believe he felt the boy was as good as dead in Albus' eyes. _'Going to have to train the little brat up, it seems.'_

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – January 1, 10:00 – Lord's Chamber (Luna's Room) – Progresses through previous scene**

"Going without this is going to be annoying," Hermione grumbled as the Triad finally decided it was time to stop laying about in bed around ten that morning.

"It really is quite comfortable," Luna said, putting the blanket back over herself and burrowing into the heat Harry's body had left behind when he got up.

"I agree," Harry said, stretching and putting on some of his normal clothes that Hermione had helped pick out for him during the summer. "But, I told Sirius I'd be meeting him today. You don't have to go, though," he offered.

"You're not getting rid of us _that_ easily," Hermione grumbled, getting up with Luna.

"Right feet first!" Luna stated quickly, just as she had with Harry. "It's the start of a new year and you should always start with your right foot forward!"

Both girls giggled in amusement as if it were some inside joke and got up, showing they wore the night clothes Harry had bought them for Christmas. However, Luna was without a top and Hermione without a bottom, having always preferred sleeping in a large tee and panties while Luna knew she was about to start her monthly cycle. After giving Harry a short good morning kiss, they went to the bathroom to clean up for the day.

An hour later, Harry wrapped his arms around both girls and Shifted to his home, popping up in his sitting room. "Dobby," he called out, waiting for the tell-tell sound of his little friend's arrival.

"What can Dobby be doing for you, Master Harry Potter Sir?" The over-excitable elf was still in combat fatigues, his little pockets bulging with anything he could stuff into them and a happy grin. The little guy was pleased with his lot in life.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Shaggy is being outside, Master Harry Potter Sir! If you's and your girls wants, I can be bringing lemonade and sandwiches for you."

"That would be wonderful, thank you, Dobby," Luna stated, patting the little elf on the head. Happy to serve, Dobby leaned into the affectionate hand before popping off.

"Shaggy?" Hermione wondered quietly with a quirked eyebrow.

Harry led the girls outside where they saw Sirius laying on a lounge chair and basking in the warmth of the sunlight and free of the worry about being seen. "You still look like shite, Padfoot, but at least you smell human again," Harry said with a large grin as the escaped non-convict jumped with a yelp of shock and rolled off the chair.

"Harry!" Sirius called out excitedly, jumping up and rushing to engulf his godson in a hug. "It's good to see you!"

"You too, Sirius." Harry pulled back and motioned a hand to his first girlfriend, then the second. "This is Hermione Granger, who you met on our first Hogsmeade trip, and Luna Lovegood. Ladies, this is Sirius Black, my godfather and prankster extraordinaire."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Black," Hermione said, shaking the older man's hand.

"Hullo," Luna stated next. "You don't fool me, you know, Mister Boardman, may I call you 'Stubby'? I'm unsure of when, exactly, you changed your name, but Daddy has all of your records. Did you really once get hit by a fan's confundus and almost marry your cat?"

"What?" Sirius wondered before shaking his head. "Can you tell me what's going on and how you found out about me?" He asked, hoping to change the subject before it got awkward. Well, more awkward than marrying a cat, anyway. He had been wondering how Harry learned about him and had feared this had all been some elaborate trap. While each moment of freedom seemed to say otherwise, it had still been a worry born of fear, which was why he was taking in all the sun he could get since getting caught would likely mean a fate worse than Azkaban.

"First, you remember I said that I couldn't explain everything, correct?" Harry asked as he and the others sat down while Dobby delivered their food and drink.

"Yes. And you said you knew about Peter, that the Dark Wanker isn't dead and you would explain how you know so much more than you should, about me at least," Sirius confirmed, immediately tucking into a sandwich. He had been on soups and broths until the day before and he was looking forward to more substantial meals.

"Right," Harry agreed. "Do you know occlumency?" He asked.

"Of course," Sirius stated sounding a little affronted. It wasn't because Harry doubted his abilities, but because Harry knew he was an animagus and did know so much more than he should have, leading him to suspect Harry already should have known that. "You _have_ to learn it in order to become an animagus which is why children can't become one and my family required us to learn it as soon as we could."

"I never read you had to learn that in books about animagi," Hermione said. "When I learned Professor McGonagall was one, I looked it up because the idea fascinated me."

"The books at Hogwarts usually won't mention it," Sirius said with a shrug. "The only ones that do are usually in family libraries or a banned books list. While it actually _is_ possible to become one without Occlumency, it takes much longer and you risk losing yourself the first time you change. Meditation, which is usually what books tell you to do, is the beginnings of Occlumency and is supposedly enough, but isn't always," he explained, causing Hermione to grumble about book-hogging old buggers.

"I didn't know that, either," Harry admitted. "But that's good. It means I can at least tell you a little more."

"How did _you_ learn it?" Sirius wondered. "From what I understand, you lived with muggles, Lily's sister, until recently. They wouldn't have known anything about this."

"No, they don't," Harry agreed. "I can't explain the details, Sirius, but I got a second chance at life with a little time manipulation thrown in."

"Harry, are you allowed to say that much?" Hermione wondered aloud worriedly.

"That's about all I _can_ say about it, actually," Harry explained. "Only the two of you are allowed the specifics."

"Harry, time travel is very dangerous," Sirius said lowly, worried as well for his godson's safety. "You can't change things."

"In this case, that's not true," Harry said. "Time basically reset. I can't explain more, so we have to leave it at that. But, I have memories of a seventeen-year old me."

"If it helps," Luna stated, putting several tomato slices, lettuce and cheese between bread slices, "we do know the specifics and I promise what happened is perfectly safe and he has no fear of creating a paradox."

"And why are they allowed specifics and not me?" Sirius asked with a slight whining tone. He never really liked being out of the loop.

"We're soul mates," Luna stated, having added mustard and then taking a large bite.

"Well, Harry is both mine and Luna's soul mate," Hermione said with a slight blush, not wanting Sirius to get the wrong idea. "Luna and I aren't soul mates. We're just both with Harry."

"You mean like the marriage made in Heaven stuff?" Sirius asked. "I know it's real, but isn't that rather ... unlikely?" He tried to ask delicately.

"We have it on the highest authority and all that entails," Harry said carefully, trying not to say more than he was allowed per his contract, but telling more than his words really meant.

"I ... see," Sirius frowned as he took in the possibilities of that statement.

"Anyway, Voldemort-," Harry felt he could forgive Sirius' twitch at the name,"-will be gaining a body again. He did before. My goal is to kill the tosser either at the same time or as early as possible. But a _lot_ of stuff happened and I died before I could finish the job. It would seem the powers that be decided to give me another chance, but I don't have any more."

"And you met and got to know me in your other or future life, right?" Sirius asked, thinking he was beginning to follow.

"Yes," Harry said. "But you died two and a half years from now protecting me."

"If I could choose a way to go, I'd be happy with that as long as it worked," Sirius said with a smile.

"Actually, you were in a duel with Bellatrix LeStrange and, instead of focusing on the fight, you were gloating and trading barbs and her spell knocked you back into the Veil of Death," Harry said quietly. "You came to the Department of Mysteries due to a trap that I was led into, thinking you were there and being tortured because Voldemort was sending me visions of it."

"Well damn," Sirius muttered.

"It wasn't totally your fault, though," Harry tried to console the now morose man. "You'd been locked up at a home you hated with a passion for two years, not really able to do anything. I think you just got excited because you were out of Grimmauld Place."

A few seconds of silence later, Sirius shook his head. "That doesn't matter. It hasn't happened yet, so we've got time to change it. I guess this explains how you know things, especially about Peter. Did we at least kill the rat?"

"No," Harry sighed. "He kept escaping even though you almost had him at the end of this year originally. That's what I was hoping to do, capture him and save him from you and Remus killing him like before and hopefully get a life debt I could call in later, but Hermione pointed out, rightfully so, that I changed so much it may not happen again. And we didn't really know if a life debt would come out of it since I knew about it in advance and it wasn't exactly like I was going to risk my life to save his."

Sirius sighed and leaned back. "Enough about that stuff. We can talk about it later. Tell me about your life. I want to hear all about you and your girlfriends."

So, the four talked until late into the evening where they had a small dinner with Sirius, telling him about their lives up to that point in time in this time line. Sirius had roared in laughter when he learned about the Thundercats and teased mercilessly when learning about their dating and they had general fun until the Triad left for Hermione's parents' home, where they had another small dinner after turning time before agreeing to meet every Sunday for dinner with them.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – January 2, 05:00 – Harry's Dorm**

The next day was Sunday, the day the Hogwarts Express was set to return to school with most of its students. Like most days, Harry woke up very early so he could get in his morning exercises. However, different than most days, save the last two weeks, was that he was weighed down with two girls on either side of him.

On his right was Hermione, sans her bottom pajama pants in what had recently become 'her' side of the bed with her head on Harry's shoulder. Her leg was tossed over both him and Luna where she had spread out over as much of the bed as she could get since she seemed to move about a bit while she slept.

On his left, on 'her' side of the bed, was Luna, sans her top, who was curled up into a ball under his arm with her head on his chest and her toes stuffed underneath of the small of his back in what she claimed as 'their' spot, much to Hermione's amusement.

Stuck in the middle, Harry took a few minutes to relish in the contented feelings washing over him as he listened to both girls' steady breathing and held them just a little bit tighter.

He was thankful and grateful for the both of them. Having them in his life made him want to be better than he had ever desired to be on his own. Growing up, he had settled for, and pursued, mediocrity. He was, he had realized, brainwashed by the Dursleys. He wanted to be 'normal' so badly growing up, to make the pain and the suffering end and for his relatives to like him, that it had become a defining part of him, along with his desire to be a better person than any of the Dursleys. To that end, he never strove to get anything better on his grades than what he could do with minimal fuss and work, not really caring to pay much attention. And being noticed had always been a sure way of getting in trouble, so that had always been something to avoid.

The only real exception to that had been in Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was the only class, and indeed the only time in his life, he had ever been _allowed_ and even _encouraged_ to fight back. It was the only thing, other than flying, that was a sort of freedom to him.

His entire life saw him doing what he was told and being led about like a mouse in a maze, simply following the cheese. The Dursleys taught him to obey, which Albus Dumbledore capitalized on by withholding information and providing only what he wanted or needed to in order to make Mouse Harry do his little tricks. Even when he knew it was wrong, Harry would do what he was told, whether it was Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, or even Ron who was providing an order. He may have grumbled and he may have hated it, but he still did it. Harry Potter simply never thought for himself or questioned 'his betters' because that went against what he was taught to do. And there had always been things that tried to break him and push him back into compliancy, such as Umbridge in his fifth year with her detentions with a blood quill.

Over the years, he had slowly cracked his shell of social entropy, usually due to the strange and sometimes horrible things that happened to him. Saving the Philosopher's Stone and Hermione in first year, the basilisk in second along with standing up against countless acromantula and gaining the support of someone who loved him in third year.

Fourth year had caused him to grow more into himself with all the trials and tribulations he had faced.

Fifth year, he had been practically shoved into a position of independence and thinking for himself. It was close, but it had begun the major growth he had needed. While he had been almost forced to do it because Hermione all but made him, it was her placing him above herself in the hierarchy and then leaving him there that had started it, even though he was against it.

Because of that action, his sixth year had him watching the world around him, trusting himself and his own judgement such as with Draco Malfoy having a plot that year.

Then, during what would have been his seventeenth year, he grew even more quickly, having only his two best friends around. Hermione's trust and faith in him was nigh on absolute and pushed him forward, even as Ron switched back and forth like much of the wizarding public in Britain until he was gone.

Because of Hermione, her support and her belief in him, he grew to trust himself and to be more than a tool to those who would command him.

And every memory of Luna, be it his last life in friendship or the small memories and feelings he would get, never once showed her to have any less faith in him. She had been a source of comfort and strength when he had lost Sirius, twice that he could remember. His past life, where they were friends, she had put him at ease in a way no one else had been capable of and, in the time before that when they had verged on becoming lovers with Hermione, it was the same, albeit far more emotionally connected. He couldn't remember it, but he felt it, much like knowing Draco was up to something.

These girls had supported him, and continued to do so.

And that was why he was happy to have them in his life. He wanted to be _better_ for them. Hermione and Luna made Harry want to succeed and make their dreams come true. His own were simple: survive to have a family. The girls, however, had laudable, impressive goals where they wanted to do things to help the world or somehow be a part of it in a big sense, in Luna's case, finding exotic and new animals. When she learned about the concept of a zoo, the girl had nearly foamed at the mouth at the idea of seeing one. The wizarding world had nothing like them. Preserves, sure. But nothing a person could simply visit.

That had become the blonde's dream, to create a large, zoo-like preserve.

Harry wanted to help both girls with their dreams just as much as both girls wanted to help with his. He could see them working hard at making their relationship work, and he certainly didn't want to work any less than they did. While he couldn't do much to change himself physically for them as he had noticed they spoke about on occasion, their hair and weight, basically, he _could_ and _was_ changing himself so that he could better protect and _help_ the girls during the upcoming war and then after. He could devote himself to them.

He rather liked that idea.

"What are you so happy about?" Hermione asked, blinking slowly as she stretched to wake up to join Harry for his exercises. He was smiling with his eyes closed, which was fairly normal in the mornings, but usually after he got kissed. She decided to wait until he answered before offering one.

"Just thinking about how much my life has changed and how happy I am," he responded gently. "Every time we wake up, I can't help but be happy."

"You are ridiculously sappy sometimes," Hermione said with an amused smile, leaning forward and kissing him gently. "Until we got together, I didn't think I'd find comments like that enjoyable."

"Everyone comes back today," Harry stated. "I'm going to miss the quiet."

"You finished your thesis for Runes and Arithmancy?" Hermione asked, returning a little more to her normal self as she awakened further.

"Of course," Harry grunted with a grin, gently shaking Luna awake. "Anyway, it's time for exercise."

"I don't think I want to, today," Luna commented with a slight whine in her voice. "My monthly's started and the cramps are quite bad."

"Don't you use the spells for that?(2)" Hermione asked, somewhat surprised. She had been incredibly happy when she learned of the spells to numb the pain from the cramping and to help ease the general unpleasantness of her cycles.

"I generally prefer not to," Luna commented. "Mother told me that while you lose the feelings of pain, it is much like numbing a burned finger. Just because you can't feel it doesn't mean you can't cause more damage."

"Really?" Hermione asked, surprised while Harry was wondering if there was anything he could do. "I never really noticed anything different, though I suppose exercising is worse than simply sitting about or walking to class."

"I also prefer not to use magic for it since it's a natural function of our bodies," Luna said, getting up and going straight to the bathroom. "I can take a potion to ease the muscles, however. Madam Pomfrey keeps stock on hand for those who don't wish to use the spells. Mother did it that way and she was a very smart witch, so I decided it would be worth a little discomfort to follow her lead. She only ever used the spell for sudden or extreme cases."

"Why don't we all take a day off?" Harry asked. "The students will be back later this evening and we probably won't have much time for us to just sit back and relax for a while."

"What would we do?" Hermione asked, not opposed to the idea.

"How about a date?" Harry asked with a shrug. "We've been together for two weeks, officially, as of today and I haven't taken you girls on one yet."

"I'd like that," Hermione said, sounding disappointed, "but we can't really leave the school today. All of the teachers that left are back and we've been spending so much time away, we really need to be seen," she explained. "Maybe we can do that next weekend as a way to decompress after getting back to classes," she offered.

"That works for me," Harry agreed as Luna came back from the bathroom.

"I'd prefer that as well," Luna said. "I'll feel much better and enjoy it more then."

"Why don't we visit Hagrid?" Hermione suggested. "It's been ages since we've last really spoken to him."

"That reminds me," Hermione said, looking to Luna. "Why call Sirius 'Stubby Boardman'?"

"He looks a lot like Sirius Black," Luna explained. "There was debate about whether or not he had faked his own death or not and that man looked a lot like him," she said with a shrug, gathering her clothes for a bath. "I was curious if it had been true and it seemed asking was the clearest way to know for sure."

"But he's Sirius Black," Hermione stated authoritatively. "He knew Harry's parents and everything."

"Unless he wasn't," Luna rebutted. "He never did say that he wasn't, you know," she said with a smile before going to the bath.

"Sometimes," Hermione mused aloud, "I wonder just how she forms connections in her mind."

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – January 4, First Period - Transfiguration**

"For our next class, please have a one foot scroll on your observations about today's transfigurations," McGonagall stated as the class was putting their books away. "I would like you to focus on the difference between changing an item's shape into something closely resembling what it was and the material's nature, be it soft or hard, into something similar."

"I'll see you in Runes," Harry told Hermione, looking at Neville. He had noticed today that Neville was struggling, like usual, during his Transfiguration assignment. The difference, however, was that the boy had released enough magic that Harry had once again felt it, causing Harry to take notice and do more than simply wonder what had caused him to come into his own. Harry had remembered that the current wand had never really worked for the boy.

"What's up?" Hermione asked, curious.

"I just remembered something and I'm going to help Neville out. It shouldn't take too long," he explained, grabbing his satchel and walking over to the despondent boy.

"Hey Neville. That's your dad's wand, right?"

"Yes," Neville said, sounding like he had given up on the assignment entirely. "My gran gave it to me when I got my Hogwarts letter. Why?"

"You trust me?" Harry asked, causing Neville to hesitate only a moment.

"I suppose so, why?"

"Just come with me," he said, leading Neville to an unused classroom quickly. "Okay, this is going to feel a little weird, but just hold on." With that, Harry grabbed Neville's arm and Shifted to the Apparition point in Diagon Alley.

"What are we doing here?" Neville asked, sounding alarmed. "We'll be late for our next class! We'll get in trouble for leaving, too!"

"Then let's hurry and try not to dawdle," Harry said, leading him into Ollivander's.

"Ah, Lord Potter. I do believe you and Mister Longbottom should be in school right now," the whispery voice of the white-eyed wand maker said, coming out of a shadow. "But then, I don't think Mister Longbottom has yet to obtain his own wand. What I sense with you, I believe, belonged to your father."

"Er, y-yes, sir," Neville stuttered, feeling exactly like he was kidnapped.

"The wand is fighting him," Harry explained. "At least it feels like it. I could feel him putting a _lot_ of power into a Transfiguration spell and it was still flubbing, so I'd like him to get a new wand."

"Harry, my gran won't like this," Neville complained.

"The wand chooses the wizard, Mister Longbottom," Ollivander explained. "If that wand has not chosen you, it would cause you to perform at a lower level of ability and, if Lord Potter is accurate, then it could be barely working for you. Might I suggest finding a wand and seeing how it reacts to you before making a decision?" If nothing else, he _was_ a business man.

"I know you've got power. I felt it today and I've felt it before," Harry said with a shrug, not noticing Ollivander quirk an eyebrow at the apparent ability. "I'm offering to buy you the wand so you can be as strong as possible and because I honestly think this is your only real problem in class. Except Snape. He's just a prick."

"A-Alright," Neville said after a few moments.

"Excellent. Which is your wand hand?" Ollivander asked, measuring Neville's right hand and beginning the process of finding a wand that would work better for the Longbottom scion. Considering the first wand was a completely wrong match and still worked better for him, Neville got into it almost immediately.

Hawthorn and Unicorn hair, ten and a quarter inches. Ollivander lost his eyebrows. No match.

White ash and salamander heart string, eleven inches. Ollivander lost a section of wall. Neville took two minutes to slowly move and set the wand down. No match.

Holly and dragon heart string, nine and a half inches. Ollivander was turned into a woman with his own voice. Refused to change back until they were done, supposedly. No match.

Black Alder wood and unicorn horn, ten and three-quarter inches. A very angry and confused cat was conjured or summoned and attacked Ollivander. The older man snatched the wand and threw it as far back into his shop as it could go. No match.

Hawthorn and dragon heart string, eleven and three-quarter inches. A tentacle began to reach for the group through a lamp shade. The cat was no longer a problem. No match.

Willow and griffin feather, thirteen inches. Ollivander was hung up in the middle of the air via his underwear, which had turned into muenster cheese. He couldn't stop shifting uncomfortably the rest of the visit. No match.

Hornbeam and phoenix feather, twelve inches. The only apparent reaction was Ollivander making a strange expression and commenting on how uncomfortable he suddenly was. He didn't move any more than necessary after that. No match.

Holly and unicorn tail, ten inches. Neville lost all of the hair on his head. Ollivander refused to reattach it until they found a suitable match since he didn't have his eyebrows. No match.

Ash and fairy hair, eight and three-quarter inches. Ollivander got his eyebrows back, but they hung to the floor even as hair began to inch out of the bottom of his pants. No match.

Hornbeam and Erumpent horn, ten and a half inches. Lightning shot out the end into Diagon Alley, somehow stripping four women who were walking by. Ollivander had to convince Neville to give up the wand. No match.

Lignum Vitae and Dragon heart string, ten inches. Lights dimmed and a roar cried out all around the Alley, scaring most of the patrons as they thought a dragon was nearby as Neville's magic connected to the wand and rushed around him. A match.

"Very curious indeed," Ollivander said, rubbing his now effeminate chin.

"Wow," Neville breathed out, able to feel his magic rushing through him and interacting with the wand. "What's curious, s-sir?"

"Lignum Vitae literally means 'wood of life'. It's an ironwood, in fact. Incredibly dense and very strong. It is almost never used in wand making simply because few people can initially get it to work, and yet, it seemed to nearly cry out in joy at having found you. I believe you are particularly suited to this wand after two and a half years attempting to use a wand that refused you. I think you will find it is unyielding and sturdy, very good for defense and offense, healing and endurance. You'll likely find yourself unable to wear out the wand, Mister Longbottom."

"Sounds great!" Harry said. "How much is it?"

"Nine galleons and three sickles."

"Can I get a wand holster?" Harry asked. "Actually, how many holsters do you have available right now?"

Five minutes later, Harry and Neville Shifted back to the castle, each carrying a shrunken box. "Harry, thank you so much! I can't believe how easy it was to cast a simple shrinking charm!"

"I told you that you were powerful, mate. Now, I suggest getting your homework done and then go through all your coursework to get a feel for things. Start from first year and work your way up. That should give you a feel for your new wand. Just make sure to practice before you show up to the DA meeting again, yea? Don't want you taking someone's head off!" Harry joked, sort of.

xXxXxXx

"Mister Potter, can you please explain to me why you're almost a quarter of an hour late for my class?" Professor Babbling asked sounding a little miffed.

"Short version is that I figured out why a friend was having trouble with the most basic spells still and took him really fast to get a new wand since he never got one that matched him. I was expecting it to go a little faster, but Mister Ollivander had decided to be a little chatty, so we were already late. I then decided to go ahead and take another five minutes to get some things as incentive during the next DA meeting."

Professor Babbling could accept his reasons, at least the first one, and approved of it. Though she didn't approve of willingly being late, it was also better than simply skiving off the whole class. "Very well. I won't give you a detention, but I'll be taking five points from Gryffindor for not waiting for a better time."

"Thank you, Ma'am," Harry said, taking his seat next to Hermione who was looking at him with a little disapproving glare.

"As I was saying," Babbling began. "You may discuss your theories and essays and, if you have any questions, I'm here. Once you think you are ready, but sure to turn in your theory-work for your end-of-year project on my desk. But remember to keep your own notes so you don't have to start over from scratch? If I have to give your work back, I'll be marking it as late." Granted, she could always make a temporary copy and give that to them to recreate, but unless they offered the suggestion, she wasn't going to. It would get them into the habit of creating copies themselves, which was a very good thing for her subject.

Harry waited a moment to observe that no one was going to the professor quite yet, so he took his parchment up and laid it out so she could see his work, which was the updated version.

"Preloaded wands, Mister Potter?" Professor Babbling asked.

"A proof of concept, initially," Harry explained. "My goal is to create dental tools by magic means using this same concept. I'm going to go next to a shield, then vanishing and hopefully even Patronus versions so that anyone can use them, even non-magicals."

"That's illegal, Mister Potter," Bathsheba explained.

"Not if it stays in the magical world and the non-magicals know about it," Harry refuted.

"Very well," Babbling said, looking over his designs. It seemed that once he got over the hurdles from his water conjuration, it had been easy enough to do the same thing with a flame freezing version, flame creation and a cup conjuration with a preloaded design. However, she noticed he was becoming a little more ambitious with his vanishing and cleaning versions. "You're trying to make your wands read their minds?" She asked, somewhat bemused.

"Well, if it was just going to clean up some mud or rubbish from the floor without removing the floor, too, then I needed a way to make it understand what to target. That just seemed the easiest way, by having them think it."

"And has it worked?" She asked, honestly curious. She knew of wards that could register intent, but never concepts such as 'book', 'candle' or the like. To be honest, she had never considered it.

"Yes and no," Harry said with a frown. "It will get what I'm focusing at, but it can't seem to recognize specific papers over others. So, when I tried it, I lost my Transfiguration essay, too, and it was on my bed."

"Are you intending to turn them all in or just one for now?" She wondered.

"The more complex one that I can create," Harry explained. "I'm hoping to have some sort of teeth cleaning wands that Hermione's muggle parents can use. I mean, have you noticed the kind of teeth people have in the wizarding world?"

"I won't get into details, but don't find it likely to happen," Bathsheba stated. "Muggles can't work in the wizarding world."

"Not in parts the Ministry controls," Harry said with a shrug. "Either way, that's what I'm working on. I'll go ahead and give you the one that imitates 'scourgify'. I've not completed it and I hope to be able to have Filch show that a non-magical can use it."

"That's good," Bathsheba said with a nod. "Your water version, other than being made to allow non-magicals to use it, isn't much different from the faucets here in the castle or most magical homes. While I would happily accept it, I know you're capable of something bigger. This just takes magic from a source rather than ambient magic like most others."

As class was leaving and after Hermione had turned in her own thesis on her Quidditch armor, amusing Professor Babbling immensely, Harry and Hermione Shifted to Potter Manor into one of the houses they had designated the day before and then spun back time three hours before going in while the rest of the student populace began their lunch.

"We're really going to do this?" Hermione asked as they got to the second floor where diagrams of Azkaban prison were hanging on walls, along with positions of the Death Eaters Dobby had been able to identify. Apparently, though Harry had expected more, there were no patrols of aurors since the dementors kept the prisoners in hand. The only exception was the one meal a day that they would get.

Apparently, Sirius hadn't been joking when he mentioned eating the stuff growing on the walls.

"You don't have to," Harry offered again, sitting in the chair in front of the maps and Hermione sitting in his lap so he could hold her and they could both see the hangings. "I am perfectly willing to go this alone."

"Oh no you don't," Hermione grumbled. "We're in this together and I need to learn to accept this sort of thing."

"You're going to feel horrid after it. You realize that, right?" Harry warned, trying to talk her out of it. While he had about five years of maturity and grown into the mindset of what was happening, Hermione was, for all intents and purposes, still only fourteen years old. Knowing something is necessary, intellectually, doesn't stop the horror at what you've done. At least she accepted that he would do the work and she would simply be there.

"I understand," she said. "But you'll be there, right?"

"Of course," he promised. "So, we're going to confirm their patrol routes for the next week to make sure it doesn't change after the holiday and then we'll go in from the North side."

"Why there, specifically?" Hermione asked.

"None of the guard towers or quarters are there," Harry explained. "Dobby said all the areas the guards stay in are at the front of the prison on the South side and in the center of the front face. Basically, they stay there and patrol into all the other areas."

"That's a rather stupid thing, isn't it?" Hermione considered. "If someone wanted to break someone else out, all they would have to do is blow up the front of the prison in the middle and they'd get everyone."

"Yea, wizards aren't exactly known for their common sense," Harry said with a grim smile. "The Burrow kind of proves that. But we don't want to hurt anyone, so we're staying away from the front. The people we want are in the worst spots with the heaviest Dementor activity at the back and on two floors, according to Dobby. Ground level and the first floor above it."

"How ... How are you going to do it?" Hermione asked.

"A drop of the basilisk venom," he said softly, looking at his hands. "It doesn't really hurt, but makes you feel really tired and weak and that just grows until the end."

"How...?" She asked, looking at him carefully and wondering if there had been more she wasn't told about.

"End of last year," he explained. "I came back and still hadn't been healed from Fawkes, so it's pretty clear in my memories."

"I see." Several long moments later, she nodded and looked to the maps. "They all really are guilty, right? Not like Sirius?"

"Yea," Harry said. "They'll all be marked."

"What can I do to help?"

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – January 4, Evening – Bones Manor**

"Where the bloody hell did he _get_ it?" Croaker asked, truly bewildered by the nine-foot-in-diameter transportation device in front of him. It appeared brand new, but at the same time, like something dredged up from the ruins of an ancient city. And he had seen his fair share of ancient cities.

"According to him, someone under his employ _created_ it," Amelia said, sipping at her brandy. She had waited until the day after Susan had left to invite Algernon over to investigate the device delivered to her on behalf of Lord Potter since she didn't want to answer any more questions than necessary with her niece still in the house and possibly overhearing sensitive information.

"I've seen something similar to this from the ruins of Atlantis, Amelia," Croaker warned gruffly. "At least what's left of its relics. If the boy has someone who could recreate this, then I'm scared of what else he may have."

"What do you mean?" She asked curiously.

"What do you remember of Atlantis?"

"Not much, really. They stopped teaching about the Ancient Civilizations before I went to Hogwarts. My understanding is it was a self-sufficient city for several thousand that was mobile. I think there were conflicting reports of whether it was a mobile island or a floating one in the sky, though."

"Aye, it was a floating city in the sky," Croaker stated. "Crashed into the ocean some time about four thousand or so years ago. It was supposedly so magically advanced that we still haven't recreated so much as a portion of their level of advancement. What worries me is that we haven't been able to recreate these, ourselves, and we've been trying for a few centuries now. The portal to Platform Nine-and-three-Quarters is the closest we've been able to get, and that's from Point 'A' to Point 'B'. These, however, are programmable."

"I can see why that bothers you," Amelia agreed after a few moments of thought. "But it could just be coincidence."

"Maybe," Croaker said, looking at the deceptively innocent circle of stone.

"Regardless. I also called you over to discuss the curiousities at the Ministry and Malfoy," Amelia changed the subject while pouring Algernon a cognac, one of the few alcohols he indulged in. "I'd like to share our intel."

"On the break-in, there's nothing new. All the books we found on the floor stopped disappearing two and a half weeks ago. We discovered, from our initial inventories, that those that disappeared were duplicates of others that are still in the Archive. And, if we're right, no originals were taken. Only copies."

"That's both disturbing and good news," Amelia said with a sigh. "We discovered nothing in the Time room once I could get my Aurors in. The whole place felt like a ritual room with the amount of magic in the air that just hung there, but we couldn't identify what did it. We did, however, learn it was wandless magic, not the use of a device."

"How'd you figure that out?" Algernon asked shrewdly. "None of my people could tell that."

"We had a visit by Mad Eye Moody who is very familiar with wandless magic. He said he could still see the clouds of magic but that it wasn't shaped in any way, meaning it was raw magic that wasn't channeled through anything. According to him, every device puts the magic in the air a different way and this had nothing identifiable. While it could have just been too old, he didn't think so since there was still quite a bit of magic there."

"That's troubling," Croaker sighed. "Wandless magic is a dying art and only a few people in Britain are capable of it. This suggests someone like Dumbledore or an infiltrator from another country where it's more commonplace like Japan or the African states. What happened with the Malfoy boy?"

Amelia snorted into her brandy to show what she thought of _that_ little concept. "Dumbledore didn't put a tracker on the boy himself, but on his trunk. That was it. Still, we were able to follow him enough to see he went straight home, then to Diagon Alley to apparently do his Christmas shopping where it appeared he purchased mainly for himself before he decided to go to Belinda's Brothel."

"Didn't think the boy'd be old enough to get it to work right," Croaker stated in surprise. He was friends with Belinda, actually, and didn't look down on her or her girls.

"He is, apparently," Amelia's lip curled in disgust. "New Year's night, he married his betrothed since he took up his Head of House duties. He called a healer in the morning of the first since he didn't think to do more than start straight into it without any care for the girl. Nothing a few potions and charms couldn't fix, from her files, but he made her wait all night. Their betrothal contract apparently has the girl's free will removed in regards to her new husband. Or to be more precise, she has it, but can't go against his orders."

"The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree," Algernon said sadly.

"Well, he got his parents' full account holdings, bought three house elves and then married the girl on the thirty-first, then took the girl shopping on the first after she was healed for some furniture while the elves were told to buy whatever else was needed. Other than a letter to Severus Snape referencing the will reading, and a few to his school friends, there haven't been any other letters in or out since his holiday started."

Amelia poured herself and Croaker a little more to drink. "The only thing we know for sure about Lucius' demise is that his death was recognized seven days after he attacked Fudge and no one had seen him since."

"So, all said and done, we're not even at square one since our primary suspect is dead, along with his wife," Croaker said needlessly.

"If you're curious, I'll be going to Hogwarts some time in the middle of February to get many of my Trainees and several Aurors lessons from Potter regarding the Patronus charm. Want to come?"

"If I've heard correctly, he's actually managed to get several students to cast corporeal ones," Croaker said with a nod. "I'd like that, yes."

"He's also going to duel one of my Aurors," she said, catching his attention.

"Why would he do a fool thing like that?"

"I asked him to in exchange for requiring his cousin to attend. In exchange for taking my people to sit on his lessons, he wants to sit in on some of ours related to combat."

"Bloody peacock, I take it?" Croaker all but accused. "He seemed better than that when we met."

"No, not at all. You were there, but you faded into the background at some point. I just felt I'd invite you because I'd like one of your combat specialists ready to duel him if he bests my Auror."

"You sound just as curious about him as I do," Croaker said with a barking laugh. "Aye, we'll be there with bells on, Amelia."

xXxXxXx

**Friday – January 7, 22:00 – Potter Manor**

At the end of the first week of January, Harry and Hermione left the last class of the day and went to the Room of Requirement where they Shifted to the house at Potter Manor, once again, noting the time so they could return without making anyone aware.

"I still think Luna should have been aware of this so she could decide if she wanted to come," Hermione said as they relaxed before their assault on the prison.

"I didn't even want _you_ to come," Harry said carefully. "I wouldn't have told you considering what I'm about to do if you hadn't already figured it out. You can still back out, you know."

"I'll follow you anywhere, Harry," Hermione said grumpily. She had to remind him of this quite a bit recently. "This is more than just some childish declaration. I truly mean it. Wherever you go, I'll follow."

Harry tightened his arms around his first in gratitude. He wouldn't have had any problems if she had taken his offer, but was still thankful for her support all the same.

At eleven that night, Hermione dressed into black clothing and tied her hair into a ponytail to hide down the back of her shirt while Harry's clothes morphed into the one outfit he had seen them become thus far. Hermione then strapped a knife into a sheath on her calf, just in case she got too close to a cell and they were then taken by Dobby to Azkaban island on the Northern side of the building.

The cold was biting at their skin as Harry silenced the wall wandlessly and then cut out a small rectangle-shaped slab that he set against the wall. The two walked in quietly and slipped through the cell door after it was unlocked. Thankfully, there were no prisoners in the cell they broke into since Harry had been hoping to enter into the hall. Harry decided to fix the wall before they left and decided they would Shift out once they were done rather than risk backtracking and getting caught.

Three cells down, they took a left hallway and went down another five before they came to their first target, sleeping fitfully and mumbling incoherently as he twitched on the ground with no blanket and only a ratty prisoner's uniform. Harry only knew the man as 'Mulciber'. He was responsible for using the Imperius on dozens of people to get much of the Death Eaters' dirty work done or to simply randomly kill people. Quietly, Harry pulled out a glass vial and very carefully levitated one single drop out and over to the sleeping man's lips while Hermione watched diligently.

The man's mutterings quieted and he stilled. It was only seconds before his chest stopped moving.

"That ... That was it?" Hermione asked, finding herself unable to look away from the still body in front of her, shocked by just how _easy_ it was to kill someone. A part of her felt sad for the man, despite Harry telling her what he knew about the 'targets'. He was shivering on a bare stone floor with thin clothes that had more holes than fabric. But another part of her knew some of the things he had done and knew this was still a kinder fate than he probably deserved except maybe the dementors. Still, she wondered if he would have thanked them for this.

"Yea," Harry whispered back. "I told you, it's painless and quick. It only takes a few seconds for it to finish."

"And ... You were bitten by the basilisk, too?" She asked, horrified at how close he had been to death. From the moment the poison touched Mulciber's lips, it had only been five or six seconds and then the man was gone. Harry's memory had him lasting a bit longer than that, meaning ... there's no telling what had kept him alive. Maybe his health, or his magic, but it only meant his safety had been capable from borrowed time. She and Luna had watched the memory, after all.

"I'm here, healthy and alive, Hermione," Harry said, hugging Hermione and kissing her softly on the lips. "Try to focus. There aren't dementors near us at the moment, but they're getting closer. I think you're beginning to feel them affecting you."

Hermione nodding, realizing she was. She was despairing at the idea of losing Harry for something he had already survived. "Thanks."

Nine cells down, they took another left and found Thorfinn Rowle. This man was responsible for a lot of Voldemort's wet work. He delighted in going out muggle hunting and going after muggleborn homes. There was nothing this man wasn't willing to do and he had no qualms about destroying every member of the house in every way he could imagine. He broke their spirits by violating their bodies while making each other watch, he burned the fathers of the homes alive and then took his time on the bodies of the others. He kept pictures and memory strands of it all so he could relive it all later. Worse, even, was that he would cut off the faces of each of those he killed as trophies.

Rowle was huddled in a corner, twitching at every little sound, his clothes marginally better than Mulciber's. His knees were pulled up to his chest and he was chewing on a fingernail while his eyes darted about and he mumbled a one-sided conversation to himself as he relived one of his assaults.

Hermione had no real reservations about this man, nor did she really feel any pity as Harry once again levitated the poison as a single drop into the man's mouth. She once again watched as the man's mumblings slowed and his eyes and head drooped. His breathing became heavier until his head finally dropped, the body quiet and still.

They backtracked to the last fork and continued straight to find Rodolphus and Rabastan LeStrange in adjoining cells. These two, it seemed, had not been broken by the dementors' presence. Both were awake and at least lucid enough to recognize they had visitors.

"You don't look like the guards or the dementors," Rabastan said, looking curious. "You here to break us out?" With the cloaks they were wearing, they could either be midget Death Eaters or some sympathizers if not a new group entirely.

"Has the Dark Lord returned?" Rodolphus asked from his own cell, sounding far too enthusiastic in Hermione's opinion.

"We have portkeys that should shatter the anti-portkey wards around the island," Harry said, his voice coming out distorted and deeper, shocking the other three. Hermione, because she hadn't heard it before, and the other two because they didn't think such a deep bass voice could come from a midget. "However, they will likely be painful. We've a potion that you should take only one drop of that will put you into an enchanted sleep while it repairs the damage to your bodies from this place and the transport."

Harry quietly and quickly conjured two strings that were a greasy gray to match the fibers of their outfits and handed them to both and dipped the ends in the poison. "Swallow them. The potion is now soaked into them. The Dark Lord hasn't achieved his full strength, but he needs his followers now. Lucius is dead, as are several he had been recruiting quietly."

The two dirty men nodded and swallowed the fibers before Rabastan decided to let his curiousity be known. "Why did it take so long?"

"The Dark Lord had to return from Death, something no one else has done for a very long time. How long do you expect it would take?" Harry asked sarcastically, annoyed. "The portkeys will activate once you're asleep."

"I feel it," Rodolphus mumbled, feeling very tired. "You gettin' sleepy, Rabastan?"

"Yea," his brother muttered, falling over to lay on the ground as he closed his eyes. "See you on the other side, Rudy."

"I tol' you nev'r ... ta call me ...," Rodolphus was gone before he could finish his sentence.

"You lied to them," Hermione accused, swallowing thickly. These men were lucid and aware, somehow making this feel different. "They thought they were getting their freedom."

"Anything else would have had them yelling and possibly raising an alarm," Harry explained. "With our next stop so close, I didn't want to risk them setting up a warning."

Hermione nodded, even though she felt wrong somehow for lying to those men, even if they were bad, horrible men for torturing Neville's parents into insanity. She felt there was a level that humanity should always try and stay above and giving false hope regarding their lives would be below it. _'Though, I guess it isn't much different from telling Harry that him, Luna and I will survive this war and keep going. We may not have plans of leaving, but we have no way of knowing what may happen in the future, especially if we died.'_ She decided to ignore the feeling for now and follow Harry as he went down five cells, to look at where she learned Sirius had stayed and then move on another two cells to Bellatrix LeStrange, placed so close to her husband so they could hear each other, but too far away to take any comfort from one another.

This woman looked as crazy as she really was. Her hair looked like a literal rat's nest and hung below her shoulder blades where it looked like it had been hacked off by guards once in a while to keep it from getting too long. Her eyes were just as shifty as Rowle's and the woman was muttering insanely in baby-talk to an invisible baby. From the mutterings, Hermione suspected the woman thought the baby was supposed to be the Dark Lord's.

"You're not my Lord's minions," Bellatrix stated almost calmly and normally as she set the 'baby' down into a fake crib and then proceeded to pretend to break its neck. "And if you're here to kill me, then I won't let you have Octavius."

Hermione stared in horror at what the woman seemed to think and what she certainly did, and probably would have done had this all been real. She knew the woman was supposed to be crazy, but that was ... she couldn't imagine that.

"We're not here to kill-" Harry started, only to be interrupted.

"Yes you are!" Bellatrix raged loudly, glaring hatefully and spitefully at the two interlopers before visibly calming down and grinning. "You're here to kill me, just like you did my husband and brother-in-law. I heard you, you know. I know they didn't leave. So, you're here to kill me."

"Yes," Harry decided to go with the truth. "We are."

Hermione began to feel despair and fear grow within her and put her hand on Harry's shoulder. "Dementors coming, I think," she said. "We need to hurry."

"Oh, yoo don't need to wush off!" Bella began, falling to her knees and removing her shirt and began to rub her breasts to tease Harry in an attempt to create an opportunity to turn the situation to her advantage. "If yoo plan to kill wittle ol' me, wouldn't yoo wike to have some fun furst? It's been _so-o-o_ _long_ since I last had a man!" She shuffled forward and ignored Hermione's growl of displeasure.

"Damnit bitch! This is my man!" Hermione threatened.

"Oh! Is da wittle girl upset that Big Bad Bella is pwettier and sexier?" Bellatrix asked, trying to sound like a little girl or speaking in baby-talk again before cackling and moaning as she played with herself. "Bella-Wella isn't a wittle girl and knows how to pwease a man!"

Harry silently took the time to levitate a drop of the poison while the two were arguing.

"I can please my man perfectly well, thank you very much!" Hermione ground out through gnashing teeth.

"Hahaha! I've been pleasing men since long before you were – Yawn – born," Bellatrix contended, falling down a touch so she sat on her feet rather than simply on her knees. "An itty-bitty ... girl could never hope to beat such a well-formed, _experienced_ ... _woman_ like me!"

"Grr! Your tits look like a cows udders, you hag!" Hermione growled out while Bellatrix yawned again and didn't respond. She decided to lay down and her breathing began to slow and stop almost immediately. "Don't you ignore me! I'm not done with you yet!" Hermione shook her finger at the now-dead woman.

"She is," Harry said, turning Hermione to him and kissing her firmly, feeling Hermione's arms encircle him and hold tightly.

"She was wrong, right?" Hermione wondered aloud and almost desperately. Her eyes were bright and held unshed tears.

Harry immediately cast a low-powered Patronus to drive off the effects the nearing dementors were creating against them both on their rounds, making Hermione sigh and shiver happily. "I've never been anything _but_ pleased and happy with you, Hermione."

"Right! I'm sorry. I ... don't know what was happening. I just felt like she was right and that it would all be over and I'd have nothing left and-"

"That's the dementors," Harry soothed, kissing Hermione again and squeezing her bottom gently but firmly since he knew it helped calm her down. Or at least made her think of something else. "It's what they do. I think they're getting really close. I'm really glad there are only thirty left on the island, according to Dobby. The rest of the targets are a floor above. Are you ready to keep going?"

"Yea," Hermione sighed. "I shouldn't have argued with her, I'm sorry."

"It's okay. She has that effect on people," Harry said with a small smirk. "Not many people could call her a hag or say her breasts look like a cow's udders and live to tell about it," he joked, causing Hermione to blush.

"I still shouldn't have done that. We were here to ... kill her. It was wrong."

"Then learn from it," Harry said, holding Hermione close and trying not to pay attention to the feelings of the area around him. He had lost the ability to tell where people were around him not long after obtaining it and then it got a little stronger, then left again. It seemed it was coming back, once again.

"Dobby said the Aurors did a patrol every six hours," Hermione reminded, looking at her simple watch. "We've got twenty-two minutes to finish the others and leave."

As soon as they found stairs to go up, the first cell they found had a man sleeping surprisingly well, but was a face Harry did not expect to see there. "Hermione, hold up. Here's one."

"Who is this?" She asked quietly, trying not to wake the man.

"Another one named 'Jugson'. I'm not sure what his first name is, or if that is his first name. But, I remember him." Without really waiting, he levitated a drop of the basilisk's venom to the man's lips and watched him lick them. Curiously, he breathed outwards like he was trying to dislodge something from his throat before he simply died almost immediately.

They quickly walked down two different hallways, checking notes Hermione had made in her pocket just to be sure, and came up to Augustus Rookwood. This man was taller than most, a touch over six and a half feet and was once an Unspeakable who was the primary source of Voldemort's intelligence network within the Ministry and in charge of creating moles of other workers, most unaware of it. He rarely got his own hands dirty, but was extraordinarily dangerous due to not only the number of spells he knew, but the rarity of many since he had access to some of the most arcane and restricted knowledge bases.

"All that knowledge and he had to use it for evil," Hermione sighed, feeling a little better with Harry's Patronus shield and his arm around her waist, holding her against him tightly.

Thankfully, this man was still asleep, using the time while the dementors were elsewhere to get as restful sleep as he could like most others. Some, like the LeStranges, preferred to be awake and communicate or just rest as peacefully as they could, but most slept, hoping for a lack of nightmares. So, when Harry levitated more venom and let it fall to the man's snoring mouth, it only took a couple of seconds to see him stop breathing.

"They survive longer when they're awake," Hermione noticed, sharing her observation with Harry. "When they're asleep, it doesn't take but a couple seconds and they're gone. But, the LeStrange men took about ten seconds and Bellatrix was able to argue with me for about the same time."

"Maybe they can fight it a little," he responded with a shrug. "Let's go. Almost done."

Backtracking one hall and going down another, they came across a man Harry had been looking forward to seeing: Antonin Dolohov. This man had tried to kill Hermione at the Department of Mysteries and then chased them from Fleur and Bill's wedding to a small café where he killed innocent people. There was also something else on the tip of Harry's mind that he thought the man had done, but had no clue what it was. But Harry wanted the man dead. Dead, and _not_ with the poison. But, with Hermione there, he decided it was best to stick with the plan.

However, Hermione wasn't exactly there. In her mind, she saw herself in an unfamiliar room with Neville Longbottom a short distance away and Harry only a few feet from her, both in her line of sight, along with their enemies and her own, the face of the man she just saw behind the white mask, she somehow knew.

As Harry and Neville were fighting their own enemies, she had managed to silence her own, this man that she didn't know. She looked to Harry, knowing she had a moment before the man could be unsilenced and needed to know if Harry needed help or protection. However, she saw him take out his enemy with a bright red light, stunning the man and putting him down for the third time, she knew. "Good job, Harry!" She could remember being _so_ proud of him! He had been coming into his own and was doing _so_ much better!

Then he called her name in fear, looking off to the side a little.

She turned just in time to see a dark purple light fly towards her from the silenced Death Eater she had ignored and she felt white-hot heat hit her across the chest. "Oh!" She felt herself fall as the man took off his mask and goaded Harry who was rushing towards her.

In the split second it took Hermione to remember these things, she felt herself begin to shake and her lip curl into a snarl.

She was back in another room she didn't really remember, fighting side by side with Harry, Luna and Neville against nine men. She wasn't sure how, but she already knew that the others who had come with them were dead. She was holding a glowing orb in one hand and her wand was flying from one move to another as light shot out from the tip almost without pause. Nothing dangerous came towards her, but the others were in trouble.

A dark, purple light she remembered from the previous room came towards Harry. She tried to shield him, but it arrived too fast and his face was removed. The others stopped in shock and the masked men took off their masks and laughed, one taunting them and another bringing them back to order before everything went dark.

As the second vision ended, Hermione's quivering hand grabbed her wand as Harry pulled out his glass vial. The last scene was stuck in her head and that was all that mattered to her at that moment. As far as she cared, as far as she remembered off hand, Harry was dead and lost to her.

"Reducto!"

Harry's eyes widened as a silvery crescent hit the man's head and it exploded into a shower of gore and bone. He hadn't even had time to remove the cap of his flask before he saw Hermione drop to her knees out of the corner of his eye and begin crying, muttering out his name.

"Hermione!" He put the vial in his pocket as he fell beside her and took her into his arms. "Shh! Shh! What's wrong? What happened?"

"I s-saw him kill you!" Hermione cried, grabbing Harry and squeezing for all she was worth.

"What?" Harry asked, confused.

"I saw him! First, I saw him hit me with this awful dark purple curse, and then I fell down and you and Neville were there! Then, we were in a different room and I saw him kill you! And I just knew you were dead and I killed him back before I realized we were still here!"

Harry could feel the dementors converging on their location and knew magic use was probably monitored in the prison, which meant others were likely to be coming. Actually, it felt like the dementors were right on top of them, which probably explained why Hermione had cracked like that, even if it didn't explain her getting memories that hadn't happened. They still had a few targets to go, but now had no time. Harry immediately picked up her wand and held her tight as they Shifted out of the prison and into the planning room of the house at Potter Manor.

"Dobby!" Harry quickly sat down and pulled the unresisting Hermione into his lap as she cried, horrified at what she had seen and presumably what she had just done.

"Master Harry Potter Sir?" Dobby asked, popping into view.

"Earl Grey with a squeeze of lemon for Hermione, please," Harry ordered, taking Hermione into his arms and rubbing her back gently, whispering soothing sounds to her ear. The tea popped up almost immediately. Unnecessary to state was that it would have a light calming draught mixed in with the strong beverage. If Harry didn't know any better, he would swear the little elf already had a pot made up. He was faster than normal with it.

"What was that, Harry?" Hermione asked after taking a large swallow. "What I saw?" She was feeling better now that she was away from that place.

"The first vision you mentioned, I remember, too," Harry said carefully, continuing to rub her lower back in soft circles. "That was my memory of how things happened at the end of our fifth year my last time through. The other one, I assume, was a previous life before that which I just don't remember right now."

Hermione sniffled, putting her face in the crook of Harry's neck and sucking gently on it every few seconds. "Is that what it was like when you remembered other times you mentioned?" She asked drowsily. It was now past midnight for them and she was knackered even though they had to go back and live through dinner before going to bed.

"Yes," Harry whispered, kissing her on the neck the same way she was to him. They stopped after a few moments more and simply stayed that way for a few minutes.

"I killed him," Hermione stated. "I killed a man in cold blood."

"No," Harry denied, pushing her back just enough so she could look into his eyes and he into hers. "What I had been doing was in cold blood. It was planned and methodical. What you did was based on memories of him killing me and almost killing you. The dementors were almost right on top of us, possibly on a different floor, but close enough they were messing with our emotions."

"I still did it," she whispered sadly.

"Do you think what I was doing was wrong?" Harry asked, looking into her eyes critically, looking for deceit.

"Of course not," Hermione said, her voice beginning to rise. "But what I did-"

"Is no different from what I was doing," Harry interrupted her, causing her to snap her mouth shut with a clack of teeth. "The only difference is that you used a spell instead of poison."

Hermione stared at Harry for a few seconds before she slowly and jerkily nodded and then leaned down to kiss him deeply. "I know it's late and we still need to go back in time, eat dinner and then go to bed, but can we stay here for a little bit longer? Just ... holding each other?"

"Anything you want," Harry promised, taking his hand from her lower back where he hadn't stopped rubbing her and just encircling her with his arms, holding her close and letting her randomly kiss his neck and shoulder as they sat in a now comfortable silence.

They sat there for a little over half an hour until Hermione noticed that, if they left then, they could make it back in time to just a couple minutes before they left for Harry's home. Morosely, she got up and changed back into her school uniform as Harry watched her carefully. She wasn't even sure when his outfit had returned to normal. "We should head back now," she said quietly as she slipped into her shoes.

"Are you okay to leave now?" He asked. He wasn't really sure how to help her with what she had done. It really wasn't any different than what _he_ did, but he had grown to understand the choice and made it consciously. Hermione simply hadn't.

"As I'll ever be," she said, trying to sound as normal as she could.

"We can wait," he offered.

"No. Let's go. I'd rather just go back and then get to bed."

Harry nodded and checked his watch, having both turn back time to a few minutes before they left for the house and then Shifted to the Lord's Quarters that he had made for Luna since she would still be in her last class before heading to meet them there. She would simply think they got there first while their past selves would arrive in the house after they left.

As the two arrived in Luna's new room, Hermione began to sniffle and tears trailed down her cheeks.

"Hermione," Harry said, setting their bags down and embracing her in a hug. "I know it hurts and you're wondering all kinds of things. But I'm still here. I don't think less of you; I don't fear you and I will _not_ be leaving you on your own," he promised, holding her and trying to convey he was telling the truth.

Hermione kissed him once, twice and then fiercely. She pushed him backwards into a chair and followed him into it, working his robes loose frantically with one hand and her own loose with the other.

"Hermione, we shouldn't. Not after that," Harry grabbed her hands as he spoke, knowing what she was planning would be a mistake, even if he wanted it, too.

"I just want to hold each other," she said quietly. "Not _that_. I just ... don't think I can go out there and pretend nothing happened. Please?"

Without a word, and acting far more calm than he really felt, Harry nodded and helped her with her blouse buttons while she worked on his own. He was worried this would become more, but decided immediately not to let it happen. It was just like his first two times. He really just needed the comfort. Even now, he wanted that, too, and Hermione obviously felt the same.

They were naked within just a few short minutes and cuddling on the couch. Hands roamed and reaffirmed the other was loved and lips gently sucked on bared flesh to show no fear of each other. For one of the first times since they got together, neither was frantic or driven by anything but the desire to comfort. There was a lack of lust in their actions that hadn't been present before.

"What happened?" Luna asked as she entered the room, seeing the two embracing and holding each other in the nude without trying to enjoy each other in the carnal sense. That wasn't how she knew something was wrong, though, of course. She could still see Hermione's red, puffy eyes and the tears that slowly trailed down her cheeks.

The other two looked at each other a moment before immediately deciding not to lie. So they told her about what they did and what happened, ending that Hermione just didn't want to leave the room for the night.

Luna was a little hurt that they didn't let her join, but decided there were other, more pressing matters to attend to at that moment. She stripped down to bare buns and sat opposite Hermione so she could hug them both. "It sounds like you did what you did because you felt as though Harry had died in that very moment," she explained warmly and showing that she still cared. "I'd have been more upset if you _hadn't_ tried to avenge Harry's death."

Hermione blinked rapidly, considering that.

Harry covered them all up with a conjured blanket before calling for Dobby.

"What can I be doing for yous, Master Harry Potter Sir?" Dobby asked, not batting an eyelash at the strange picture he came across. He only looked distressed that he couldn't help Mistress Grangy.

"Can you get some finger foods for us, please? Something warm, if you can," Harry requested. The distressed elf provided enough for six people, allowing the three to feed each other and continue to provide assurances to Hermione that they did, indeed, love and care for her and felt nothing less for her before sharing a bath where the brushy-haired brunette fell asleep as they washed her hair before being taken to bed.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]**

(1)Wassail (sounds like 'wah'-sul where 'wah' is like 'water') – I am aware this is traditionally a solstice drink, but I like to think it's close enough. And yes, it IS strong. Traditionally a sweet wine with spirits mixed in, dark ale and spices with egg for thickness, a little like eggnog, and crab apples.

(2)The information about the girls' cycles isn't important, but how they handle it **IS MOST DEFINITELY IMPORTANT**.


	21. Boom! Goes the Dynamite!

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter20** – Boom! Goes the Dynamite!

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Nudity, Torture, Adult Language & Situations

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Naughty Scenes** in this chapter. One with Hermione isn't totally necessary and can be skipped (Lime Start and Lime End, right after Luna's scene) and one with Luna that is not labeled. It is not explicit and is important for relationship and character growth. While they mention orgasms, nudity and a fetish, it describes nothing explicit and nothing explicit really happens 'on-screen'. But, I feel the scene is necessary, so I'm not labeling it. You get worse out of those cheap romance novels (seriously, I read one when I was younger to find out what my mom liked so much about them and she had the audacity to tell me to avert my eyes? PFFT!)

**KatDemon18** helped me with the name of the item you'll see Harry use here: Alyssa Bryophyta, along with its "new" common name "Bat's Bane". Both were her suggestions.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Broken Chains" by Darth Marrs – H/Hr/L; Lunar Harmony with slight Star Wars crossover – Darkish Harry.

**xXx Previously xXx**

_Luna was a little hurt that they didn't let her join, but decided there were other, more pressing matters to attend to at that moment. She stripped down to bare buns and sat opposite Hermione so she could hug them both. "It sounds like you did what you did because you felt as though Harry had died in that very moment," she explained warmly and showing that she still cared. "I'd have been more upset if you hadn't tried to avenge Harry's death."_

_Hermione blinked rapidly, considering that._

_Harry covered them all up with a conjured blanket before calling for Dobby._

"_What can I be doing for yous, Master Harry Potter Sir?" Dobby asked, not batting an eyelash at the strange picture he came across. He only looked distressed that he couldn't help Mistress Grangy._

"_Can you get some finger foods for us, please? Something warm, if you can," Harry requested. The distressed elf provided enough for six people, allowing the three to feed each other and continue to provide assurances to Hermione that they did, indeed, love and care for her and felt nothing less for her before sharing a bath where the brushy-haired brunette fell asleep as they washed her hair before being taken to bed._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Saturday – January 8, Morning – Lord's Chamber (Luna's Room)**

The next day, the Triad awakened in their nude states, with Hermione in the middle and both Harry and Luna hugging her as she clung to whatever her arms could reach around. She had stopped saying how horrible a person she was for killing Dolohov not long after Luna showed up, accepting that he was a bad man who had done atrocious crimes and to keep the other two from getting annoyed that she kept saying it. The three had eaten, albeit slowly and without much real conversation until late into the night. Harry explained how he felt the first time he had killed in this time-line, and how thankful he was to both girls for being there for him, making sure to do his best to relate what he had done with Hermione's situation while Luna simply cuddled Hermione, offering her silent support while responding to anything self-deprecating Hermione would say to set the bushy-haired one straight until she fell asleep in the bath.

Both failed to truly console her.

In reality, Hermione spent most of the night fighting through not what she had done, but the new memories she had acquired and the horror she felt when she lost Harry, or thought she had. They were _hers_, of that she was sure. They were hers as if she had just lived through those moments while thinking and feeling exactly what she did then, gaining the knowledge her mind processed during those memories. But she had no idea how. She knew the anguish she would feel if Harry was taken from her, or her other friends. She knew what it felt like to nearly die and what her mind focused on during those short trips, meaning spells she had never learned were right there in her mind, stored and ready to be cast. The feelings she had at the time were there, including the awkward pull for Ron that felt like a ball of caustic energy in her chest that she knew her counterpart erroneously thought was romantic feelings, but was nothing compared to what she felt for Harry, even then and especially now. Her feelings for Harry could make her shiver and feel full of energy while what she felt for Ron sapped that same energy and it was simply mindlessly thinking about him. At least with Harry, she thought about more than simply who he was flooding her mind.

She knew rooms in the Ministry that she had never visited, she felt a strange camaraderie with Luna and Neville while suspecting something ... _something_ ... about Ginny's strange rise in power during that year that she had noticed during the fighting. A ruthless sort of ferocity, an extreme enjoyment of causing their opponents pain, had shown in her fighting style against the Death Eaters that she had not been able to identify, but wanted to ask the girl about when it was all over. But that had also been the memory where she had died and Hermione could remember thinking it was such a silly thing to think about during a fight to the death.

What had caused her such fear wasn't that she had killed a person, but that she had _liked_ it. Or, perhaps to be more precise, she had _enjoyed_ it.

It wasn't as simple as Luna seemed to think in that she was simply reacting to what she was remembering. Not just that, no. She remembered information about that man, Dolohov, the things he did and things she had actually _seen_ him do, such as the memory of nearly being killed by him and of Harry actually dying because of him. She knew what he was capable of. And she had felt _such elation_! Seeing his head explode caused her to feel _giddy_ of all things! She felt satisfied and proud and had relished in that burst of gray matter and bone, gratified in the blood splatter on the walls and the hollow _thock _sound that her spell had elicited from the man's head as it exploded outwards. That pureblooded, bigoted _fucker _had _dared_ to harm Harry and she had taken incredible delight in ending him in a messy way.

That was what scared her.

There was the hope that it was what Harry had tried to tell her. That killing in the heat of the moment was much different than a planned and premeditated assassination or that maybe she was seeing more in this and it really was just as simple as Luna suggested. But there was also the fear that it _wasn't_. To part of her, it _was_ in the heat of the moment, but the other part of her went there knowing her and Harry were going to be killing, or at least that _he_ was, but she was going to watch and just let it happen. And that she _wanted_ to kill someone so that she could be useful to him so that, the next time, when it was really needed, it wouldn't be her first time.

_That_ was why she cried herself to sleep. She had enjoyed smearing Dolohov's head all over the walls. She ... was _still_ happy about it...

"Breakfast will be over in an hour and a half," Luna commented with a yawn, stretching languidly as she rose from the bed. Hermione felt quite sure the lithe blonde would be some sort of cat animagus. The blonde girl even clawed at the air like Crookshanks did to the floor while stretching. "We should get our showers and go down to eat if we don't want people to wonder why we missed two meals in a row."

"Are you feeling a little better?" Harry asked from Hermione's side, stroking her hair gently. Hermione couldn't help but smile a little at how caring his eyes could sometimes be. How non-judgmental. She didn't really pay attention to the fact that he had done the majority of the killing the previous night. To Hermione, it was just something that had happened because it was needed.

"A bit, yes," she responded. "I still feel horrible, but I guess I can kind of understand how things happened. I mean, he was going to die anyway. I just ... I never really expected to be doing that. And it was ... messy," she explained. She still couldn't get over that part. She was rather glad it had been messy and not clean. And disappointed that it was quick. A small portion of her mind couldn't help but think it was too good for the Death Eater when Harry, the _other_ Harry, had died slowly and painfully. Or had it been _her_ that was dying slowly and painfully? _'Does it really matter? The pillock should have gone out screaming,'_ she thought to herself, only feeling a little shame over the thoughts.

Harry nodded after a second and kissed her gently. Pulling back, he smiled at her and poked her nose. "I had you and Luna there for me, and it helped tremendously. I know I didn't really talk about it, but being there helped, and when I did talk, you listened. That helped me get through it. I'm here if you need me. I understand exactly what you're feeling, I promise," he said, feeling a strange mish-mash of emotions in his gut. He couldn't really distinguish between them all, but he could feel Hermione's self-loathing stronger than anything else.

Luna had watched this with a slight jealous feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had always known the two had shared incredible adventures together, putting their lives and safety in the hands of the other that had forged an incredible bond the likes of which were usually only found in the four-knut romance novels geared towards housewives and fantasy-driven teenaged girls. She wasn't there for those things. But, she _was_ here now, and they had not really told her about this, or invited her along. They didn't _include_ her. A part of her felt she knew it was because she was a year behind, and _hadn't_ shared those adventures with them, but most of her knew they were in all of this together. Love, loss, life and war were all theirs to share now.

But she hadn't been _included_. She was still ... on the outside and looking in. An observer in two lives that were tied to her own now.

But she wouldn't let that deter her from being their friend and doing whatever it took to keep them all happy as a unit. "You also have me," she said, sounding a little more hopeful and still disappointed than she had really meant to allow for. "I may not understand any of what you went through last night, but perhaps that would provide a unique perspective," she offered, hoping to make the best out of the situation, despite how much it hurt.

"I know," Hermione said, sitting up in bed and holding the comforter to her chest as she sat against the headboard. She hesitated a moment before letting it fall, wondering why she felt the need to hide herself since she had been quite enthusiastic to show herself off to Harry the past near month. Especially since she relished his eyes roaming over her. She realized there was a loss of feeling safe and secure from hiding from the world behind it and no longer being held. "And I thank you both. It's just something I'll have to get used to, I suppose. Regardless of which world you're in, murder is still not socially acceptable, so I don't really have a basis to say, 'this is okay and you don't have to feel bad about it' like I could with our relationship. I know it was the right thing that it happened, but the way it occurred was still wrong." She absently rubbed her stomach in a way Harry had come to start doing some time ago when his hand rested on her stomach. It was comforting. And the slight tickle kept her from trying to figure out why it was so wrong that she _still_ felt like she wanted to blow Dolohov's head off again for what he did to ... or would do, to Harry. She wanted to go back and finish the job to the rest of him.

Like hers and Luna's feelings coming through the Abyss to modify how they accepted their relationship, so too, did Hermione's need to protect Harry. Especially now that the link between this version of her and others, especially ones left over from the middle of two pitched battles, was stronger between them.

"You need waffles," Luna stated bluntly. "Waffles make all sorts of things better. We'll lather them in so much whipped cream, chocolate crumbles, fruits and chocolate syrup you'll go into a sugar coma or be in a _really_ good mood after." As though that ended the conversation, she grasped Hermione by the hand and began to pull her to the bathroom where the pool of a tub was already nearly filled thanks to Dobby's diligence and eavesdropping abilities. "Come along. Time to make a dirty girl clean!"

"I'm not dirty!" Hermione denied, half in a yell of shocked outrage and half choking at the surprise statement. Absently, she wondered if she was supposed to feel like her hands were stained red or if it was normal that her first thoughts to such a statement were erotic in nature, only in part because Luna wanted to share the bath.

Luna stopped and turned to Hermione, looking down and then back up. "I wasn't referring to dirt, Miss Talks-in-Her-Sleep." Hermione blushed and spluttered, having no comeback as she wondered about exactly what she had been dreaming about. Still, she wasn't thinking about murder, so Luna smiled for a job well done. Well, that, and a shocked Hermione was a funny Hermione.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – January 8, Breakfast**

Harry, Hermione and Luna sat down at the Gryffindor table to begin eating when much of the food in front of them disappeared and new dishes showed up. One plate was piled high with hot, steamy, golden-brown, crispy waffles, and there were large bowls each of ripe strawberries, blueberries, bananas, chocolate chips, raspberries, cherries, whipped cream, butterscotch chips, chocolate and caramel syrups and butter. Talk up and down the Gryffindor table slowed and stopped almost immediately at the almost sinfully decadent breakfast in front of Harry and his girls. Most commonly, the school provided what was considered traditional breakfast foods and rarely anything that could practically be called a dessert.

Girls up and down the table unconsciously licked their lips as Dobby popped into view behind Harry, still dressed in his combat fatigues with half a dozen cargo pockets, combat boots and his little field jacket also matched the pants, but still had the five wands on either shoulder and the Potter family crest proudly displayed on his arm. It also now sported his name in bold green stitching, as well. "Is Master Harry Potter Sir happy with Dobby's selections of waffles foods for him and his ladies?" Dobby was a _good_ eavesdropper. Any good house elf was! That's why half the school's elves thought the Creevey brothers wanted to join them.

"Er, it's all perfect. Thank you, Dobby," Harry said a little embarrassed. He could feel the eyes of almost half the school on him.

"Sir!" Dobby saluted, snapping to attention so quickly his boots actually made a snapping sound (the little elf had apparently learned from his expeditions and added steel to the toes and heels of the boots

_'in case any wizards be needing a good butt-kicking again'_, according to the little elf.) And then the little elf was gone with a near-silent pop, which did nothing to hide the stifled snickering of some of Harry's house mates who were aware of the eccentric elf.

"Harry, mate," Ron said after swallowing and shaking his head. "I know you just started the whole dating thing, but isn't that a bit much?" He asked amusedly. _'At least when we don't get any, either, that is,'_ Ron considered.

"Dating?" Lavender squealed from a seat down and diagonal from Ron, where he was hoping to show her he was picking up the lessons Hermione had given him about how he was supposed to eat. _'Forks are our friends, not combs.'_ "Who!" Ron had serious reservations about asking the pretty blonde out when he equated the feral glint in her eye to a wolf that had tried getting into his parents' chicken coup. But then she bounced in her seat as she turned her sights on him and all fears left him for some, inexplicable reason...

"He's dating Hermione and Luna," Ron said, happy to both be the center of Lavender's attention, along with most others, and to be in the know of information that was so exclusive. It was like when they were all in their adventures together again, without the danger. Plus, it let Lavender know Harry was off the market and Ronald Bilius Weasley most definitely _wasn't_.

"_Both_ of them?" Parvati asked, looking just as enthused as her favorite gossiping partner. It _almost_ gave Ron ideas of his own before common sense kicked in somehow.

A part of Ron's mind that was rarely initiated saw an opportunity and exploited it with almost enough cunning that Snape would have provided him points, provided he wasn't a snarky, evil, loathsome little bastard, at least. "Yea, they're best friends, so why not?" He asked with a deliberate shrug and a dopey grin. "And I'm sorry, Harry, but I'm just not into you. I figure one girl is good enough for me and I prefer blondes," he finished, eying Lavender out of the corner of his eye and his grin widening when she looked at him like she was inspecting him. Either that, or glaring at him for interrupting whatever she was about to say. It was hard to tell when he couldn't really see her very well since he didn't want to get caught checking her out.

"Excuse my interruption," the firm voice of Minerva McGonagall broke into the fray, silencing her brood and getting a few nervous looks in her direction, or some staring at their plates as the Scottish woman came out of nowhere. It sometimes amused her how some students were scared to look her in the eye just because they thought she was scary. Or it could be that she had moved a bit more quickly than usual in her approach to the table and her breathing was a little heavier as a result, which added to that fear-inducing glare of hers. "But will you tell me what has you all so excited?" She asked, thinking she had heard the golden egg in speech form. Now to see if her geese, make that _guess_, had been correct.

"We were just happy that Harry, Hermione and Luna started dating, Professor," Lavender said, unable to not be the one to provide juicy information.

"Are you?" McGonagall asked quickly, looking at her two lions and the raven that had been with them for ... well, she wasn't entirely sure when it started, to be honest. She just noticed it one day a while ago. She usually ignored the strange little girl.

"Yes Ma'am," Harry and Hermione stated while Luna nodded with a happy smile as she made a house out of her waffles and used the add-ons to decorate. Whipped cream made a truly wonderful snowman until it got warm, after all, while the caramel sauce worked like a sticky mortar. And tiny little sausages made for excellent reindeer. Then 'Natural Disaster Luna' would come in and demolish everything!

"And when did this happen?" McGonagall asked, probably sounding a little more harsh than she had meant to with her faster speech, slightly clipped tones and her Scottish brogue showing through a little in her excitement.

"Er, the day after the Hogwarts Express left," Hermione offered. "December the twentieth." Harry looked at her, surprised that she could remember the actual date. It hadn't occurred to him until that moment that remembering would be a _very good thing_ if Aunt Petunia's rage at Uncle Vernon's forgetting their anniversary was any indication.

_'Is there an anniversary for when you start dating?'_ Harry wondered nervously. _'I think I need to send a letter out and find out...'_

The Triad had expected a few different possible reactions from the news of their relationship getting out. Joy from some, hurtful comments from others, rage in others yet. One they hadn't really anticipated, particularly from their Head of House, was a loud whoop of joy and throwing a fist into the air. And from the looks of shock on many others, that could be said to hold true for everyone except Luna, who was trying to get the door on her waffle house to stand ajar, her pink tongue out and curled up at the side of her mouth and her brow knit together in concentration. _'Those blueberry elves will need a way to escape so I can eat them,'_ she complained in her head, feeling a little vindictive from her earlier sense of being left out.

"Ma'am?" Hermione asked in concern before turning to glare at the twins who were also staring at their Head of House in shock. "What did you two put in her drink?"

"Pay up!" McGonagall called out loudly, the grin on her face much larger than most of what anyone in the student body could ever recall her wearing that wasn't related to Quidditch victories. She was holding her hand out to the twins, who were finally drawn from their stupor.

From out of nowhere, the twins pulled out a thick scroll and unrolled it, shuffling through until they found what they were looking for and groaned. "December twentieth had only you betting," one of them stated, causing many within the school to groan, much to Hermione and Harry's confusion as they looked about. Undeterred, the twins continued. "There were higher-than-other odds Hermione would go home for Christmas since she did first year and stayed last year, which also got her treated for some medical condition, so most thought she'd return to her parents' place. Plus, most bets were on Christmas and the eve before and the day the Express left."

"You were close with your first bet, Headmaster!" The other twin called out. "Just a day earlier and you'd be several galleons richer! Your second for Valentine's Day was way off, though. Sorry!"

Smiling in amusement, Albus saluted with his glass of milk, which he always started his morning meal with. Something the twins took careful note of.

"What are you talking about!" Hermione asked loudly, her ire beginning to rise. "What bets!"

"Oh, come off it, Hermione," Ron said, gaining the attention of the formidable girl. "You really didn't know the entire school was betting on when you'd get together with Harry?"

"And you _did_?" She asked loudly, looking more than a little irritated.

"Or Ron," Fred offered. "Until the last few months, there were a lot of bets on that, too. Along with you getting together with Draco, oddly enough."

"As if!" Hermione immediately denied, her hair rising as her anger did and the words coming out almost as a hiss.

"I'd _never_ lower myself to such a thing!" The affronted voice of Draco called out from the Slytherin table, getting more than a few nasty looks, even from his own house from a few who liked the idea of Harry and Hermione getting together and a few who simply thought Hermione wasn't bad, for a mudblood, of course.

"And you were a part of this?" Hermione asked the proud and preening McGonagall. "I thought you would be quite against betting within a school," she continued, feeling slightly disapproving of the older woman's guile.

"For twenty galleons," George snorted, looking at his paper, "she sure didn't _appear_ to be against it! That day was going off at thirty-to-one odds! We're only glad there were enough bets to cover it all! If a few people hadn't made such large bets, we'd never be able to pay the entire six hundred galleons."

Hermione's expression of disapproval turned to muted horror as Minerva began to hum a song she had first heard in Daffy Duck's Quackbusters: "_I'm in the money! I'm in the money!_"

"We don't carry that kind of money around, Professor," Fred began the business side. "We keep it where it is completely safe, along with back-up copies of the betting pool. We'll see you right before lunch in your office?"

"Of course, boys," McGonagall stated, looking rather smug. "Now, I believe, however, you promised me something should I win and not shut down your little betting pool?"

Free of restrictions like common courtesy and shame, the twins grinned like the lunatics they sometimes were and transfigured their clothing into fool's outfits, complete with curly-toed shoes with bells on them, the poofy skirts, hats with bells and arms hanging off and poofy shoulders. One was in bright, vibrant red, the other in shiny gold of the House colors. Then, the two began to dance and sing, heralding her praises, much to the amusement of the students as they began to dance around the laughing teacher, occasionally grabbing her and spinning her to join them.

It only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough to have Hermione sigh in resignation before sitting down. In an odd way, this awkward, out-there situation made her feel a little better. Not because she was now officially recognized as Harry's girlfriend, though that was sort of nice, but because it was normal in a way that the night before wasn't. And she could focus on this, along with revenge against the twins.

It comforted her to know she just wanted to humiliate them and not do something messy. The question remained, however. How do you humiliate someone with no shame?

After several minutes of questions from curious students about the when, how and why they all got together, along with a few jeers about having more than two girls from a few of the less intelligent boys who got smacked well from the girls, and finally pointing out that Hermione and Luna weren't together, but that Harry had both girls due to both caring for him and because it would help him manage his families since Hermione definitely didn't want to pop out babies for every family, though she secretly wouldn't mind trying if she had a stable home-job such as spell-crafting, things had settled down for the last half hour of breakfast when mail began to come in, which is what many of the students were waiting for. Harry, however, got an unexpected letter.

"It's from Amelia Bones," Harry responded to Hermione's question. "She's the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Susan's aunt. We met her at Luna's party, remember?"

"Of course," Hermione said, suddenly remembering that she had been meaning to ask the girl about how she was enjoying Neville as a boyfriend. She also couldn't stop smiling at how Harry's comment sounded very couple-like.

_1993, 8 January_

_Amelia Bones, Department Head _

_DMLE_

_Lord HJ Potter:_

_I hope this letter finds you well and not too early in the morning._

_First, I wanted to thank you, again, for providing me the idea of having Aurors stationed at Hogsmeade during the free weekends for students. While I admit that many are Auror Trainees, they are coming into the final stint of their training and are thusly qualified for student protection and received increased training for fighting with civilians nearby. I'm unsure if you had any such concerns, but I took as much initiative as capable to ensure they knew what they were doing. I tell you that so you may allow me to continue placing my Aurors there in the coming months. I am aware I did not request permission to do so the first time, but since it was your idea to begin with, felt it unnecessary. It was recently pointed out to me that could be a poor decision, so ask you to choose if you feel the safety of the students is high enough to allow this._

_I also wish to let you know scheduling would allow me to bring thirty of my Aurors and all my current Trainees to Hogwarts on Friday, 11 February if that suits you, as well. I believe that is the day before a Hogsmeade weekend. The Auror Trainees will remain at the Three Broomsticks that night and the Aurors assigned them will return early morning. Your cousin, Miss Tonks, will be amongst them. They also wish to thank you for the meal that night, as do I. We pay for meals on assignments and that saved us a bit, as you are aware with our budget cuts._

_For Friday, 11 February, we feel that a demonstration of the Patronus charm should allow us to get an idea of what we will be learning. This is not meant as an educational approach, but more to get a feel for what we will be in for. And we don't wish to keep you from Hogsmeade, though I feel it is my duty to ask you to be careful since it is you that Sirius Black is after. Should we determine that you will be capable of teaching this charm to my Aurors and Trainees, I will send them in smaller groups to you on days you host your school-wide meetings, which Susan will be warning me of. If you change them, please let me know as early as possible._

_And if you have forgotten, the eleventh is not the Wizengamot meeting because that is the first full week in February and will be the Friday of the next week we meet. There shall be no conflicts regarding that._

_Also, as a reminder, you will be tested on your dueling capabilities against some of my people. While you explained you didn't expect to do well, and voiced valid concerns, it will give us an idea of how well you will fit into the dueling lessons for our Trainees. We can promise hands-on and 1-on-1 training, but do not promise you participation in any of the class lessons because, as honored as we are to have you, we cannot and will not slow down a class just for the presence of yourself. This is not a recrimination of your ability to learn, so much as it is that you have yet to learn much getting only your third year of education now. The material is designed for those who know their educations in full and is generally fast-paced. At worst, you can expect personal training by a Senior Auror if your lessons prove useful._

_Thank you for your time_

_Amelia S Bones_

_Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement_

"She seems like she's trying to placate me a lot in this," Harry responded after reading the letter. He wondered if she had ever done anything with the hint he had given her about Sirius' lack of a trial.

"That's because of your political power," Daphne responded from behind him, causing him to turn and regard her curiously. "She doesn't want to risk upsetting you, especially if you can teach more of her Aurors how to cast that charm. Plus, her niece is here and she doesn't want Susan to suffer whatever consequences you may dream up if Madam Bones _did_ upset you."

"I wouldn't-"

"I know," Daphne said, interrupting him. "But it's still a valid concern for her if you weren't a generally decent guy. Your authority here is almost impossible to argue and it is an accepted rule that we have to conform to school policy. It's just the fact that a single person is now in total control that is different than usual."

Harry just nodded and looked to Hermione, who provided him a quill and parchment to respond back with. She always had some with her in case she wanted to write something down.

_Director Bones,_

_I do, actually, take the students' safety seriously. Whenever you have Aurors or Trainees in Hogsmeade, the Hog's Head and the Three Broomsticks will allow them free food and non-alcoholic drinks free of charge. I'll cover whatever tabs they open. Alcohol will not be allowed at any time if they are on the clock, and it will not be provided free. This offer extends to any Aurors, Trainees and ... I guess your people, who may simply wish to visit students (if, say, you wanted to show up and meet with Susan, or one of your Aurors has a child not in Hogwarts, that child and wife/husband are allowed to eat free as well.) Random department heads, clerks and other individuals will not be allowed anything free (I like him, but Mr Weasley is a perfect example. He is not one of yours, therefor the safety of the students take priority.) Any of your people should be under the understanding and agreement that if they show up and trouble arises, their first priorities will be defense of the students first, the village second. Their own families, I won't begrudge falling under the first category, obviously. _

_I have no problems with your people showing up and defending us from threats. As long as they understand that I won't accept them overstepping their bounds. Honestly, I only want them there due to the dementors, which are my primary concern. Black has had multiple opportunities to kill a student and hasn't._

_While I'm on the subject, if you hear of, or Susan tells you of, an incident at Hogwarts, you have my permission to come in at any time to investigate. I can't remember if I told you this when we first met, but I remember that's when you told me the headmaster has blocked you in the past. I even welcome random inspections by you or a team of your choosing, preferably that has been vetted by you first._

_Harry J Potter_

_Lord of Potter, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw_

_Heir Apparent for Black_

"Good," Daphne said, reading over Harry's shoulder, mentally noting the Black family connection since it hadn't been in the papers. "You remembered to end it with your titles properly this time."

"I don't see why I have to remind people about all of that," Harry grumbled, rolling the letter up and pocketing it to be delivered via Hedwig later that day. The mornings, he knew, she seemed to like playing with the Thundercats, though they didn't want to say why. And Pitter-Patter only seemed to glare and hiss whenever it was brought up, or smack Twinkle upside his furry noggin.

"Because it's the way of things and you should be proud of your heritage and power," Daphne said in long-suffering tones. They'd had this argument before. "We can discuss it at your etiquette lessons. Still Tuesdays and Wednesdays, or have you changed your mind from the last time we spoke of it?"

"That's fine," Hermione said for herself and Harry. "Harry, I'm going to send a letter to my parents so they know not to expect us on the eleventh and then go speak to Madam Pomfrey about learning healing magics."

"That's more than a month away," Harry said, shocked. "Why tell them now?"

"So they have time to make whatever plans they want since it's right before Valentine's Day," Hermione explained with an eye roll. "But it's also always good to warn someone as early in advance as possible and then remind them not long before hand."

Harry simply shrugged. "You're the smart one. You can use Hedwig, if you'd like. Do you mind sending my letter to Madam Bones?" Getting an affirmative, Hermione took the letter and then went to the owlry, where she wrote her own quick letter and then sent it off with instructions to go to her parents first since she told them they could discuss it the next weekend over dinner.

A few minutes later, Hermione was entering the hospital wing, finding Madam Pomfrey dosing Mandy Brocklehurst with something.

"I'll be right with you, dear," the matron said once she saw that Hermione wasn't in need of her assistance. "This one woke up a few minutes ago and was screaming about some ghostly little girl catching and eating all three of them. Had to give her a dose of Dreamless Sleep to let her rest," she said conversationally. "Now, how can I help you?"

"Madam Pomfrey, I was hoping you could give me lessons on healing," Hermione requested. "I've been reading several books about it and I can't really explain why, but I feel like I really, _really_ need to learn what I can, as quickly as I can."

"A rather strange request, Miss Granger," the healer said after a moment of processing. "Why do you feel you _'need_' to learn healing? You usually go to a secondary learning establishment, such as Saint Mungo's, to become a healer. That's why it requires a Potions NEWT, so you're helpful while learning by brewing what the hospital needs."

There wasn't really any way that Hermione could safely discuss what she knew. But, she did have a good fall back option that could be trusted to help more than hinder, at least with this particular healer. "Harry is doing a lot of training on his own," she began. "You're aware of the things that have happened here the last two years?"

"Of course," Poppy snorted. "I've patched him up each time he did something stupid and reckless. And I dare say I'll be doing that the entire time he's here. So what does that have to do with you learning healing? If he gets hurt, you should bring him here straight away," the healer said, sounding a little offended that a mere third-year student hoped to replace her as the healer for one of her more frequent, and favorite if she were honest with herself, patients. He was a lot of trouble, but he was also one of the _dearest_ things she had ever met in her infirmary.

"And at school, I would, no matter how much I learned," Hermione said, realizing the resident healer's look and tone for what they were. "But outside of school, for general cuts, scrapes and possibly broken bones, I know I could help once my parents and I decide how best to accept his aegis. But as you know from the last two years, Voldemort is still out there and trying to come back. I'd rather learn what I could, as early as I could, in case of an emergency than have to try and get him to a healer before he bleeds out or if he's poisoned or some other situation he gets into. I mean, who knows what would have happened if he didn't know the Patronus this year!" She cried out in frustration. In truth, most of her healing knowledge came from what she used in her memories and the book she got for Christmas. It was almost scary, even to _her_, just how many healing spells she tried to think of that might help Harry when he was hit with that purple spell. So, it basically amounted to reading several books on healing that she hadn't found yet and memorizing them, but still having no practical application.

"Miss Granger," Poppy said, unsure of what to do, "getting him to a proper healer would always be the best choice. But, I suppose I can see what you're worried about. Stabilizing him until you can may sometimes be required, I suppose," the healer mused with a frown.

"Madam Pomfrey, it's hard to explain, but I _know_ he's going to come back," Hermione began, trying to appeal to the older woman's sense of fear. "He almost got the Philosopher's Stone in first year and was killing unicorns to survive. Last year, he almost killed Ginny Weasley by stealing her life and making it his own and had been possessing her all year long. He's almost come back now at _least_ twice in as many years. Harry won't always be here at Hogwarts where he can come to you and if we're honest, St Mungo's is not exactly a safe place if someone wants to go in and kill someone."

Seeing Pomfrey frown as she considered her words, Hermione decided to try just a little push. "I'm not asking you to make me a healer in the year. I'm asking for an hour or two of time whenever you can provide it. I know you were told of my schedule this year in case I needed any help due to long-term exposure of the Time-Turner. You know I can be here whenever you want me to be."

Pomfrey took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she looked at the girl in front of her. In truth, she would have absolutely loved this opportunity had it come even a year later, preferably two. This girl, as bright as she was, could potentially be to the medical community what Potter was to their world at large. Still, she _did_ have very valid points. "The only reason I am so much as considering this is because I know you're intelligent enough to learn what I have to teach you," she began, noticing the bright smile and shining eyes of triumph in the bushy-haired one.

"But!" She admonished, waggling a finger in front of the suddenly attentive girl. "As you said, you have a strange schedule this year. You'll come to me, each day, for an hour except for days where you have to use your _device_. If you are unable to keep up with this and your classes, then I expect you will drop this until later. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly!" Hermione chirruped. "I'm dropping Divination anyway because it's a pointless class and I'm tired of hearing that woman predict Harry's death, so I'll have even more time."

"Good," Madam Pomfrey said, half grunting and squaring her shoulders. "Because we're talking about people's lives, here. If you can't keep up, then you can't learn it, at least right now, and I won't have you killing someone because you failed to learn something important here. I'll have you reading for the most part in the beginning. I want you to know and understand the human body and becoming as familiar with it as possible before much else. I'll be quizzing you on the basics. Then, we'll get into recognizing ailments and identification spells, along with how to read what they provide and then we will see where to go."

"I'd like a primary focus to be field medicine, if possible," Hermione said. "I know it'll be a little while, but since I won't be in a traditional medical facility, at least until this is all said and done, I want to be sure I can be of use where I'm most likely to be needed."

"Fair enough," Pomfrey said, nodding her head, having already decided she would learn how to stave off death to get to a qualified healer first. "As long as you learn what you need to before then, I have no problems with that. But remember that it usually takes a few years of constant training to become a healer. You're getting a few hours a week. Don't expect this to be fast work."

"Can I read in advance in an attempt to move a little more quickly, so long as I can prove to you I still know the material?" Hermione asked curiously, hoping to use it as an excuse to balance her current spell base for healing spells she had in her head. "I have an eidetic memory. Sometimes I need a trigger to remember something if I don't read it twice," she said, thinking of her inability to remember that Nicholas Flamel had invented the Philosopher's Stone. She rarely read books two or more times. But then again, she rarely needed to. And her memory had been getting even more clear the past few weeks, too, thanks to her occlumency training and letting her subconscious take control over her defenses.

"Eidetic memory?" Pomfrey asked, clearly confused by the muggle scientific term.

"Basically, there are two types of powerful memory recall," Hermione stated, getting into lecture mode. "A photographic memory allows a person to recall what they see in vivid detail and a great amount of information as well. So, they could remember the page of a book and what it looked like, basically being able to read off the page of their memory, for example. An eidetic memory is the same, only it is for sounds, smells, tastes and touch. It could be for just one or even all of the senses, depending on the person. I'm able to remember everything but taste almost perfectly. I won't forget tastes any easier than anyone else, but I don't remember something I've only tried once if it wasn't a big deal to me. I tried escargot once and I remember that because I ... er," Hermione blushed, not wanting to tell the medi-witch that she had thrown it back up on her parents in a very fine dining establishment. "Anyway, all of those things help me remember even more information easier."

Poppy had always been able to remember things she read at the drop of a hat, even things she had read as a child. She had never known it was something the muggles had identified and classified before. _'Definitely made the right choice,'_ she thought. "Any time you finish reading a book I give you, I'll test you. You may go at whatever pace you feel comfortable with that won't interfere with your schooling. Understood?"

"Yes Ma'am," Hermione nodded, not about to ruin this chance. "Could I ask another question, medically related?"

"I suppose," Poppy allowed, blinking.

"Luna said using the spell to numb cramps during our monthlies isn't a good thing and that she prefers a potion. I've heard of it, but never actually looked into it, finding the spell to work well. Other than strenuous exercise we've joined Harry in each morning, which is why she said it would be a bad thing, is there a reason not to use the spell?" Hermione asked. "With turning time, I'm not sure if that's going to affect my cycle long-term or not and the spell is just really quick and easy without brewing time. So far, it's sticking to physical time rather than elapsed time in general, so the spell is certainly more useful for me right now, but could it be risky in any way?"

"Depends on your point of view, I suppose," Poppy said with a shrug. "Numbing the cramps will mean you don't feel any pain, including any damage you do to the muscles. More importantly, doing that works in a way very similar to the contraception spell, the residual magic from numbing, that is. If a male's genetic material passes through it, it is far less likely to impregnate a woman, even after it is no longer functional. Residual magic will remain, which can also weaken the male's genetic sample. Miss Lovegood's mother actually wrote a paper about this very thing, which is where I think young Luna gets her information," Poppy said with a fond smile.

"It's not something anyone would be willing to prove, considering how it would have to be done, but the theory is that the residual magic of the numbing spell if not canceled with a simple finite could affect the genetic samples, thus causing child development issues. She also feared prolonged exposure could simply make it harder for the woman to become pregnant, which was the founding principle of Miss Lovegood's theory. She believed that was one of the reasons we have more squibs today than we did a few decades ago, before the spell's creation, along with lesser mental faculties amongst purebloods, who prefer the spell."

"Then what about the potion?" Hermione wondered, horrified at what she was hearing. "Why would anyone want to use a spell that could be so potentially dangerous?"

"Well, understand that it hasn't been proven," Poppy said. "Celeste was absolutely brilliant, an intellectual rival of Lily Potter if I'm honest, and in many ways more intelligent, but usually in obscure ways. While the theory is sound, there is little way to prove it other than testing and no one wants to have such a child on purpose. The only other option is to look at pureblood versus muggleborn births, but since that isn't from two like groups, it isn't something that can be accepted as proven concept. Plus, the charm is infinitely easier to cast," Poppy said with a shrug. "As easy as your first-year levitation charm and it works instantly. Plus, you can apply it whenever you need to as you referenced while you must take the potion each day."

"And the potion?" Hermione asked, curious.

"Takes about half a day to take effect," Poppy explained. "You will also find that it is fairly difficult to brew simply because there is an hour window in which you do six steps precisely or it fails and makes you feel sick to your stomach after you've taken it. Plus, it only deadens the pain, not remove it entirely, which most women refuse to suffer through nowadays. But the potion will also almost always stop the other effects of the cycle such as the bleeding, bloating and most of the mood swings some girls have. You should be introduced to it next year in your syllabus," Poppy said.

"How long does it take to brew?" Hermione asked. "And if it's so difficult, why not just buy it at the apothecary in the Alley?"

"It only takes three hours," Poppy said. "But each potion must be tailored for the witch in question during the brewing process. You can't buy it pre-made. It requires your own saliva as one of the first ingredients and a hair in the middle. And, if Miss Lovegood has it, then she either provides what she needs and has it made, or makes it herself. The potion has a ridiculous shelf time even without the standard stasis runes and you can make several years' worth in one batch. I know some women who like to make it into hard candies while I was always fond of making fudge and putting it in that, myself, or perhaps toffee or caramels."

"I'll ask Luna if she could teach me, then," Hermione said, not liking what she had heard. If she had to suffer some mild pain that she had gotten used to before Hogwarts and being taught that spell by an upper-year girl to ensure her children weren't like Crabbe and Goyle, then so be it. It was a minor thing to suffer through for any future child's sake. "What about the contraception spell, then?"(1) Hermione asked, suddenly worried. "That's supposed to have a hundred percent rate at stopping pregnancies, but didn't you say it works the same?"

"Sort of," Poppy explained. "In truth, the spell only works if the one who casts it is as strong or stronger than the male, or at least not very much lower, since we can't always expect a male to do so, yes?" The healer asked, eying the girl who blushed at the insinuation. Gossip traveled fast in Hogwarts, and she knew who the girl was dating already, even though it had only been public for a few minutes before Hermione had shown up. Portraits were great for gossip details, especially when Poppy rarely left her infirmary.

"The male's genetic sample is charged with magic and the more magically powerful, the more virile he will be, much like a woman and her own muliebrity or fertility while both are likely to have a stronger libido by the charge of energy. The contraception charm is basically a field of magic within the woman that kills the material by commanding that magical charge on the genetic sample to self-destruct the sample before it does what it is there for. But, if the magic within the male is too strong, it protects the material, thus making the contraception charm pointless. That is why a woman can usually cast the contraception charm even if she isn't as powerful since the difference would have to be marked to be ineffective. I would strongly advise you remember this should it become necessary with you and Mister Potter-"

"What!" Hermione squeaked out. "We're not-"

"But you _are_ teenagers," Poppy interrupted, continuing. "I know how powerful Mister Potter is, Miss Granger. His levels are near astronomical for an adult, much less a child. If you or Miss Lovegood cast the charm, it would do absolutely nothing save perhaps guide Mister Potter's sample to where it needs to go. I doubt even the potion would have success since it actually charges your own body to reject the material of the male with your own magic."

Hermione worried her lips, deciding this was important enough to know. "What about muggle means? Things which don't require magic like the pills or the rubbers?"

Pomfrey blinked. "I'm not actually sure. The magic is _generally_ inert and only acts as protection, but ... I don't know how the muggle methods work, to be honest."

Hermione decided she wasn't going to tell the older woman just yet. The conversation was already more awkward for her than she had intended it to get. "I'll get you some medical texts that explain it," she said. "I just don't think I can handle that right now."

"Miss Granger," Poppy began to voice her disapproval. "You will have to deal with things like this as a healer. That's why you will have to become familiar with the human body. If you can't discuss it, you can't do it." The medi-witch took only a moment to realize what she said. "Well, not _that_, of course, but healing! I don't want to be seeing you or Miss Lovegood about this sort of thing for some time!"

Poppy's own flustered state at what she insinuated the young girl could do was almost enough to pull Hermione from her mortification.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – January 9, Second meeting between Ginny and Healer Smythe**

_Subject: Weasley, Ginevra Molly (Minor outside inheritance)_

_Sex: Female_

_Age/DOB: 12 / Aug 11, 1981_

_Blood Status: Pureblood _

_Purity: Virginal_

_Emrys Index: 73 – Slightly above average for age by 12 points_

_Eyes: Brown_

_Hair: Red _

_Healer: Smythe, Jacob R._

_Reason for admittance: _

_Subject was possessed by evil, controlling spirit from unknown and destroyed (unconfirmed) item (personal diary/journal) for just over eight months. Subject confirmed symptoms of possession: blackouts, unnatural abilities, evidence of actions taken during blackouts, controlling voice, warped magical core and fractured mind._

_Diagnosis:_

_Magical: Subject's magical core has warped and original readings of said core differ from those with each session. Core is stabilizing and acting less erratic. Theorized that possessing spirit attempted to take over core and used magic beyond Subject's ability at the time, thus straining it severely. This caused it to be malleable enough that Subject's continuous use of spells during summer to catch up on school work has modified it to grow and accept heavy strain, but could be more brittle and easily broken with too much strain further down the line. Further examinations needed to confirm or deny this theory._

_Physical: Physically, Subject shows no abnormal signs of trauma. Subject is found to have high reflexes from mental stimulation, but physical reflexes appear slower than average by a half second or so. Curiously, Subject appears to have very slight, uncontrollable ability to increase various body chemicals recently learned to increase strength, sight, speed and thinking processes when angry, upset or attempting to use higher-level magic. It is suspected the possessing spirit was molding the body for better use once devoured. Heightened emotions cause Subject to become obsessive and gain tunnel-vision geared towards "Savior"._

_Mental: Subject's mind has fractured due to possessing spirit. Various portions of the mind were disconnected, shattering to make possession easier as is normally seen by malignant spirits. However, abnormally, Subject was able to maintain links between the mind shards by centering her sense of ID not on herself as most subjects do, but on her devotion to Harry Potter, believing the boy would rescue her (note: this did occur and Subject now sees him as "Savior" and occasionally "Master" in some mental fantasies.) This belief held by Subject appears to have allowed her to maintain a hold on her own mind and keep the spirit at bay until Subject was, indeed, saved and possessing spirit exorcised in some unknown fashion (note: rescuer's Emrys Index is 1273, slightly less than one hundred times as powerful as the average adult.) Possible research into link of faith in another versus faith in one's self to fight possessing spirits. Subject never lost faith in Savior, but had given up hope on herself months before the final incident._

_Subject now has become psychopathic in nature with some slight sociopathic tendencies, with a complete reversal while dealing with Savior, where she feels extreme emotion, but holds complete disregard for social norms outside of her Savior. Mental scarring of the still fractured mind has been mostly halted, but Subject would have likely become a full socio-psychopath with her entire world revolving around Harry Potter, leading her to do anything to fulfill her fantasized role beside him which shifts based on Subjects emotional state. Subject's sense of ID is still centralized upon her rescuer and all tests suggest this cannot be changed without literally programming Subject as desired, which there are signs of someone having attempted to do so, possibly the possessing spirit or someone trained in mind magics who was aware of what was happening and allowing it for their own gains. This would, however, cause Subject to lose all ability to adapt as she ages without further programming, causing her to remain as programmed._

Healer Smythe closed his folder on his newest, and now primary, patient and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. He had been paid very well by the Potter boy to take care of this girl as best he could, even paying additional to accommodate the family with home visits and to go along with some silly story he concocted about paying off an old family debt to ease their egos.

The problem was, however, that the girl's mind had literally shattered with only the barest threads of mental acuity or strings holding her together until she was saved. And from the damage, it was likely she had been in that state for a long while. For at _least_ two months, probably closer to half a year, she had held it together, literally, by pure will alone due to her belief that the Potter boy would, eventually, save her. She based that belief on the dozens of children's stories she had read or made up in her own mind where she saw herself as the princess for him to save where she would be by his side and she would be his.

Then he actually did. With a bloody sword in one hand and a phoenix in the air behind him, covered in the blood of the slain basilisk after defeating the dark wizard that was intent upon her death. That image, ingrained upon her mind as soon as she woke up, with the magic in the air and her scarred and weakened mind, nearly made even _him_ swoon! But for a young girl whose mind was all but destroyed and had to focus on something to build itself back together, it was practically a sign from Merlin himself, even though the boy just wanted to save his best friend's sister.

While that was a good and admirable thing, it caused the girl's mental state to build on something that it rationalized as solid evidence of her fangirl beliefs. Ginevra Molly Weasley's world now completely and totally revolved around Harry Potter, the hero of the entire world. She truly believed it was his Divine Right to do, be and have anything and everything he wanted. No matter how good, or how _evil_, that was.

It wasn't just her possession that had done it.

Had she been brought in to see someone right after the event, it would have been far easier to save the girl, certainly keep her from being stuck in that mindset. However, she had been healed of magical exhaustion, dehydration and slight malnourishment and made to rest before being left alone and sent home as though all was right in the world where it seemed as though her parents had hoped to ignore it and hope everything bad went away. She went seven months where her mind rebuilt itself around everything Harry Potter and her belief that he was, for all intents and purposes, Merlin. Or, as the muggles would equivalently say, 'God'. Her entire persona was now built upon that single-minded foundation of Harry Potter.

Ginny Weasley was to Harry what Bellatrix LeStrange was to Voldemort.

And that was the problem.

Ginny was willing to let the good doctor look into her mind and answer whatever questions he had. She actually didn't feel much emotion behind whatever questions he asked or what he saw in her head, even when he saw some extreme fantasies. Whether it was hers and Harry's wedding, or the wedding night, her imagining the things she could do to and for him to prove her loyalty, the sexual fantasies that even _he_ had never seen or heard of before, or even the thoughts of Harry Potter as the next Dark Lord and herself as his most faithful and enthusiastic minion, be it through death, torture, sex or just to get his morning tea. She was proud of _all_ of those fantasies. Not a single one, from her point of view, was wrong or excessive.

And from her point of view, neither was her obsession with Harry Potter or what she would like for him to do to her or with her, which was basically anything he would desire of her. She had a fantasy where she proved herself to him by slowly and tortuously killing each member of her family and bathing in their blood before he took her on the floor, treating her like a dog while covered in that same blood.

She didn't feel anything was wrong with that. Only Potter's happiness mattered to her.

Ginny certainly _knew_ it was wrong. She _knew_ she should feel sad at it and angry if Harry asked or demanded it of her. But she wasn't attached to that feeling. The only feelings she _truly_ had revolved around Harry Potter and the pleasure and happiness she would get out of his enjoyment, pleasure and happiness because _that_ line of thinking is what kept her together for at least two months of possession and then seven months without hearing otherwise after he had risked his life to save her and slew the beast that would have killed her. And the spirit had molded the girl's ways of thinking, as well, though Smythe didn't know exactly how or if it truly was the spirit, for sure. But that spirit of Voldemort, or someone just as evil, was doing exactly as it had done to Bellatrix, making her the perfect servant, slave and minion whose only happiness came from his own. But, because of her holding onto her own mind, even if only barely, it wasn't Voldemort that was the target of that instilled, fanatical loyalty, but Harry Potter.

Ginny, just like Bellatrix, was being molded to get her greatest pleasures out of causing her master's enemies pain, bringing him his own pleasure, and by being treated like her master's toy to command in whatever fashion that became.

Granted, with her holding onto her own mind and memories, that sort of personality hadn't blossomed, but it _had_ taken root.

All of that meant that she would _not_ allow him to remove her devotion and loyalty to Harry Potter, since it was now a major part of her, nor would she allow him to try and change her mind. Her fractured mind, much like a broken bone, had come back together stronger than it was originally. It just wasn't truly in one piece. To the eye, if you could look at it as such, it would look like a broken vase with her entire life history on it and held together with glue. It was held together, fused together, but not truly whole. And in various places were added pieces that guided her way of thinking and acting in reference to Harry Potter while the rest of her was still there rather than being destroyed, meaning she could still feel those other emotions and for those other people, but that she was disconnected from them.

Smythe knew, just as he told the Weasley parents, that he could get her to be back to normal regarding her personality and she wouldn't get worse than she was now, but where Harry Potter was involved, his attempts to fix her saw him getting attacked with the same ferocity and unrelenting madness that Bellatrix LeStrange was infamous for. She would go back to feeling her emotions, mostly, but the euphoria she would feel at serving her master would override any negative emotions and feelings she would otherwise get where Potter was concerned. She literally _could not_ be his enemy or help his enemies.

Even her phenomenal advance in her studies was because she saw the man of her entire world spending time with two very intelligent girls that had no obvious other connections. It was Ginny's intention to try and surpass those two and become his primary female focus and, if that didn't work, then at least part of that focus, even if it was to be his pet, his slave, his maid, his bodyguard or anything else he would have her as. Knowing he would be pained to lose them was the only reason she hadn't put consideration into killing the girls, though she had thought of it before coming to that conclusion. She had thought about potions to hook them up with others, but since they were in a relationship, that option was unavailable to her now. Only an enemy would try to ruin Harry Potter's relationships.

The question for him now became whether or not to spare the parents the news that their only daughter would forever see Lord Potter as her master and would do anything he wanted, but normal in every respect outside of that, or don't, and try to let her function normally. Ginny's decision not to harm two girls that stood in the way to what she most wanted proved it was possible, and deciding not to get them potioned up into a romance with someone else showed she had some limits. And it was also possible that Potter could potentially order her to let the good Healer help her, which may or may not work.

On one hand, she won't ever let anything keep Potter from her life, even if it's not a big part of it. She had her fantasies and that seemed to be enough for her. For now, at least. She may end up needing to be his maid to keep her from becoming dangerous, or his human house elf or even his pet dog, but she could easily be safe after he allowed her mind to heal enough to regain access to her emotions outside of Harry Potter.

On the other, she could be a danger to anyone if she couldn't come to a rational, or at least plausible, reason not to harm. Anyone and everyone was currently expendable to the little redhead except Harry Potter and, currently, his two girlfriends. And once Jacob healed the girl to the best of his abilities, admittedly the known best in his field, then it was possible that only those she already had strong connections to would be safe. He had no way of knowing if she could form new attachments with anyone. No man would ever be important to her again, however. That much was now guaranteed. Not for real, at least. She may act out a part that she believes she must, such as gaining a boyfriend and playing the devoted girlfriend, but it wouldn't be real for her.

"Hello, Healer Smythe," Ginny said as she entered the classroom that had been provided for their therapy sessions. She smiled brightly and sat down, acting for the world like any normal young girl. However, the trained healer noticed the smile never touched her eyes and looked just as upset at being there as she had appeared from their last session when he had suggested, hinted really, that she should consider a life with a focus _other_ than Harry Potter. It looked like the girl would hold a possible grudge for that.

"Hello Ginny," he said with his own smile. "Before we do anything else, I wanted to apologize for suggesting that you try to ignore Mister Potter-"

"_Lord_ Potter!" Ginny growled out.

"-_Lord_ Potter," Smythe corrected, "in your life to see if you could find something else important. I considered it since our last session and I realize we all live for different things. Our job isn't to give up on it, but try to fit it into our lives comfortably so we can still function in society. If you'd like your purpose in life to be to help Lord Potter, then that's not a problem. Just something we'll have to work to keep in moderation in a way that works for you and your life."

Ginny watched, evaluated and judged the healer in front of her. She really only gave him the time of day because Harry wanted her to. Otherwise, she would still be using his boxers to pleasure herself or watching him in the shower or while he slept. Making time for this man meant personal time had to be reduced elsewhere and, since it was Harry that chose, she felt the time she was being selfish for herself should be where it was taken from. Her studies were too important to show Mast- _Harry_ that she could be useful. It meant less orgasms, less opportunities to feel something other than that hollow feeling, but if she worked harder and faster during what time was left, along with while she bathed and when she could be circumspect in the library or the classroom she turned into her study area while reading, then most could be made up. That was when she _felt_! Imagining Harry doing those things to her allowed her to feel again and it was _glorious_!

She would _not_ give up her time with the doll she learned to transfigure and dressed in his clothes, however. That was like the real Mast- _Harry_, and far too important. She only rubbed herself against it, knowing better than to ruin herself before Harry could claim her, but she had to learn how to do things somewhere. And her oral skills had to be practiced on _something_ since she _had_ to be better than Hermione or Luna at _something_ before they got too far ahead of her.

Worst-case scenario, then practicing wearing a collar would come in handy so Harry would know she would do everything the other girls wouldn't. Ginny knew Miss Prim and Proper Hermione would _never_ do many of the things Ginny herself had been mentally preparing for and Luna would very probably get too distracted during anything Harry would find enjoyable. Plus, with the way she had been practicing her cutting and blasting hexes, she was _sure_ Harry would find use for her. Those would be her new signature soon. She was also working on a castration hex as a finisher for any males who would think to usurp Harry's position. But she already perfected that, of course.

It may require watching from the shadows to protect him from all things, since he seemed content, so far, to have only his current two girls, but Ginny would do anything it took to be a part of Harry's life. She knew he wanted what was best for her. He just didn't seem to realize _he_ was the best and only thing for her. But, if she had to pretend later on, she would consider it. _'Perhaps I should become an animagus like Professor McGonagall so he won't ever know I'm there. Then I can even watch from inside his house and be his pet.'_

"I suppose that makes sense," Ginny said at last, putting her thoughts to the side and focusing entirely on Healer Smythe. She knew he was trying to manipulate her somehow, but didn't care. Harry was her world and the full extent of it. So, while she felt the good healer's words held a little merit, they only said what she already knew: Harry was Master in all and she was anything Master desired or needed. That _was_ how she fit into her life and how she would fit into Harry's.

Healer Smythe nodded, feeling the girl was being evasive again before picking up a stack of pictures. "I'd like you to look at each of these pictures and tell me what they make you feel," he said, sifting through them and watching her eyes carefully. The only times her pupils dilated before an answer, showing some sort of emotional response, was with the snidget, which was the snitch's predecessor and related to Potter, the Potter coat of arms, images of a perverse nature and a strong reaction with a picture of Lord Potter in just his underwear that Smythe had requested for this purpose, where the girl jerked as though having just climaxed.

_'At least there's now a reaction to pictures related to him rather than just his own image,'_ Smythe thought sadly, continuing through the images as Ginny panted lightly. Originally, that had been the only image to receive any sort of reaction before he had begun his work and she had somehow managed to steal it before he left. _'I'm going to have to find where she keeps some of her thoughts and memories hidden in her mind soon to see if she's hiding anything from me. It's chaotic in there and everything is moving around, but there _has_ to be something. Even without caring about what I see, there has to be something related to Potter in there she's hiding from me. Even if she showed a desire to be treated like an animal as his plaything, that was nothing but pride and adoration when I saw it as though she was happy to show off her devotion. But she's got to be hiding something from me about him or she wouldn't be so evasive at times.'_

In the end, Smythe wouldn't find anything that he wasn't already aware of, even though it always felt like what he sought was lurking just around the corner.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – January 12, After dinner in an unused classroom**

"I still don't like it," Harry said as him, Hermione, Luna and even Neville, Susan, Hannah and Astoria began their social etiquette class. The inky-haired Slytherin girl had decided she could offer Harry some lessons on the customs of wizarding Britain as her show of thanks for not making her have to degrade herself by trying to ensnare him while allowing it to appear as though she was, along with the lessons on fighting and protecting Astoria. She just didn't expect him to actively fight against her teachings. "I mean, what's the point of so many people acting all stuffy and full of themselves?"

"That's the whole point," Daphne said with a grumble at his thickheadedness. "It's another class of the social hierarchy, one in which makes laws and governs an entire people. This is _exactly_ like the muggle world, only with perhaps some older customs. When you are making laws, you don't put in slang terms and broad-encompassing words which are easy to argue the nature of. You have to be exacting in what you say and how you say it. That translates to how you speak and act in your normal life. If you let up on one, you make it easier to bungle up the other. Plus, it's all about how people perceive you."

"Can you remind me again why I _care_ what they think?" Harry asked a little nervously. The fact is, he really _didn't_ care what people thought, not since he made the conscious effort and decided to get to know and befriend Luna, but he knew he needed them to work with him, which is why he had even accepted Daphne's offer to begin with. Well, Hermione had initially accepted and pointed out why it was needed and asked Neville to join, just in case, since he had received similar tutelage much of his life that he may know and Daphne didn't as a male. Plus, she was rather looking forward to an opportunity to play Dress-Up and go out on a fancy date using a lot of what they would learn here. She _really_ liked the corset dress look.

"If they think you will bend or break, they'll run roughshod over you," Daphne said a little less ladylike than she had intended. She had only told him this at the very beginning, stressing it, after all. "Any sign of weakness or lack of understanding will be picked at and prodded until they learn how to get you to give them what they want. What you are hoping to gain from these lessons, they already know, and they do it all for the same reasons. Maybe not every time, but it's the main reason they get into politics in the beginning. Most of them want something and would rather weaken someone who could challenge their power and authority. Everyone in the upper class echelon has some form of power that they can give and take from others and it's like a big, dangerous game where you try to get from the others as fully as possible without giving anything away. Some people are just more greedy than others and play with more dangerous rules, but the basis is the same. You try to trip the others up."

Seeing Harry frown, Hermione decided to translate into Harry-speak. "Every action and word should be considered a manipulation, carefully worded, to get what they want, just as they will assume the same from you. Only they're better at it. Right now, it's like a first-year Pureblood going up against Professor McGonagall at Transfiguration. A basic understanding, but no real knowledge or ability or knowledge of all sorts of little tricks. Worse, really, when you consider that we don't even know much beyond the basic-most levels of wizarding law considering how different it is from muggle law."

"Very good," Daphne allowed with a grateful nod of the head to the other girl. "However, because of that, we're going to learn more about custom and etiquette, as originally requested, so you don't stand out as much. Hermione, if Luna hasn't learned it yet, I'll need to get with the both of you for private lessons about maintaining certain decorums for your household. In many ways, how _you_ act, speak and respond is of far greater importance than what Harry does."

"How so?" Hermione and Harry asked at once while Luna's blue-gray eyes zeroed in on the Slytherin, paying a scary amount of attention and committing nearly everything to memory through sheer force of will. She refused to be found lacking and be left out again.

"Harry is Lord Potter, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw," Daphne said, ignoring the Black connection for now, "with a large amount of money, frightening amount of land, an almost blanket-check to ignore the Ministry on that land, very powerful magically and politically and is publicly recognized as a wizarding hero as the Boy-Who-Lived. He could go to the Wizengamot meetings in his sleeping robes if he wanted to and they would probably only glare at him and most likely would commend him for his daring," the girl said, rolling her blue eyes in annoyance. "As long as you wear the robe, they generally don't care about hats, shoes or even pants, but he could probably get away with wearing a dress if he wanted to."

"But us?" Hermione asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her this was probably going to rile her up.

"We're in a very male-dominated society," Daphne continued to explain, getting murmurs of agreement from all the girls present save Hermione whose eyes were beginning to narrow. "Not in regards to personal ability, but legal and social ones. The husband is considered the master of his house, including his wife, in the upper circles, at least publicly. If you show yourself as having _too_ much free will to speak out of turn or raise your voice to guests, it is an extraordinary insult unless you have your own power of some sort to back it up. Someone like Susan or Amelia Bones can generally get away with more because they're the last of the Bones line and Amelia has a powerful position in the Ministry, but a muggleborn or even a pureblood like Lavender Brown who has nothing to their name would be an insult like a smack to the face. Bad enough that there have even been blood feuds where entire families were wiped out because of it."

"To give you an example of what she means," Susan said, speaking up, "even Draco Malfoy would be civil to you in his home. Cold, indifferent and stand-offish, but he would probably never call you names in his own home. That is how important entertaining a guest actually is. And it isn't for your honor, but their own. Only if a guest causes a disturbance bad enough to warrant it would you be able to do much, and even then, it won't be a lot. Most of the time, you still politely order them to leave and deal with it another time."

"That may have been true for Malfoy before, but now that he's Head of House for his family, there's no telling what he would do," Daphne stated with a not-so-girly snort of contempt. "I actually pity Pansy."

"What?" Hermione asked, befuddled by the apparent non sequitur. Harry simply looked on curiously.

"You didn't know?" Daphne asked, bug-eyed in honest surprise. "New Year's Eve, he became the new Lord Malfoy and the marriage contract he had with Pansy Parkinson activated due to the wording and she was forced to marry him. Only, it wasn't a standard betrothal contract and actually has her as both wife and slave, for the most part. She literally can't disobey him! They got married quarters off the Slytherin common room and everything!"

"Why haven't we heard about this already?" Hannah asked, confused. "With news this big, I would have thought it would have been front page headlines!"

"Slytherins don't really talk with others from other houses," Daphne said with a shrug. "And he's been really weird since school started up last week. As for not being in the papers, I think people are ignoring it or someone is keeping it quiet. With the way they were hounding Lucius in the papers, they would probably know he was already dead by now, I'd think. They may just not want people to know they were blaming a dead man for what they reported or have some sort of investment in keeping it quiet."

"Is this why he's not really been around outside of classes?" Harry asked, realizing just then that he hadn't seen much of Draco at all since the new term started. "He's been doing that superior smirk thing of his during meals, and I've noticed Pansy just kind of sits there and doesn't really do much when she used to make faces or sneer at us, too."

"They've spent most of their time in their quarters," Daphne said reluctantly, her face showing her disgust. "The only ones who know what's going on in there are Pansy, Draco and his two goons and maybe Snape, though I don't know about the latter. Him and Malfoy seem to be at some sort of odds right now."

"Why on earth would her parents have _signed_ such a contract!" Hermione half screeched. "It's _barbaric_!"

"I don't know," Daphne said with a shrug. "I only know that the Parkinsons have only been supportive of the Malfoys and I'm not aware of any time they ever went in opposite directions on anything."

"The Parkinsons were rescued by the Malfoys," Neville spoke up hesitantly. "Financially and politically, anyway, so my Gran says. She taught me about some of the families. The Parkinsons had joined You-Know-Who during the war, but didn't have a lot, but were really important to that side for some reason. But, they didn't have a whole lot of money by the end of the war. They were going on trial for smuggling, assassination and ... uh, I forget what else. But, it would have been a death sentence is all I remember. And the Malfoys helped them, but Gran didn't say how or what the Malfoys got in return. Maybe that was it?" He asked, trailing off and shifting uncomfortably at being the center of attention.

"It's still wrong," Hermione stated, looking mildly distressed. "You don't take away a person's free will, and you shouldn't _ever_ do such a thing to your own child!"

"It's not like it's common," Daphne said a little more forcefully than she meant to. But the Gryffindor's resident brainiac was really beginning to annoy the Slytherin girl. "_Every_ culture has history it hates and current things that are despicable! _Get over it_!" Daphne growled, glaring at the shocked Hermione. "There's something very important I think you need to hear, and I think the sooner the better(2)."

Forcing out a breath through her nose, Daphne calmed herself slightly to make the next bit sound less confrontational, especially since Potter was now watching her _very_ carefully and she could feel him readying magic. The last thing she wanted was to get on his bad side. But this _had_ to be said! "You have a lot of views on how you think the world is and try to shove those beliefs on others. You see your beliefs as correct and the proper way of things and simply outright '_good_'. While the beliefs are different, your fierce determination to get your message across isn't any different than the other Purebloods with theirs."

"What!" Hermione yelled in outrage.

"Our world isn't perfect," Daphne stated calmly, ignoring the rise in ambient magic in the room as Hermione got angry. "But it _is_ our world. Many things in it are things we want to change and make better. But forcing your views on others and telling us things like something is barbaric and wrong don't do anything but cause us to get defensive, angry and possibly even resent you, especially when we already know that and can't do anything about it. We are, for all intents and purposes, a different culture like the difference between France and England. We do things differently. Some things may be better, and some worse, but they are different. You really need to accept that. You entered an entirely different culture when you came into the wizarding world and you have to accept it is different than the muggle one."

Hermione's anger had just left her and she was now gaping. She knew she was sometimes a little vocal about her beliefs, and in some cases she could be downright angry and easy to offend when she read just how backwards magical Britain was, but she _had_ been working on it! She rarely got so riled up anymore that she would rant and want to go on a crusade to try and educate the magical bigots. She had made a promise to herself to get better about this since she knew it was one of her worst habits and had been doing _better_. But _this_! _This_ truly _was_ barbaric and cruel and just plain _wrong_! Why couldn't even _Daphne_ see that? This was the whole reason she had yet to accept Harry's aegis! If she did, and went with any option that was worth getting, then she could very effectively be his slave in definition even if not word! She trusted Harry, but she had no idea what that would do for her other than the obvious, or do _to_ her. Well, granted, the Slytherin _did_ say she saw it, and wanted to change it, but ... Well, it was _wrong_ ... and Hermione had no idea who to rant at for allowing it.

"You think we don't know that what is happening with Pansy is wrong?" Daphne asked rhetorically, unaware that Hermione was trying to figure out why Daphne seemed willing to accept such a horrible thing. "Of course we do! But right now, we don't have the ability to change it. In the future? Sure. If we can, we would. But right now, there are many things you're complaining about that we accept and simply cannot, will not, or see no need, to change. And just like the muggle world, if we want to change something, we have to have enough power behind the change to push it forward. At the moment, we don't have that. We hate it just as much as you do, but there's nothing we can do other than be thankful those in charge of us have the honor not to do the same. Hell, my own father wanted me to try and seduce Harry, but had I said no, he wouldn't have forced me against my will other than ordering me to try before Astoria would have had to, just as I told you. We don't like that, either, but it's something we have to deal with until it can change." Daphne sighed and shook her head.

"Our place in the house, entertaining guests and the importance of a wife during political meetings is something that is so important because it reflects on the husband's ability to maintain and control his house and the quality of his wife equates to the quality of his House. If he can't control his wife in public or if she won't at least show full support of him, it is assumed he can more easily be controlled and manipulated or it can be done through her. This is _exactly_ like the muggle world!" Daphne exclaimed forcefully, keeping her voice as level as possible while trying to get through Hermione's clouded judgement.

"She's right," Susan spoke up, getting everyone to look at her while she tried to make herself a little smaller without showing it. Still, she was Hufflepuff through and through and thought Daphne was being a little more harsh than really necessary. Hermione _had _been making large and noticeable strides in her interactions. "I'm familiar with the muggle world, Hermione. And I know your parents having their own dental practice means your family is fairly well-to-do. How do they act and comport themselves compared to, say, someone working at a convenience store? Do they tend to have nicer things, speak more with people in their own class and go to nicer parties? How do they act around others like themselves and around others with lesser income or shabbier dress? Which would they be more likely to approach? This is exactly the same thing. It's all posturing, but if you fail at it, it risks hurting your family standing. That's why Harry, with so much power at his disposal, could be far more familiar with someone than, say, the Weasleys. Arthur is well-known and generally accepted by everyone except those like the Malfoys, or what were the Malfoys, because they care for a person's wealth and that they consorted with the 'right' families."

Hermione decided to think long and hard about things. She actually understood what they were trying to say and, if she thought about it, her parents had actually been grooming her from a younger age for much the same thing, but on a scale much toned down. They did, occasionally, go to parties, such as the New Year's Eve one with Mister Lovegood. But normally, it was such a party held at some other medical doctor's home where all the doctors postured and spoke of their work, strutting like Draco or a peacock, wanting to be seen and admired. As a little girl, she was forced to dress up and visit those parties, playing the part of meet-and-greet and pretend to like everyone she was introduced to and be amazed by what they did. Not in those words, of course, but she was raised to always be polite and kind, which was simply a little more enforced during these times, where she was encouraged to show her interest, even if she didn't have any. There were also a few Christmas parties and charitable events that she could remember until she finally began asking for a babysitter instead.

She also knew that the people Daphne and Susan were talking about were the effectual royalty of the wizarding world, much like the nobles in the muggle one. And every child under Her Majesty's banner knew there were always certain protocols they were to always follow when meeting such an important figure and that even Her Majesty, Herself, was forced to endure with all save her own family. Even amongst friends, often as not, there was some sort of protocol to follow.

"So we are deemed subservient to our husbands?" Hermione asked, wondering about the one thing that really stuck in her craw. Her tone indicated _exactly_ what she thought of that particular concept. She had no problem with the idea of willfully giving up one's rights to their partner for fun. It was actually a concept that intrigued her. But the idea that it was _expected_ and actually a social demand of her had Hermione wanting to break out the biggest stick she could find and dispense with some liberal reeducation.

"That's what I'm talking about," Daphne stated bluntly, once again throwing Hermione. "I said your actions reflect on your husband's ability to maintain and control his _house_, not his _wife_," Daphne explained, carefully enunciating to try and get the most effect. "It is merely taken at face value that a wife who won't support her husband in public is therefore not in any way able to be controlled by him since the power in a House is held by the one in charge. When it comes to the matter of the family as a whole, yes. The husband has final say in everything, legally speaking. But it isn't as though it is expected that he won't ask your _advice_. How you act and the things you say reflect on your relationship with your husband and whether or not you care about him, his and your family and what he does. It isn't subservience, but showing that the family matters to you, too, and work as a team. It's a more literal way of looking at a wife supporting her husband in public. In that way, in public, it is a reflection on his ability to keep his wife in line."

"And what if I said I value my wives' thoughts and feelings and expected anyone who wanted to deal with me had better be willing to listen to them since they were my most trusted advisors?" Harry asked somewhat dangerously, but still causing Hermione to smile gratefully and look like she wanted to pounce on him while she ignored the veiled threat in his inflection. His tone was a reaction to the light hostility he felt in both girls and the nervousness of each of the other occupants, along with his own protective streak.

He could sense mostly fear from Astoria, though her face betrayed only the slightest hint of it. In many ways, she was an example of what was expected of her later. Important people were talking in matters of which she had no place. She was, therefore, meant to sit there and look pretty. Or it could just be that she was too scared to try and butt in like Susan had done. But the Bones heiress had valuable insight that was needed and they were amongst friends, so it wasn't too much of a problem, but still explained her nervousness when speaking.

Daphne blinked. His question, and the fact he spoke up at all since the little spat had started, throwing her for a slight loop. "As a Lord or Wizengamot member, you could possibly get away with it. In your own home, definitely. The Minister or a department head would be a little trickier and not a good idea unless you had a decent history with them or you sensed it was okay and were sure of it or they allowed it. In another person's home, you can say it, but don't be threatening or confrontational or you'll almost be guaranteed to make an enemy. You'd want it to sound conversational and leave it up to them on if they will alienate you by not accepting it or not. But someone like Malfoy, you shouldn't even try. You would simply have to request her opinion in a way that doesn't sound like hers is better than your host's and you don't want to do it too often or it seems like you have no opinion or mind of your own and have to run to her, or them in this case, for every little thing, which would be even worse than them speaking for you since it looks bad. Like Fudge running to Dumbledore for every decision."

Daphne flipped her hair over a shoulder and looked appraisingly at her 'students'. "I'm telling you all of this now to explain a little of what you may expect to see in Pansy and to let you, Harry, know that there is very little you can do. Family matters are just that and dealt with by the family. You can ensure certain things in public like not letting Malfoy strike his wife or something similar, but within his own quarters, his word is law to her. And I wanted you to know that Pansy grew up with this same doctrine and will not betray him in any way, even if her contract would allow it. It also gives you an idea of how to act now that it's known you're dating Harry if you expect either Hermione or Luna to join you at any functions." That Hermione had spoken to her about the relationship is the main thing that had kept her from being as shocked as others at the news. But that she agreed to have another woman was certainly not what she had expected considering the general views muggleborns had about polygamous relationships.

Seeing that Hermione was now more tolerable, Daphne moved things on to their original goal. She began teaching the niceties involved in their political climate, being a little surprised with Neville who had accepted joining more for refresher in case his Gran got upset with him, focused more on helping Harry since Daphne didn't know a few of the finer details Harry was now learning.

Luna had taken particular delight in playing an older woman who enjoyed speaking in haughty tones and liked getting the back of her hand kissed, just randomly putting it in Harry's face. Daphne still wasn't sure where pinching Harry's cheeks came into play, however. Hermione had been a mild surprise in that she didn't voice any disapprovals when learning that nearly all formal functions require girls to wear dresses rather than robes, or a long skirt and long-sleeved blouse or robe at the very least as a last resort and were expected to be led about by their partner unless they either had no partner or held enough political sway, which only equated to those women such as Augusta Longbottom, Amelia Bones and even Griselda Marchbanks, whose positions of authority were really quite powerful, the latter of which was due to her connections rather than personal authority. Umbridge had been an example, of course, but with her untimely demise, it would no longer matter. But she was used to show that, even in such a case, if there was a man on her arm, she would be expected to be led about, not the other way around, since her position was more as a servant to a position of authority and held no power in and of itself.

Each girl perked up, however, when Harry asked Daphne about the potential for dancing lessons either nearer the end of the year or during the summer, though Neville had looked a little queasy. Neville had offered lessons with his instructor at his home and promised to send a letter to his Gran for confirmation. Hermione looked frighteningly enthused to learn ballroom dancing while Luna began quietly singing something about limes and coconuts.

After most had left, Daphne was alone with Harry and his girls. "Remember me warning you about the possibility of potions?" She asked.

"Yes," Harry said, somewhat irked by the concept. After being told about Snape and Dumbledore's plans, he wasn't fond of the idea of potions of any sort, really. Though that did remind him of something important.

"I've noticed a couple girls getting packages in the mail," Daphne warned. "While no one is likely to show off what they got in Slytherin, these ones were particularly well-protected and stashed quickly. I suggest being on your toes and maybe checking your drinks and meals."

"Do you know any spells to do that, Hermione?" Harry asked, rather curious. He realized it was actually a good idea in general for the potions he knew were dangerous, too. Plus, for the girls he knew could be targeted like Lavender and Susan, he could say it's a good habit to get into and in general, would make the twins' pranks less likely to go off. He could probably have most of the school checking their food and drink on nearly every meal. The DA would have something new to work on.

"No," Hermione stated, worrying her bottom lip.

"Not a worry," Luna said happily. "I know a couple. One in particular is likely to be our favorite."

"Oh?" Hermione asked, curious about what Luna was referring to.

"Mhm! It simply lists off ingredients as you know them. Well, to be more precise, it's as though it simply makes you aware of exactly what you're checking. Pumpkin juice will show up as that in your head, egg white and egg yolk would be separate if you think of them that way while someone else may just know about 'egg', instead."

"How does that work?" Hermione questioned. "It just references your own mind for the ingredients?"

"Basically," Luna said, bobbing her head and light glinted to show she was wearing the lightning bolt charms Harry had given her for Christmas. She was also wearing the ankh charm on an anklet, not that they could see it. "If there is, say, a love or lust potion in it, then you will know it as either that, or Hermione may know it as the name of the potion itself if she is familiar with it. Otherwise, you may only get an ingredient list and you have to know if they are supposed to be there or not. It's an auror-level spell, which is one of the reasons you require an Exceeds in your Potions NEWT to become one, so you will know the ingredients you come across, or even the potions themselves, theoretically. My mother made it for them to use instead of one that just detects magic, which would also work well for our needs since magic shouldn't be in anything we eat or drink."

"What if it's something you've never seen before?" Hermione asked. "Surely that would cause problems." She also thought it wasn't exactly always a pleasant idea to know what you were eating. Thankfully, wizarding Britain wasn't keen on Asian cuisine.

"You'd simply get back the knowledge you didn't know what it was. But you would know if it was magical in nature or not. But other than that, it wouldn't work out too well," Luna said with a shrug. "But none of the others will give you any decent idea of what is in your food or cup, only that something is there, which this would do as well."

"Maybe just a spell to look for anything harmful, then," Harry suggested simply. While they were talking, Daphne's eyebrow simply quirked as she listened, being ignored and finding the situation amusing.

"Well, it may not work," Hermione mentioned. "I mean, a lust potion isn't exactly harmful. It would just make you frisky and the drinker may ... er, be okay with that."

The corner of Daphne's lips twitched in amusement, especially with the brainy witch's own smile.

"Well, let's just agree to keep an eye on things and see what we can find," Harry deferred, wondering if his gift from Lora had anything while Hermione was thinking much the same. She also thought it was as good an excuse as any to raid the library again. She and Luna were nearly done copying it to her grimoire and actually had the full Restricted Section done.

_'I wonder if Dobby would copy Dumbledore's books for me,'_ Hermione pondered as they left the room, absently sending their goodbyes to Daphne.

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**Friday – January 14, 10:40 – Wizengamot meeting**

Friday, January fourteenth was a day that Harry felt was going to go into the deep, dark recesses of his mind as a day of mind-numbing boredom. There were no laws being implemented that interested him and all the old fogies that stood and spoke were actually worse than Binns. Harry had no clue where the strength to remain awake came from, but he had managed it. And he had only had his forehead smack against the table once from nearly nodding off.

He was only resting his eyes, after all.

The only good news about the session was that Draco hadn't shown up. But Harry didn't expect that to last for too long since the newest Lord undoubtedly knew about the sessions and most probably forgot this time.

The moment the session was officially ended, Harry was up and heading for sweet, glorious freedom until he overheard Madam Bones and Dumbledore chatting with the words 'several deaths in Azkaban' made him pause. _'Well bugger.'_ Sighing, he stood within their field of vision several feet away so they knew he was there, but not intruding on their conversation, despite the lack of subtlety. They were speaking in a normal volume even while acknowledging the fact that they had to keep it quiet.

"Hello Lord Potter," Amelia said, interrupting her conversation with Albus to bring Harry in. "What can I do for you today?"

"Two things, really," Harry began. "Four actually. The first is in regards to Sirius Black. I took your advice and owled the records office and visited in person when you gave the suggestion and I've found no hint of a trial for the man, though I did find out he's my godfather. Since the public records office has nothing, I was hoping you had somewhere you could look to find out more information about how he got into Azkaban."

"I'll look," Amelia said with a frown. "Perhaps his files were sealed by someone higher up the chain."

"It's also possible that, as my godfather, he was first in line for my guardianship and someone wanted him out of the way. Alice Longbottom was second in line and she's out of commission, too," Harry said, looking at Dumbledore as he spoke, making the man pale at the insinuation and the Director narrow her eyes at the not-so-subtle byplay.

"Just what are you insinuating, Harry?" Dumbledore asked, prodding his mind forward touch upon Harry's, making sure not to go far enough in to trigger his mindscape. Frighteningly, he got nowhere before he felt the edge of Harry's fortified walls followed by what amounted to a smack in the mental face, much to his shock. Amelia was about to ask the same question, so she stayed quiet to hear Harry's response.

"Merely that someone wanted me somewhere of their own design and took out the two primary people who could take me in that were fairly independent while the others, such as Remus and all my parents' supposed friends never once met me after I was moved. Plus, if Sirius died, all of his estate would go somewhere. At first glance, that would have been Draco Malfoy, but apparently, I'm the heir in his will." Shaking his head, Harry turned back to Amelia, who was not the standard magical and had quite a head on her shoulders that was doing plenty of adding up and effectively cutting Dumbledore out of the conversation.

"The second is that I'd like to introduce wizarding customs as a class at Hogwarts next year and was hoping you knew of someone, or a place to look for someone, who could teach that. I'm hoping to introduce a few more classes next year as well that had been removed from our roster."

"Harry, I'm afraid I can't have you making executive decisions like that without-" Dumbledore began, only to be cut off by a glaring Harry's angry retort.

"It's my choice what does and doesn't get added if I want a change, Dumbledore. Perhaps you should remember that I control Hogwarts and, unlike you, I'm willing to help those new to the wizarding world by offering an introductory course, if nothing else. We'll also be revamping several of the courses since Muggle Studies, History of Magic and Potions all need updating and, in the case of the latter, a new professor. Kindly consider what you would like to see and we can discuss it later. But starting next year, Hogwarts is going to be far better than it is and your failings as Headmaster will be corrected, starting with Snape's dismissal." Turning back to the powerful woman he had been speaking with, Harry's tone and expression softened. "Any ideas, Madam?"

"Augusta may be willing," Amelia said with a smirk at Dumbledore's constipated expression at the thought. "But pretty much any pureblood will have grown up with that kind of training and squibs are born to such families and still get the training, so you could look there. I'm not the best person to ask about this, I'm afraid." Amelia elected to ignore Albus' twinkling eyes that looked inordinately pleased, but made sure to note it.

"Not a problem. I just trust your opinion and thought you may have a friend who needed a job or wanted to change jobs or something," Harry said with a shrug. "I'd rather help someone who needs it rather than someone who doesn't. Plus, I can't be sure they wouldn't just push the pureblood agenda if I just put out an advert. The third thing is our current arrangement for the eleventh. Is there anything new you'd like to discuss or go over?" Harry asked.

"Not at all," Amelia stated with a small, thankful smile. "My aurors are very thankful for what you're doing and I only had a little grumbling that they weren't allowed to sample Rosemerta's grog."

"Better to have their wits about 'em," Harry said with a grin. "Anyway, the fourth thing was the Azkaban deaths."

"How'd you hear about that?" Amelia asked, making Harry's face slacken. "We've been keeping that quiet!"

"You were _just_ talking about it and I heard you from about fifteen feet away, even with people talking and walking about making noise," he said, making Amelia feel somewhat the fool. "And I know for a fact I wasn't the only one to hear about it. Until you had me join, you had three people a few feet away watching and listening."

"Bugger me," Amelia cursed, causing Harry's eyebrow to raise and bite back a retort. Harry could now understand why the Ministry couldn't keep anything under wraps. Even the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, a woman that Harry felt had a decent amount of common sense and sensibilities, discussed things in public places without taking precautions. Harry could now understand why Snape's logic puzzle was probably truly considered a decent defense in his first year, even if it did still bother him. This time, Amelia looked around, noticing a few small groups moving away nervously. "We had seven deaths a few nights ago at Azkaban, all Death Eaters. A head count turned up we had one missing named Antonin Dolohov."

Harry felt a shiver race up his spine. _'How the hell can a dead man be missing?'_

"The thing is, though," Amelia mused thoughtfully, "that his cell was completely cleaned. No sign of magic, no sign of grime or moss, or even algae, no sign of anything at all. Like it was hit with a hundred cleaning and scouring charms to make it as good as new. The only thing in his cell was stone. Even the blankets and chamber pot were gone."

Harry let out a sigh of relief. No one would take those things from Azkaban. "If all of that was removed, then it's likely someone was removing evidence of something, right?"

"That's our best guess at the moment. But we move forward with the expectation that he's alive, just in case," Amelia stated. "I was hoping to have Albus come with us to check for any sort of residue for magic or wand signatures or the like." Amelia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "This couldn't have come at a worse time."

"How do you mean?" Harry asked, feeling a little bad for making the woman feel frustrated. He actually liked her. She had helped him before his fifth year from going to prison, or even getting kicked out of the wizarding world entirely and was fair to him now. It wasn't exactly her fault that she had less common sense than one would attribute to an adult. Much like Dumbledore, once they had a viable outline of events, or a thought on how or why something was, not much else was considered. There was no 'could it possibly be different?' She was a little better in that regard, quite possibly due to her career choice, but not by a lot, it seemed.

"I don't think we should-" Dumbledore began, only to get cut off from the monocled woman.

"He's a member of the Wizengamot now, so he's allowed to know something that's meant to stay in-house, Albus," she said, turning to Harry with narrowed eyes. "Just don't go telling people. This is meant to stay just with those who work here. There was a break-in at the Ministry about a month and a half or two months ago. We're not sure exactly when. A lot was taken, including some time-turners and at least something from our oldest archives. We've also done an inventory for all departments and learned someone's been taking off with some of our office supplies, though mostly Ministry-stamped parchments and our potted plants." They also found large quantities of alcohol hidden in desks, but felt there was no need to mention that, or the obscene amount of perverted magazines. And after seeing some of Arthur Weasley's muggle items, Amelia couldn't get a female employee into his storage room ... Something about preserved male genitalia in a box with rubber ducks and shower curtains. An investigation showed exactly what those were and the terrified girl, right out of Hogwarts truth be told, was taken to Mistress Morgana's for a much-needed education.

"So it's possible that whoever may have an alibi could be turning time to either take out the Death Eaters, or maybe use polyjuice with their victims, kill them, and then leave the victims in Azkaban while the real bad guys are out and about?" Harry asked, thrilled to be able to make them worry about something other than checking that cell. "They could have planned to do the same with Dolohov but something could have spooked them and they left before getting the person in there. Are there any Death Eaters that are still there and alive?"

"How do you know of the polyjuice potion, Harry?" Dumbledore asked inquisitively. He had been cut off both times he tried to butt in and didn't like it. His question was asked in a slight rush, hoping it wouldn't happen again.

"Read about it," Harry responded absently.

Amelia was ghost white at the idea that they could have been played, somehow got even paler at the idea of the two severe crimes being related. "We hadn't even considered they may not be the real prisoners," she muttered. "There's no way to even _tell_ if it's really them or not!"

"Well, if you're going to check magic in a cell, can you check the magic in a person?" Harry asked curiously.

"No," Amelia said, shaking her head. "We can compare magic to magic, and wand signature to wand signature, but we don't have a reading of everyone's magic."

"So, if someone took my wand and went somewhere and did stuff with it, you'd assume it was me automatically?" Harry asked.

"We'd question you, of course, and prove your innocence if it wasn't," Amelia said a little more quickly than she normally would. "But we don't really have time for question and answer, I'm sorry. You've given me much more to worry about, but something I hadn't even considered. I really need to go. Was there anything else?"

"No, and I hope the investigation goes well and quickly for you," Harry said, not really meaning it. He felt a little silly supporting the woman in charge of finding the culprits of both crimes considering it was him for both. He had a worrisome thought that this was how Lucius Malfoy felt when he manipulated Fudge.

"Before I do, one last question," Amelia began. "Can you tell me who created those Arches you sent me?" Dumbledore looked truly perplexed at that question.

"While I know who did, I won't, no," Harry responded. "The person was worried about the Ministry wiping their memory and claiming it for their own or worse. They asked that I not give out their name."

Amelia frowned, especially at the lack of faith in the Ministry, but still understood it. "Understood. Thank you."

As soon as Amelia and Dumbledore were gone, Harry went to the loo and Shifted to his home.

"Dobby!"

"What I can be doing for you, Master Harry Potter Sir?" Dobby asked as he popped in. Harry hesitated for a moment as he realized Dobby had on only a pair of silky boxers meant for children since they featured a famous rabbit from cartoons, but was covered in floury hand prints and lip prints. There was also a female toga-like garment wrapped around Dobby's left ankle that had the Hogwarts crest on it.

"Do you remember the cell that Dolohov was in?" Harry asked quickly, deciding he didn't really want to know compared to keeping Hermione from jail.

"I does, Master Harry Potter Sir," Dobby stated immediately. "You was wanting that one most important of all."

"Hermione used magic in that cell and right outside of it. I need you to make her magic trace go away like you did for me at Malfoy Manor because they're going to search for it right now," Harry explained quickly.

"Dobby already did that," Dobby said with a grin. "Dobby protects his family, Master Harry Potter Sir! Dobby is being getting rid of all the mess in that cell, too. There be nothings that can be proving Master Harry Potter Sir and his Miss was being there. I is also getting rid of all traces of Master's magic used in the halls, too. Dobby learned how to do's these things for old bad master and clean up his messes, too. Dobby will always protect his family and enjoys it this times!"

Harry hugged Dobby, extremely grateful. "Thank you Dobby. You're a great friend. By the way, what's with ... this?" He asked, gesturing to Dobby's body.

"I's not being sure," Dobby said confusedly, looking down at himself. "I went to the kitchens to check on bad old master's elves and some of the girl house elves be jumping onto Dobby. Dobby is thinking they wanted to wash the clothes, but they is making them all floury, too."

Harry laughed before sending Dobby on his way and heading to another appointment with Blaise's mother at her home.

The woman was an Italian beauty who made every action practically ooze sex appeal almost as bad as Fleur Delacour, but without the assistance of magic to amp the interest up. Even with two children, she had a perfect figure in clothes designed to appear modest, but show off what she had to snag that next husband.

She had waist-length hair that was a honey bronze color that hung flat and smooth on her head and got wavy as it went down to her waist with two short, curly bangs that hung and framed her round face. Her almond-shaped eyes were dark, sparkly brown that Harry was sure were enhanced magically somehow and her smile was through full lips that seemed to be in a near constant pout. Combined with a beautiful complexion and what appeared as a near-constant light tan showing her ancestry, it was very understandable how she managed to go through five husbands since she began her life as an adult fifteen years previous.

"Lord Potter! Amante! Welcome to my home!" Clara Zabini wrapped an arm around Harry's, linking their elbows and walking the powerful young lord into the sitting room. "This is my only daughter, Leonora."

"How do you do, Lord Potter?" Leonora curtsied in her white summer dress. Like her mother, Leonora was absolutely gorgeous, even for a nine-year old. She had her mother's hair, only it hung to her knees and was wavy the entire way. But she had vibrant, pale green eyes from what Harry assumed was her father and her mother's lips and a heart-shaped face with dimples in her smile. She also had a daisy stuck behind an ear.

Having at least paid attention to Daphne for some of her lessons, Harry bowed his head and only slightly bent his back, showing a little more respect than due considering their difference in stations. Not to mention it made him seem more friendly to the giggling little girl. "I do well, Miss Leonora. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I apologize for the lack of seating, Lord Potter," Clara said, sitting in the one actual chair in the room that was in front of a two-seater couch with a small table between them just large enough to hold drinks and snacks. "I've been redecorating this room and we only just brought in enough furniture for the conversation and I shooed the help away for our meeting. I hope you don't mind?"

"Not at all, Ma'am," Harry said, sitting next to Leonora on the couch and slightly wondering why the girl sat so close. Wonderful perfume, though. He couldn't help but feel a little warm with Blaise's sister so close. He assumed there was a heating charm of some sort on the room because she kept fanning herself, too. She appeared just as warm if her pink skin and slight perspiration on her brow was an indicator.

"Leonora is with us during this because I am currently teaching her all that I can in running a house and with my own profession. Normally, one would receive a suitor for a daughter by this age, if you weren't aware, and we have yet to have one, so I felt it a good idea to ensure she could rely on herself in the future. Now, if I may, what business were you hoping to have with me today?" Clara asked, her crafty eyes dancing in her own amusement as she watched the children's bodies begin to glisten from a very light sheen of sweat upon their brows while her experienced eyes focused on their dilating pupils.

"Well, I am planning on restocking the medical wing in my manor since it appears to be empty. I'm assuming all the healing potions were taken since the home was probably left during the war," Harry said, taking the lemonade a house elf brought gratefully. He was very thirsty and couldn't believe how stuffy the room was. "But, I went to the apothecary to have them brew enough to stock the entire wing, along with some other potions, but Mister Fields, the man who runs the shop, said that he couldn't handle such a large order and recommended you, albeit a little reluctantly. He seemed worried that I would have a problem with your usual clientèle or the fact you were a woman, which is silly since my girlfriend is the best brewer I know. But, Mister Fields said your usual clients generally wanted things that were more difficult rather than just simple brews like what I'm mostly hoping for."

Intrigued, if only because of who was asking, Clara nodded, mostly all business. At least now that she knew Mister Fields wasn't telling tales he shouldn't be regarding her business. "What are you looking to obtain?"

"Everything you'd stock in a hospital for the most part," Harry said with a shrug. "I'll definitely need something for cuts, bruises, burns, headaches and general pain, blood replenishers, skele-grow and the like. These will mainly be needed during the summer, but I've got a house elf you can summon any time you finish a batch and he can take it to my home."

"Do you have a particular purpose for these potions?" Clara asked, thinking there must be one. "You could purchase these over time to restock yourself for much cheaper, but you wouldn't be sent to me unless you wanted quite a bit, even from Jacob at the Apothecary. More often than not, I am sought after for complex or difficult-to-find items." The phrases 'illegal' and 'black market' weren't said, but certainly on both their minds. Little Leonora's mind was not listening and was, in fact, gobbling up every detail of Harry she could.

Harry paused and looked at the Zabini matriarch for a few moments before coming to a decision. "I'll be doing a lot of physical and magical training this summer, as will possibly a couple of others with me. There is a war coming in the next few years and I want to be ready for it, creating stockpiles at a few locations to ease the strain."

"And why do you think that, Lord Potter?" Clara knew it was always possible that a war could start at any time, but other than Malfoy's ilk, she wasn't aware of a new dark lord coming into power. Not unless Lord Potter wanted to be the one spreading mayhem and destruction. She didn't think it likely considering the boy's strong state of mind then and there as he wasn't looking at either her or Leonora like a piece of meat, even though he should be under the circumstances.

"In my first year, the spirit of Voldemort possessed my Defense professor, leaving me to kill him during a fight at the end of the year. In second year, a creation of his nearly killed a first-year girl to take her life force to bring him back again. He's trying to come back, and there's a prophecy about him and I. Needless to say, I don't plan to go quietly, or at all if I can help it." Since Harry knew anyone could look up prophecies, but not know what they were unless they were mentioned in it, and since his enemies already knew about it, he had no qualms giving that much away. Not when he needed this woman's skills.

Clara looked to her fidgeting, agitated and worried-looking daughter and then to Lord Potter, considering the options before her. Helping Potter could put her on the wrong side of the Dark Lord's anger should he learn of it, but the money would help fortify her home and possibly create an escape route if needed later. Plus, if Lord Potter became interested in Leonora as the mother hoped, that would be a lot of power and wealth falling into their hands. She _was_ her mother's daughter, after all. She didn't have that Black Widow spirit and had dreamed of marrying the boy since she heard of him and seemed inclined to keep him, but she knew how and when to take advantage of an opportunity should it arise. But having the boy alive would make it worth quite a bit more, at the same time, since Leonora would be unable to exercise all that political clout on her own, just as Clara was unable to.

"Should such a thing happen," Clara spoke carefully while thinking, "I would demand sanctuary for my family if we do help you. Otherwise, we would be a very tempting target for the Dark Lord's ire. It would either be join him or flee, assuming we weren't killed for helping you. Depending on the situation if such a time comes, I may be forced to request additional help if my daughter somehow becomes a focus of their attentions. We aren't the wealthiest family out there, but we're in the top fifteen and they may hope to get our estate through her." If Clara could swing it, then perhaps a betrothal agreement could be crafted. Even if it were one of the boy's minor houses, that was still a powerful amount of prestige and power. More danger as well, but safer than simply living in one of the boy's homes, his friends or getting out of the country.

"As long as you're not my enemy and willing to make an oath as such not to betray my trust should it come to pass, then I'm willing," Harry said. "I would offer you sanctuary if you become the resident potion's brewer for us, as the alternative is assistance out of the country until things blow over. You'd get a lab and whatever resources you needed to keep us going. Which reminds me, actually. I'll want a large number of pepper-up potions, too. But, I should remind you that house elves can transport people if necessary. So you can use them to get Leonora and yourself out of trouble and to my house or to safety, and then use them to contact me so I can add you to the wards and then you can show up. Otherwise, you'll be knocked out by them until I get you added. Nothing painful, but just letting you know what to expect. My home's defenses are rather powerful."

Clara considered the offer and then nodded. She would reinstate measures to escape the country just in case. Lord Potter was powerful, but still a boy. She couldn't expect him to win against the Dark Lord, but could hope. And the benefits may outweigh the costs. "Might I make some suggestions for the potions you would like, as well?" She asked, deciding to offer help with some simple ideas, along with getting additional funds in case they were needed for later.

"Sure."

"Veritaserum if you capture anyone, correctional potions such as one to correct your eyesight so you aren't dependent on your glasses and lost without them, enhancement potions like strength and speed, draught of living dead if you need to transport wounded or knock out your enemies for a long time and other such potions? It would also be quite expensive, but if you believe such a war is coming, then I would also offer the suggestion of Felix Felicis. It is also known as 'Liquid Luck' and skews odds where things can go well or poorly to your favor, quite heavily in fact. For politics and fighting, or even during a date if you desire, it would grant you the best odds possible for you. While it is possible to easily overdose on such a potion, and while the ingredients are difficult in an extreme way to obtain, they are very much worth it and as long as you don't abuse it, then you'll find it safe to consume as needed. I can provide a list and get your permission before I brew anything else, of course."

"Works for me. But nothing with bad side effects, especially permanent ones," he agreed. He couldn't believe he didn't think of the luck potion that had helped keep all the students alive during the invasion of Hogwarts. He definitely wanted that. "And, definitely on the Felix Felicis. Liters of the stuff. Thank you for thinking of it," he said gratefully.

"Then you may wish to perform rituals in place of the enhancement potions. They tend to leave you weakened for several days once worn off just like the pepper-up potion," Clara said with a sigh. It was a pity. The ingredients for several of those would have been wonderful for potions she could use for herself. "The Lovegoods are probably the only truly light-aligned family that would be willing to share some of their rituals with you. I'm afraid I don't know if they have the kind you'll want or need, though. Theirs were more related to Nature rather than much else. The Weasleys had a few, but they were generally for fertility, so of little use to you for now. Your own family had some, if I remember correctly, but they were focused more on wards until the last century or so where they began focusing on something called seals. You may find something there for your use."

Harry blinked, unsure of how to take the information dump he just received. "I'll look into them, I suppose. I never really thought about that, before. I mean, I already knew that the dark tosser did that. I guess I never considered it. I just associated them with him and never gave it another thought."

"Well, then," Clara said, not sure if she felt too comfortable putting her lot in with the Potter Lord for the time being. At least it wasn't permanent. And he was the only male that had ever withstood the Veela lust pheromones she had put on Leonora's fan. It was different from their allure since it worked purely on a physical level. Every man she had used that on had been willing to talk marriage within an hour while she would take a blocker to remain fully aware. Sadly, she hadn't been able to give that to her daughter in case Lord Potter was weak enough to cement their new ties by taking Leonora and her little girl, while willing, would certainly need the help of those pheromones herself. So either the Lord Potter was in love with his girlfriend, had a will of iron, or both and, considering his age, she felt that such a powerful mind, as that was the only thing she felt it could really be since boys were more easily manipulated with sex than adult men, would be as beneficial as his strong magic. "Let's discuss prices, shall we? Keep in mind that my products tend to be of a much better quality than what you get at the Apothecary or Hogwarts and they taste better, as well."

In the end, Harry wound up paying about an additional ten percent for each potion than if he bought them from a general apothecary, which was up from 'at cost' when he refused a betrothal agreement with Leonora. But, considering he was getting them in bulk and with better taste, and certainly with better quality, he felt it gold well spent. Especially when he learned his raw financial wealth was a little more than doubled from the pilfered gold of Lucius Malfoy since most of his wealth came from black market deals. According to Dobby, Draco was left with only a third of what Dobby had stolen.

With the deals done and declining an offer to look into another betrothal agreement later, along with a Mistress' Contract, Harry left for Hogwarts where all he wanted to do was visit the Room of Requirement with his girlfriends and repeat their bonding experience until all three were passed out from exhaustion.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – January 15, Before dinner**

The next day, Saturday the fifteenth, had three very happy, if a little worn out, teenagers leaving the comforts of another hot tub experience after a half day of Quidditch between Slytherin's narrow victory over Ravenclaw. After a few hours out in the cold air and sitting on cold benches, the hot water had been extremely soothing, not to mention the Triad had wanted little more than to go back into cuddle mode after having turned time the night before to get three and a half hours of snogging and fondling in between all three at once where Harry was, for some unknown reason, insatiable. Hermione had been all but lost to his demanding presence and loved every moment of his lips on her body while Luna learned she very much liked being kissed anywhere she could have Harry reach while he was with Hermione in his lap again. The affectionate blonde was also shocked to learn how multiple orgasms felt. She was quite happy that Hermione was more than up to the task of being Harry's focus, however. She needed several minutes to lose the extreme sensitivity after two in a row. But she absolutely relished at feeling his hands roam over her as they kissed when it was her turn again.

Hermione's smile had lasted until that morning when she grumbled about being outside until it had come back when Harry was still randy enough to make up for dragging her out there to watch the game. They still didn't do anything but fondle, grope and kiss, but that fondling, they discovered, could get _so_ much better than when they bonded!

"I'm going to go and speak with Professor Flitwick for a few minutes," Harry said, hugging each girl close and kissing them deeply, much to their delight. He had calmed down drastically since the night before, but he was still very freely giving out physical affection and, since they had backed down after their bonding by unanimous decision, other than bathing together and kissing, the sudden and enthusiastic display was appreciated by the girls, who had been wondering if they should try it again anyway. "Meet you both in the common room?"

"Make it the trunk," Hermione said. "I'd like to have some butterbeer before we go and I think I'd like to change for dinner."

"Or at least put on some knickers," Luna agreed. She and Hermione had just purchased some pretty once from Mistress Morgana's from the gift voucher Harry had given her and Hermione and the bushy-haired one had finally gotten a hold of some lacy knickers that both girls had been dying to have a reason to wear. It had simply felt wrong to wear them before something called for them. Plus, Hermione enjoyed the naughty idea of wearing them around her parents without them being any the wiser while Luna just thought they were pretty.

"Well, this time the hot tub was a spur of the moment thing," Hermione said through a blush.

"No problem," Harry said with a dopey grin. "Meet you there when I'm done." Getting one last kiss form both girls – _'Why can't I stop doing that today?'_ - Harry went directly to Flitwick's office, knowing the diminutive professor would be there for another hour or so before dinner since the two hours before hand were when he was approachable by anyone during his office hours.

"Mister Potter! How can I help you today? Do you need help on your assignments?" The professor asked, putting down a quill he was writing with. He subtly put the letter into his desk so as not to risk Harry seeing it. The last thing he needed was for _anyone_ to discover he was Gringotts' mole for information within Hogwarts. Especially the boy he had been writing about. The man was honest enough not to divulge information that was private and wasn't either public knowledge, or going to become as such, but quite often, it was a way to help out those who were honest and lacked the bigoted attitudes of the blood purists while disallowing that help to those same bigots, so it was really a win-win situation as far as the tiny man thought.

"No, not at all. I've actually forgotten about it for a while, but today's game made me remember I promised to train your seeker and I was wondering why you hadn't approached me about that," Harry said.

"Miss Chang had _been_ our seeker," Filius said with a sigh. "But, after what happened, I removed her from the roster, even if she weren't currently incapacitated, and we decided to go with Mister Cornfoot instead since he's had experience. And considering that, I decided I had no right to make such a request of you considering what happened and that you've been taking care of Miss Lovegood. Normally, I would have mentioned the fact that she hasn't been in her dorm since almost at least November to the staff, but since I learned what happened to her there and you have the right to ... do whatever you desire here, I decided to leave well enough alone since Miss Lovegood appears happy. I don't approve of it, but I'm keeping an eye out for any sign that something is wrong. She has been quite a bit happier and I've not seen any signs of abuse, so I thank you for protecting her where I have failed, Lord Potter."

Harry blushed. He had actually thought no one was wiser about everything. Even Percy stopped glaring at having a non-Gryffindor in their common room. "We aren't doing anything _bad_, Professor," Harry said, thinking of Luna's enthusiasm the last two days. "I told Hogwarts to create a room hidden in our common room that only myself, Luna and Hermione can access, along with Madam Pomfrey if it's ever needed. She's got all of her things there though she'll sometimes have a slumber party with Hermione if she's feeling bad or lonely." He just wouldn't tell the older man that Luna was always lonely if actually alone.

"I'm very relieved to hear that, Mister Potter," Filius said with a small smile. "I didn't know what to expect of the situation, but knew there was nothing I could do other than complain and didn't want to risk making things worse in some way by doing so." Sadly, the aged dueling master couldn't tell you honestly if he meant for Luna or himself or the school in general. He didn't really know what this new Harry Potter was capable of. He wasn't meek and weak, but dominant and frighteningly powerful. But he at least _thought_ the boy was still a good person.

"Well, I can still help if you want," Harry offered, not wanting to be found not holding up his end of the bargain to have Flitwick sponsor the DA for him.

"No, not at all," Flitwick stated firmly. "I dare say Mister Wood will see it as consorting with the enemy if you do, but beyond that, Mister Cornfoot stated he would prefer to go by on his own merits and your teachings in the DA, the Patronus if nothing else, could very well save lives and it is your right to hold them regardless of permission, so it's a moot point now, anyway. I release you from your promise, Mister Potter."

"The offer is still there, though," Harry said with a warm smile.

"Something I've been meaning to ask you," Filius stated to change the subject. "Mister Edgecombe has suggested moving Marietta to Saint Mungo's but the headmaster suggested that they are getting the care they need and specialists have come to say no other help could be provided there and their tuition includes medical help if hurt in school. I was wondering if there was any particular thought you had on the matter," he explained, curious about how Harry would handle it. In truth, the man had suggested it, but agreed with the headmaster after learning nothing could be done for his daughter and it would cost him more money. But the point of the question was to see if his faith in Harry was validated as he hoped it should be.

"Whatever they want," Harry said with a shrug. "But Madam Pomfrey should be allowed to decide as well and ultimately carry more weight than anything else. I would suggest taking her decisions as a medical professional rather than a headmaster who has already been proven to not having the students' best interests at heart considering a lack of investigation into things and not allowing the DMLE the right to come in for several things in the past. Madam Pomfrey has an entire school to look after and knows to look past her pride to ensure those girls get the best help possible while ensuring she has all she needs to help the students here at the same time."

Flitwick was extremely pleased with that answer. He had always held similar views, but being outright told that the medical professional was the one to listen to regarding medical needs was almost like a 'Eureka!' moment to the Head of Ravenclaw. "Thank you, Mister Potter. I'll be sure to mention your thoughts to him and Madam Pomfrey who, by the way, thinks the girls will be coming to some time soon. Miss Brocklehurst has already woken up once but required sedation."

"That's good to hear, Professor," Harry said, a strange look on his face. "Their time out of classes, when they wake up, will be punishment enough, I suppose. But when they do come to, please make sure they know any attacks like that again will result in expulsion at best and their lives at worst. Hermione and Luna are both under my protection and I'll do whatever it takes to ensure their safety. I'd actually expel them anyway, but Hermione doesn't want to ruin their futures and prefers to see if they've learned from this." They weren't actually under his protection, yet, but he decided to press for an answer about that subject that night. It was too risky to do otherwise.

"I ... will do so, thank you, Lord Potter," Flitwick said with a deep sigh. He was actually of a similar mind to Harry and would rather they be removed from the school, but knew Miss Granger had quite a bit of sway with the young lord.

"Anyway, I'm off. I just wanted to know if there was a reason you hadn't approached about our deal before. Have a good day, Professor," Harry said, giving a jaunty wave and rushing back to his dorm where he went down into the trunk and found his girlfriends giggling about something. He noticed both had dressed into clothing that had been given as gifts during the holiday that was appropriate for the muggle side of the divide.

"Did you speak with Professor Flitwick?" Hermione asked, smiling as Luna put her wand behind her ear.

"Yes. I just wanted to know why he hadn't asked me to train their seeker like we had agreed when I started the DA and he told me the same thing you did about Mandy waking up. Are you both ready?" He asked, watching Hermione vanish their cups. Getting affirmatives, Harry dialed the Granger home.

"Hello, Honey!" Emma cried out gleefully as soon as the threesome made it out of the spare room and downstairs. The cheerful lady squashed her shocked daughter's face into her chest and hugged her tightly before a ninja-like arm shot out and snagged the cuddly blonde, pulling her into the hug. "Hello to you, too, Luna Dear! Welcome home!"

"Glub da be 'ere," Hermione mumbled into her mother's shoulder.

"It's always a pleasure to come see you!" Luna chirruped just as happily as Emma, wrapping her arms around both older women and squeezing enthusiastically. The youngest girl _really _liked hugs! Harry simply offered Dan a smile and wave, much to the older man's appreciation.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Hermione asked after being released. She immediately moved away from her mother and gave her father a _much_ more subdued hug.

"Ultrasound photos!" Emma decreed, pulling out a small stack of glossy papers and spreading them like a small deck of cards and maintaining a goofy grin.

The two younger girls became excited and rushed to the photos, though Luna had little choice but to ask the obvious. "What's an ultrasound photo?" Not knowing didn't diminish her enthusiasm at being included, however.

Emma, surprised that she didn't know and still seemed so interested, decided to take pity on the girl. "Muggles use sound to take pictures of the developing baby since we can't look in. This is what it looks like," she said, smiling at the images proudly.

Luna wasn't about to say it, but she couldn't help but think that such a thing was silly, even if interesting. _'So, you can take pictures of a person speaking? So very curious.'_ Taking a picture and looking curiously at the amalgam of grays, both light and dark, the girl drew her brows together in confusion as she turned the picture this way and that. "Where's the baby?" She crossed her eyes, wondering if she wasn't looking at it right, but that only made it look like the picture was looking at her, causing her to wonder what kind of things the muggles came up with for picture development.

"It's right there," Emma said, pointing at the rough center of the images incredulously. "That's the head, there's the body and these are the legs."

"How big is it supposed to be?" Harry asked, not seeing the baby any better than Luna, though he could see what was pointed out to him. It still wasn't exactly recognizable, though.

"About three inches!" Emma said happily, causing Hermione and Dan to chuckle.

Harry, however, looked at Emma in shock, then looked Hermione up and down, then back at the picture and then took more time looking Hermione over. If his thoughts weren't so obvious about the size of Baby-on-the-way, Dan would probably find the situation far less amusing than it currently was. "I know what you're thinking, Son," Dan said with a grin. "And yes, you really _were_ that small once. Now stop ogling my daughter-"

"Dad!" Hermione screeched, outraged. She knew perfectly well Harry's ogling face, thank you very much!

"-Dinner's about to be ready and I'm starving," Dan finished as though he hadn't been interrupted. He was perfectly fine with Harry dating his daughter and had little doubt that his daughter was any less restrained than her mother when she was young. To that end, he was sure they had done things he would be rather upset about. But, all said and done, he trusted both of them, along with knowing that they weren't about to go too far, too fast, with a third partner. So it was definitely okay to tease Hermione. It was easier to deal with if he could joke about it rather than admit to reality. Hermione would be married, forty and with a couple of kids, and he'll still happily believe his little girl was a virgin, thank you very much!

"May I ogle your daughter?" Luna asked as they went to the dining room, causing Dan to balk and the other girls laughed while Emma went on to explain how her morning sickness and emotions were leveling out and all she really had to deal with was getting hot easily, which explained the low temperature and that she was beginning to have more energy now that her near-constant fatigue was gone. Of course, she found she had been almost constantly randy for the last week but wasn't about to mention that. At least not until Hermione was ready to get to that point. Until then, it was all about scaring her away from the idea of being pregnant.

"Mmm," Hermione groaned in anticipated rapture. "I've missed Greek food. And it's Pastitsio! Mum, you're the best!" Hermione loved a variety of foods from a variety of countries. Greek was a favorite followed closely by Italian. Luna had rarely had anything that wasn't either traditional British fare, or local cuisines from indigenous people from whatever countries she visited with her parents. That usually meant non-standard foods that people didn't want to know the contents of. Greek food was a completely new thing for her. But a slightly different form of what amounted to lasagna using bucatini noodles was something she could appreciate and have fun eating. Plus, she rather enjoyed cinnamon.

"I went out and got baklava," Dan complained. "And we're _dentists_! Surely that's worth something."

"Yes; I think we'll keep him, don't you, Hermione?" Emma joked.

"Depends on how much baklava he got," Hermione deadpanned.

After everyone had seated themselves and the food was dished out, Emma decided to change the subject from the baby to something she had discovered that day. "Harry, I was wondering. How well do you know your godfather?"

Harry's fork stopped half way to his mouth while Hermione's head shot up and she choked for a brief moment on her food before Luna thumped her back. "Er, how did you know about Sirius?" He asked, wondering just what he did that changed so much and how the woman found out about the escaped non-convict.

"Well, as first impressions go, I doubt I'll forget it," Emma grunted ruefully.

-Flashback-

Emma had the day off from the practice since she would be getting her ultrasound photos taken in several hours and after that, dinner with her daughter, her girlfriend and her boyfriend. It was a day that would be filled with relaxation, tea, the quiet outdoors in a very lovely garden and one strange man, running through the house naked.

The high-pitched scream was shocking enough that Sirius spun in mid-leap through the foyer and allowed himself to fall to the ground because he was too shocked to catch himself.

"Who the hell are you!" Emma shrieked, grabbing a vase by its narrow neck and ready to use the fat end to whack the naked pervert into the next life.

"Me! Who the hell are you! What are you doing in my godson's house!" Sirius cried out, leaping to his feet, only to look down as his entire top half turned red and he put both hands down to cover himself. "Er, it's just cold in here, that's all..."

-End Flashback-

"Snort!"

Harry looked over to Hermione whose shoulders were shaking in a valiant effort to hold in her laughter, but it would prove to be in vain. Her head was down and her chin resting against her chest with her eyes shut tight trying to hold it in, only for it to come out in snorts before she lost all control and broke out into riotous laughter with Luna joining in right behind her.

Harry was shaking his head. "Why was he ... He better not have been sitting on my furniture like that," he grumbled, ignoring that him and both of his girls did that daily for two hours each that they didn't turn time and one hour when they did.

Emma had been mortified, but it had been nothing compared to the man she had met that day. After recalling that only those who were permitted to were allowed onto the property and deciphering the man's proclamation of whose house it was, she knew the man was safe. Ish. So, she did the first thing that had come to mind at the time.

She snorted, just like her daughter. Sirius had not been as amused.

"Well, after we, er, _met_," Emma said carefully, grinning lightly, "he seemed content to back away a few steps and then run out of the room as fast as he could while yelling that he'd be back after he put some clothes on. He told me a little about being your godfather and how he had always wanted to do that when your father and him lived there as kids but your father wouldn't let him. Apparently, he didn't expect company any more than I did."

"Yea, sorry," Harry said, feeling like an idiot. "He was put in prison for something he didn't do and I have him hiding out there. I know where the guy who is actually guilty is, or at least a rough idea, but I haven't caught him yet to get Sirius cleared. I completely forgot that I told you that you could go there whenever you wanted, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay," Emma said. "I invited him to dinner tonight, but he said he didn't want to leave because of that, actually."

"I've got a way to get him cleared," Harry admitted. "Other than by catching that other guy, that is. But I want him to get healthier and more physically and mentally fit before we do it, though. How about next weekend, we eat there so you guys can get to know each other a little better?" He asked.

"That works for me," Dan said, answering for him and his wife. "I'd like to get to know the man, myself." He'd also like to show just how happily married Emma was. He didn't plan on getting confrontational, but he wasn't about to let the man who exposed himself to his wife, even if unintentionally, get any ideas.

"I'd also like you guys to put serious consideration into accepting my aegis, too," Harry said after a moment, putting his fork down to give them his whole attention. "The girls that hurt Hermione should be waking up soon and, even if they don't intend to seek any sort of revenge, I'd really like you guys to be protected. I'll accept it under whatever form you want to make it, Hermione said she would look to see what worked best for her and you so I trust her on that, but you never know when it may come in handy to have."

"We trust you, Harry," Dan said, having discussed this with Emma more than a few times. "You and Hermione both. To be honest, we don't really like most of the options just because they're a bit dated and it gives you a scary amount of power over us, but we trust you won't take advantage of that."

"In the end," Emma continued, "we'll let Hermione decide, since she's the one that is really going to be put into the middle of this."

"Thanks, Mum, Dad," Hermione said, smiling warmly.

"So, what have you decided on?" Emma asked. "We know you would have decided on one some time ago and would have only been waiting for us to make our decision."

"Er, yes, I have," Hermione said with a blush. "The only one that offers you the same protections as I could get, which is a big part of why we need to do this, is the betrothal contract."

"What about the option you said Harry thought he may have?" Dan asked, having expected this since learning that the kids wanted to be in a relationship. "And why would your mum and I need the protection so badly, exactly?"

"Second question first," Harry said, getting into the conversation. "If a magical person comes to your home and assaults you in any way, you will have your home fixed and probably end up obliviated of whatever happened, meaning forced to forget it. They would assume that you're muggles and if you don't remember it, then nothing more has to be done about it. If you're killed, then the evidence leads nowhere and it's still done and they'll spin a story to the non-magical public saying you were victimized by other non-magicals."

"That's horrible," Emma exclaimed. "Would they really do that? Be that cold?"

"Ultimately, it depends on who the magical was that assaulted you," Luna explained. "To be honest, other than your own memories, there would be little way to know for sure who did it and, if whoever did makes you forget anyway, then there's nothing to go off of unless they used a registered wand. But, they wouldn't be stupid enough to do that unless they couldn't find one that's unregistered or they have the money to get off anyway."

"Most magical homes have things that will monitor you and the house and you can alert the authorities to try and catch them in the act. But at the same time, that also requires being magical to do. That's one of the reasons I wanted to give you the Arch system," Harry explained. "That's also why I told you I would need to have you under my aegis in order to legally add wards to the property. I've already got the goblins waiting to make the house as impenetrable against magic as possible with a warning alarm to let you know to leave as fast as possible."

"Thank you," Emma said, leaning over and hugging Harry tightly at his forethought. "Now what about the option you said you may have?"

"Er," Harry blushed. "Well, it turns out it would have been the same as a Fealty Oath. When I took up my Lordship, the goblins bought the lease to your practice on my behalf, saying they wanted to be in a position to help you or crush you depending on how things turned out and I bought it from them so no one else could. I was going to use that as leverage to claim you worked for me if something happened before you made a decision, but you still wouldn't really have any rights, just like that oath."

"Harry, that would have cost-" Dan started, only to be interrupted by Harry.

"-I know," the young lord stated with a careless shrug. "But, they did it so they would be in a position to do whatever they felt they needed to since I'm one of their larger clients and I didn't want anyone to have that kind of power over you. It just made sense," he explained. "You can have that back whenever you want, by the way."

"We ... can't afford to buy it back from you right now," Dan said thickly, taking a large gulp of his soda.

"Then, if you want, you can use the building for free and I'll just own it whenever you choose to be done with it. Use what you normally spend on rent to set aside for the baby's future education or invest it or something. The property will only increase in value, anyway and, worst-case scenario, I'll have to tear it down in the future and build something new," Harry explained simply. "Besides. If Hermione and I _do_ stay together as long as we hope to, which we think is very possible, then the whole thing would just come right back to me anyway."

Emma was too choked up at the thought of providing for her new child's future becoming much easier and simply leaned in and kissed her daughter's incredible boyfriend on the cheek. "Thank you, Harry," she said.

"No problem," Harry said with a blush.

"So, what does a betrothal contract entail, exactly?" Dan said, deciding to ignore his pride for the moment and come back to that later when he could speak with Harry alone. It would be a pointless exercise in futility since Harry was set in his notions, but it could double as welcoming the lad to the family, too.

xXxXxXx

Harry, Hermione and Luna had stuffed bellies and contented smiles as they climbed into bed, the girls in Hermione's and Harry in his own. The girls were too sleepy from wonderful food to stay up any longer and had gone immediately to bed after arriving and getting goodnight kisses in. Even the excitement at knowing they would officially be engaged as soon as they drew up the paperwork had abated somewhat with a few hours of eating and talking and the help of a celebratory glass of wine for each of the threesome, even if it _was_ barely a large swallow. Luna had been quite insistent that it was tradition, but hadn't quite been able to pull off tricking them into thinking the strongest stuff you had in the house was what you were supposed to celebrate with.

It was a valiant effort, though.

However, as Harry was climbing into bed, he was stopped by a nervous-looking Dobby. "Master Harry Potter Sir?" The tiny elf asked, jerking Harry's pajama leg for attention.

"What is it, Dobby?" Harry asked, staying just as quiet as Dobby was. Neville and Seamus were already sleeping while Dean was trying to get that way and Harry wasn't sure where Ron was.

"Twinkle is telling Dobby to tell the great Harry Potter that the bad man's potions is being done now."

All traces of weariness left Harry as the boy's lip curled up in a near-silent snarl as the wall beside his bed cracked and fixed quickly with a deep snap, causing his dorm mates to mutter in their sleep. Thankfully, Dean silenced his bed curtains to block the sound of Ron's snoring and didn't want the redhead to disturb him when he finally showed up. "Did he find out what the potions Snape was making actually _do_?" Harry asked, trying not to frighten his tiny friend.

"He said the ones you already know about is still being there, plus ones that the greasy one said was being necromantic. He is being putting human hearts into it today after it aged about a months."

_'Tell him Pond Lily said she can forgive the word, but not the actions and she'll have her heart back.'_ The words flittered through Harry's mind like a lightning strike. Pain erupted in his chest with the fear that Snape had defiled his mother's body and stolen her heart to use in a potion to use against him. And, if it used hers, the other one could very well have been his father's. _'He couldn't! Not even Snape is _that_ horrible!_' But deep inside, he suspected the man very much was that horrible. Every single class the man controlled was a hellish experience and any opportunity he had to make Harry suffer, he took.

Harry clutched at his heart as tears began to form at the idea of that man, who claimed to have once loved Lily Evans, would desecrate her corpse. _'There's nothing to suggest that's what happened,'_ Harry tried to convince himself, controlling his breathing and trying to get back in control over himself. _'Maybe it wasn't actually human hearts he used. Just watch for the potions to get used and warn the girls tomorrow and find out what happens.'_

"Thank you, Dobby," Harry said thickly. "I want a house elf to always be watching Snape and Dumbledore. They are to watch to find out if they try to slip anyone potions at all and alert me and make sure no one consumes them, do you understand?"

"Yes Master Harry Potter, Sir," Dobby said, nodding rapidly.

"The house elves are also not to assist them if asked, but should make it seem like they are and then bring me the potions they're given instead. Do you understand that?" Harry asked, feeling a little desperate.

"Yes Master," Dobby said, nodding again.

"Actually, I want a house elf, females only, to keep an eye on Hermione and Luna when they aren't with me as well. They're to protect them as well. Am I understood?"

"Yes Master," Dobby confirmed again. "The elves here will obey."

"And Dobby, I think those hearts may have belonged to my parents," Harry said after a moment, getting a gasp of horror from the tiny elf. "Do you have any way, other than digging up their bodies, to find out?"

"Dobby can be trying," he said worriedly.

"That's all I ask," Harry said quietly, feeling sadness wash over him. "Do you have any idea what that potion will do?"

"All Dobby is knowing is that it is to control, Master Harry sir."

Harry nodded. "Go now and make sure what I asked gets done."

"As you command, Master," Dobby said, saluting like he saw the man who he took the combat fatigues from and only slightly mangling it before disappearing with a soft pop.

Harry knew he wouldn't be able to get to sleep that night. The worry he had at exactly what had happened to his parents' bodies and what those potions could, in theory, do, had him far too amped to do anything but toss and turn. With a half-growl and half-snarl from deep within, he took quick steps from his dorm and marched to the Room of Requirement where his evil-looking doppleganger would be put on the defensive for several hours as Harry launched out a near steady barrage of dangerous spells in an attempt to disperse the tensions within him.

xXxXxXx

Daily Prophet

19, January 1993

_**Deaths or Escapes From Azkaban?**_

_**By**: Rita Skeeter_

_Recently, there were seven deaths in Azkaban prison of some of the worst criminals in recent history, all Death Eaters, while one, Antonin Dolohov, is missing entirely. Sources within the Ministry feared that Dolohov had escaped and killed his compatriots, but Harry Potter had another, more terrifying suggestion while talking with Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE._

_Lord Potter suggested the possibility that some of their allies broke into Azkaban with victims under Polyjuice potion where they were then killed so that those Death Eaters could be free without being hunted down while they may have been interrupted before Dolohov's replacement victim could be put in his cell, which may be why no body was found._

_As everyone knows, Sirius Black was the only person to ever successfully escape Azkaban and it is suspected that he is the culprit if there was, indeed, an escape. _

_Amelia Bones is leaving no stone unturned and is having a large number of her aurors looking for evidence of what happened in Azkaban and is searching for all clues to find the culprit or culprits and bring whoever either killed those Death Eaters or helped them escape to justice, possibly hoping to fix a mistake the Ministry, or her department, made that allowed so many things to happen under her watch. With Black first escaping and now not knowing what is happening, the woman is running amok and trying to correct the mistakes of the past. Director Bones has an ongoing manhunt for the dead Death Eaters, just in case they are alive, and anyone associated with their deaths or escapes, whichever the case may be._

_We will have to watch to see if they can atone for their mistakes or if there will be more problems coming._

_The list of dead Death Eaters are..._

_**Sirius Black, Innocent?**_

_**By:** Rita Skeeter_

_Could Sirius Black be innocent? Lord Potter believes it's possible._

_Lord Potter is also quoted as stating that he has looked up the trial documents of Black's incarceration and has come up empty. This reporter's own investigation shows there was no trial on record. But why would Lord Potter be so curious about the man who put his own family into Death's grasp? The man who betrayed his family and got his parents killed?_

_It could possibly be because Sirius Black is Harry Potter's godfather, having accepted the position magically the very same day of Lord Potter's birth._

_That's right, dear readers. Sirius Black took a magical vow to protect his newly born godson, Harry Potter. How, then, could he betray that same godson and still be alive?_

_Lord Potter has also been heard to comment that Sirius Black was the primary person who was meant to take care of him with his parents' deaths, and investigation shows he would have then gone to his godmother, Alice Longbottom, who has been hospitalized since a few days after the Potters' untimely deaths. _

_That is on top of Lord Potter having been heard telling both Albus Dumbledore and Amelia Bones both that he felt someone manipulated the system to control where he went and what he learned as he grew up. So the question must be asked, is Sirius Black guilty? Or was he the victim of someone who wanted to control Harry Potter?_

_This reporter doesn't know, and neither does anyone else. But she is sure to look into it and let you know what's happening._

Harry wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist as the girl began to shake at the Gryffindor table during breakfast that Wednesday as she read the paper, learning about the Azkaban story from a perspective other than her own and read that the authorities were searching for the person responsible. Even worse was that the man she had _killed_ was missing! "Dobby got rid of everything, including the trace magic, so we wouldn't get caught," he whispered, pretending to be whispering sweet nothings into the girl's ear. "He apparently got a lot of practice with the Malfoys. I've spoken with Amelia and she has no idea what happened."

Hermione took a deep breath and then let it out slowly as she calmed down. "What about all those quotes of you?" She asked quietly.

"The one about the escapes was to get everyone looking in the wrong direction," he explained. "I have no idea how she got those quotes, though. I don't remember seeing her there, but I guess she could have used her beetle form."

"Is she ... someone that'll risk being a problem for us?" Hermione asked, not sure how she felt about the possibility. A part of her wondered if she could try to get an opportunity to redeem herself and help with that without causing problems for him like she did last time, and another part of her didn't want to see it ever happen again.

"A risk, yes, but just because she sways public opinion," Harry whispered, pulling away from her. He realized, however, that he already knew how best to handle that little problem. Hermione had threatened to out the woman's unregistered animagus form and got her to do as she was told. Harry could not only offer that, but sweeten the deal by offering her exclusivity so long as she wrote for the Quibbler if Xenophilius was okay with it. If Rita Skeeter worked for Harry Potter, then she wasn't as likely to cause problems for her employer. _'I'll have to write to her soon,'_ he thought.

"They won't be coming for me?" Hermione asked nervously, a vulnerable expression on her face that Harry would rather not see there again.

"Not at all, I promise," he said, kissing her cheek to reassure her.

"Oi! Get a room you two," Ron joked, throwing a scone at Harry while missing Hermione's expression of fear from moments before.

Harry threw the scone back, looking away as Ron caught and ate it with a cheeky grin before going back to talking with Seamus and Dean and occasionally asking Lavender for her input to drag her into their conversation about girls using the guise that he wanted a girl's opinion. Harry looked back to Hermione and squeezed the arm around her waist affectionately before releasing her. "I promise, I'll protect you if anything happens, but I've already taken care of it."

"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said with a warm smile. She reached down and squeezed his thigh gratefully.

xXxXxXx

Neville bent down, resting his elbows on his knees as he wheezed for breath, sweat dripping down his forehead and his robes sticking to his body, weighing him down. Ever since Harry had offered him a position with his private lessons for the Defense Club he had reactivated, Neville did his best to fit in and do what was asked of him. However, much of it was embarrassing to the lad. He was in about as much shape as any other pureblood was, which was to say not much at all, really. However, while many kids played on a broom or just played various games that helped keep them in shape, Neville was always fond of plants. They couldn't judge him and, if he failed at something, they were the only ones to know.

That was why he refused to exercise with Harry. It was embarrassing to see just how physically fit the Potter lord was compared to him. He just didn't want the others to watch him while he ran about, already feeling silly from the silly exercise. And getting so red didn't help matters, either. He was also only able to do a few push-ups, not a single pull-up and perhaps a dozen or so sit-ups. Then the actual dueling practice was embarrassing when he couldn't move well enough to dodge anything.

Neville _wanted_ to join Harry in his morning exercises, but he wanted to get a little better along before making the request. So, he ran full-tilt to the greenhouses and usually kept going for a couple of times around the large, glass buildings. The goal was to be done before Professor Sprout showed up and, if that failed, as it usually did, then claim to be running late. She never commented on his coming from the wrong direction and he never considered it. But the mindless and repetitive motions of plant care helped cool down his body without him cramping up and gave him an excuse to come in dirty and sweaty to take a shower if the others asked, though the guys in his dorm usually allowed him to wake them up once he was done with the shower these days since Madam Sprout left plenty of time for the morning needs.

Unbeknownst to Neville, however, Madam Sprout had commented to a few of her Hufflepuffs about the decidedly odd behavior of the steadfast Gryffindor while happily praising his help with her plants. One of those Hufflepuffs just so happened to be Susan Bones, since the girl had been spending most of her time near the Longbottom scion during the Defense meetings of Lord Potter's. That had, indirectly, led to both her and her best friend, Hannah Abbot, getting up earlier to see this odd behavior for themselves, but recognizing it as Harry's request that they get into shape.

For a few weeks now, they had gone down to watch him, somewhat curious about what he was doing and why, while simultaneously wondering how best to make him join Harry or stop doing the exercise alone. But the two dared not approach him in the mornings. It was obvious his shy nature led to this and didn't want anyone to see him vulnerable like that.

Susan was fast finding Neville to be something of an uncut diamond. He was many of the things a girl wanted in a boy; he was kind, considerate, gentle, moderately wealthy and politically powerful and was a good person, by and large. The only real problems were his shy nature and lack of self-esteem, both of which she had seen were getting better. Ultimately, he was a prize catch that she could have trained up properly with almost minimal effort so as not to be ignored or treated as a trophy wife. Even more importantly, she knew he didn't care about marrying for political gain or influence and would much rather marry for love.

For a girl from a pureblood family that she very much wanted to continue the line of, that was incredibly important. She had grown up with the understanding that either her family line would die with her, being absorbed into another family like so many others, or she would be a second wife and most likely in a loveless marriage.

The knowledge of Harry's curious relationship had, by some cosmic twist of fate, provided the answer. Susan was already doing her best to show Neville she was very much interested without simply trying to rape the poor boy. While he may enjoy it, it would also scare the heck out of him. Plus, she didn't want to get him by such means. She actually _wanted_ to be his lover. And that would come with time.

And Hannah joining forces with her.

Susan wasn't too worried. She had her auntie's approval for the relationship, including having Hannah join in since it's the same thing she may have already had to do. The only difference is that she and Hannah were best friends who did everything together already. They even had their first kisses with each other, wondering what kissing was like. Granted, they were both seven, but they knew not to just share those sorts of things and then forget about them. They're important to girls, after all.

And so too were grandbabies, so sayeth Augusta Longbottom, who had very nearly broken into tears at the Lovegoods' New Year's party. There was nothing official quite yet, but the elderly Longbottom matriarch promised she would work with Amelia for a suitable betrothal contract giving the young ladies carte blanch to pursue Neville's affections. The only demand the Longbottom Matriarch had was very recent in a letter that Hannah become the primary wife so both lines could continue since there were other Abbots out there to procreate.

Susan had sealed her promise by showing Neville _exactly_ what she intended for their friendship at that party. The inclusion of Hannah, though, had come more recently, just a few days after the public announcement of the Potter relationship, as it becoming known, and his giving his girls such a decadent breakfast. The girls weren't allowed to do much until the contract was ready, however, and they would, of course, have the ability to leave the contract at any time. Augusta wasn't about to trap the girls into a marriage. Neville, yes, but the girls, no.

"_As accident-prone as that boy is, the sooner I get this taken care of, the safer the Longbottom name shall be,"_ Augusta had proclaimed in a response letter when Susan pushed the idea of Hannah's inclusion forward. She had simply asked to keep it from Neville until she could surprise him with it, knowing that her cute little grandson liked Susan, as well.

Neville rose from his position and arched his back, popping and cracking what he could to feel better, unaware of the plotting and planning currently being done by two lovestruck girls with plans to get him to woo them. The last two weeks since he got snogged senseless, quite literally, by the Bones heiress had been some of the most confusing in his life. The day after discovering how soft girls were, how nice they smelled and the wonderful things their lips could do to his own, he wasn't even sure that he had actually _met_ the girl at the Lovegood party, much less been shoved into a full closet, held against the wall and snogged until he forgot his own name.

Since then, Susan had shown the same level of interest as the last few months, albeit with more mentions of his Gran. He would have been suspicious, as his Gran had mentioned her as well, but lately, Susan had Hannah with her everywhere, even when they interacted outside of class. The way they looked at him ... Neville shivered. He saw that look almost daily in Ron as the redhead looked at his meals.

All said and done, Neville was beginning to feel ... better. He ran as fast as he could most mornings, but some days, he would just jog and, on those days, he felt revitalized and powerful when he was done. There wasn't the feelings of exhaustion or being weak like he felt at that moment, at least no longer gasping for breath. Even now, his aches and pains were going away and he was finding himself with the dull, pleasant ache of having worked hard and being better off because of it.

Neville was content for now. He had no real idea of what would come in his future, but he knew he was happy with how things were and was willing to work to change them.

"Mister Longbottom!"

"Gah!" Neville spun in surprise and smiled sheepishly at the kind Hufflepuff Head. Maybe he could work to change things as they came. Situational awareness would be a good place to start for now. "Hello Professor."

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – January 16, 06:20**

Harry hadn't slept a wink and was low on both magic and patience. He had attacked his doppleganger for hours and his body ached on top of worrying about everything related to what he had just learned, which included Dobby coming back and covered in mud only to state that yes, the hearts of his parents were taken and his father's body was mutilated beyond recognition while other, horrific, things had been done to his mother's. Ultimately, that anger and frustration needed an outlet. One that could make Harry feel like he had actually helped or accomplished something.

There should, therefore, be little surprise that Harry busted into Dumbledore's office before breakfast started, surprising the older man, more at his expression of rage than getting into the office without knowing the new password and without the gargoyle or his wards alerting him, once again. While Harry would have preferred confronting Snape, he knew he wasn't in the right state of mind to succeed.

"Harry? How can I help you?"

Harry allowed the door to shut with a soft 'thump' as he stared at this infuriating, manipulating old fool for ten full seconds, trying to understand why he was doing the things he was doing. He gave it up as a lost cause as his lip curled in disgust before Fawkes crooned gently to try and calm his favorite student. "Magic is a very curious thing," Harry said at last, his exhausted voice sounding older and more worn than it should. "It transcends Time and has no real limits as long as you know how to get around one's own limitations."

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed solemnly, wondering curiously at the animosity the young man was openly displaying. "Magic is a wondrous mistress, who is also capable of many evil deeds if manipulated by the darker elements of our society." _'Perhaps the hint will cause Harry to evaluate his current rage and calm down,'_ Dumbledore considered hopefully. He could see the air shimmering around the boy like heat rising from the pavement and he would swear he could taste the power around him.

"Indeed," Harry almost growled out. "It even transcends Life ... and Death." Harry allowed a moment for that to sink in to see how the old man would respond, but got nothing but interested eye blinking in return.

"Harry, there is no good magic that can transcend Death," Dumbledore implored, hoping Harry wasn't turning to the dark arts or, worse, Necromancy.

"There is a girl," Harry began, watching the headmaster like a hawk. "She's just a touch older than I am. She had light brown hair, almost the color of honey to her waist. She was very petite with lovely, dark blue eyes." The headmaster swallowed, but made no other indications of recognition. Harry knew he hadn't actually spoken with the girl, but knew her image very well from the well-kept painting at the Hog's Head, which was the _only _well-kept or even cleaned item in that building. "She spoke to me, you know."

"Who did?" Dumbledore asked, almost fearing the answer.

"Arianna," Harry stated simply, intrigued as the Headmaster whimpered at the name. "She had a most interesting tale to tell and a message for you."

"What," Dumbledore began, only to pause and lick his suddenly dry lips. "What was her message?" He begged, believing fully that Harry was speaking the truth. Few people knew Albus Dumbledore even had a brother. Many fewer knew he had a sister and probably only two or three outside of the Dumbledore brothers knew what she looked like or that the painting of the happy little girl in the Hog's Head was that girl. And all of those people were either nearly as old as he was, or a very close friend who wouldn't bring her up in casual conversation.

Harry had come into this meeting with the sole purpose of breaking this man's spirit. Of ruining what was left of Albus Dumbledore and trying to get him to do what Harry wanted and needed as fully as possible and knew, beyond any doubt, that this point of his past was the easiest way for that to happen with Albus Dumbledore. He was ready to manipulate this for everything he was worth and knew that even Fawkes agreed with him or the phoenix would have spoken up rather than watch sadly. And Harry knew that to get to Snape without being found out later, Dumbledore would have to willingly give him up.

Letting his magic loose upon himself, Harry commanded it to make his voice sound like the little girl's in the portrait and simply deepened it slightly so it sounded older rather than change his own vocal chords and began to speak, commanding it to whisper and fluctuate and, hopefully, sound otherworldly and mask that it didn't sound exactly like the much older man's deceased sister. While Harry didn't think Albus remembered her voice perfectly after more than a century, he also knew that the old man had a habit of reliving the past in his pensieve.

"**Please let Albie know that what happened wasn't his fault**," Harry began in her voice, making the headmaster's lips tremble and caused tears to be soaked almost immediately into his beard. "**It wasn't his **_**or**_** Abe's fault! I'm waiting for us to meet again so we can spend a long time as a family again. But Albie may not be able to join for the bad things he's doing. Just give him my message and I hope we'll be a family again.**"

"Why?" Albus moaned pitifully into his arms where his head rested as he sobbed. "Why would I be denied my family?"

Harry was against the desk in a flash, his face right next to Dumbledore's head as he snarled, "Potions!"

Albus' head shot up and he looked at Harry, horrified. "Wh-what?" Conveniently, with Harry's haggard appearance, obvious signs of lack of sleep and the seemingly sudden rage, Dumbledore fully believed Harry was visited the night before by the spirits and he had been told of the plot against him.

"You would control me and those girls," Harry snarled, "causing me to rape them repeatedly and take my heritage from me? How are you _not_ Dark? Hell! How are you not _Evil_?"

"I ...," Albus wasn't really sure how to answer. Taken at face value, his actions truly were heinous. He had his reasons, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what they were in his grief-stricken state.

"Are you going to poison us," Harry asked accusingly. "Cause us to get raped, get with child and whatever else you planned of a similar nature?"

"I ... No, I won't," Albus admitted after a few false starts. "I'm so sorry, Harry! Can you forgive me?"

"No, I can't," Harry snarled, not feeling the least amount of sorrow for the weeping old man in front of him. He turned to Fawkes in confusion. "How could you allow this to continue? How could you stay with him when he's doing things like that?"

Fawkes let out a keening, pitiful warble and glided to the headmaster's desk where he bumped his head against the lemon drop bowl and then looked up to Harry with sorrowful eyes.

"Thank you, Fawkes," Albus sniffled, grabbing a yellow candy and guiding it towards his mouth, despite Fawkes crying out again in despair.

Harry's hand snaked out like lightning and took the lemon drop from the wrinkled hands of a man he once admired and respected. Listening to Fawkes' chirping, he carefully cast the diagnostic spell Luna had taught him and Hermione to get back a large list of results. "Fawkes tried to stop you from eating that. Why didn't you listen to him?" Harry asked curiously, astonished the old man would ignore his phoenix like that.

"He was trying to cheer me up using his song, Harry," Dumbledore said, confused.

Harry looked at the headmaster incredulously. "He's your familiar and you can't tell what he's trying to tell you?"

There was only a brief pause before Albus asked, "You can?"

"I can understand what he means, even if not actual words, just like with Hedwig," Harry explained, gesturing to the candies. "These things are laced with all sorts of magical components. Can you do a diagnostic of some kind on them? I can't get much more than that, though one of the ingredients is 'Greasy Git' in my mental list."

Dumbledore flicked his wand once and paled so thoroughly that Harry thought his skin turned translucent. "Gods no," Albus breathed out, horrified.

"Sir?" Harry asked, deciding something else had been going on here, and only having a slight idea of what that was.

Dumbledore looked at Harry and back at the candies. "Loyalty potions, wit dampening, devotion, mild confunding, magic dampening and another that was your father's design that causes a person to act more abnormally like my usual quirks, but it would reinforce them and make them worse. I ... I think Professor Snape has been ... controlling me," he whispered, his world almost totally shattered from the revelations.

"I'm killing him," Harry said immediately, his face contorting to show the fury he barely held within him.

"Harry, you cannot just-"

"He did _this_ to you!" Harry roared, flinging his arm at the candies. "He is adding potions to what you ordered him to make including one that is using the hearts of my _parents_! Dobby confirmed this! He defiled my mother's corpse and mutilated my father's! They spoke with me, too, Headmaster! As did Celeste Lovegood! They agreed that he had to be killed and, I quote: 'Sooner rather than later'! End quote! Daphne Greengrass told me some of the shite that he pulls off in his House! He trades sex for better grades, deals in black market potions and don't even get me started on the shite he's been pulling off the last two and a half years directly against me in class!"

Dumbledore wanted to defend the potions teacher, he really did. In fact, it was taking every ounce of strength he possessed to not do so, which was part of the reason he didn't. He realized that wasn't right. Plus, the evidence in front of him was as damning as it was horrific. "Then we should contact the authorities and-"

"No," Harry denied immediately. "I will be taking care of this and I don't want you to say a word about it. It'll take me a few days, but you should put out an advert for a new potion's professor. Maybe Slughorn. I know he's still around and if you use my name, it'll probably get him here running."

"Harry-" Dumbledore began, sounding pained to have to speak whatever he was about to.

"Do you not _want_ to be with Arianna again?" Harry asked rudely. "My parents and Luna's mum showed up partly because we're in a relationship and they were congratulating us. Arianna's message was because you've suffered that most of your life wondering and now, near the end, when you have the chance to fix things and spend that time with her, you would throw it away out of a misguided attempt to save a man who never should have been saved to begin with?"

"He confessed to me that he loved your mother," Dumbledore said as if that explained all of his reasons. "There is no greater power than that of love."

"What part of _'defiled my mother's corpse'_ did you fail to understand?" Harry growled, making the much older man blanch.

Albus opened his mouth to speak before closing it with a sigh and looked towards his oldest friend and ally. "Fawkes, my friend. Please advise me. Should I let Harry continue on this path? I'm afraid I cannot trust my judgment in this matter."

Understanding that the old one wouldn't understand speech, the large bird hopped to his friend and crooned while rubbing his head against Albus' chest with a soft warble.

"It would seem I have no choice," Albus sighed again. "I just didn't want you to ever truly have to kill. That is not something I would ever wish upon anyone."

"You and I both know I'd have to eventually," Harry said, barely withholding a smirk as the old man's eyes widened. Rather than allude to the prophecy, he decided to misdirect. "The dark tosser is after me and if I don't want to die, I have to kill him. With my girls in the equation, I'm not about to lose. Plus, I killed Quirrell in first year. The basilisk and dozens of acromantula in second. I'm fairly well used to it by now."

Rather than dispute what Harry was saying, as Quirrell was already dead once he let Voldemort possess him and the others weren't truly human, Albus allowed the boy to maintain his way of thinking. Perhaps it would make it easier on him. "I don't feel comfortable allowing this," he said instead. "But I know I must."

"If it helps, understand you don't have a choice in the matter, just as you said," Harry shrugged, his weariness catching up to him. "Since it's Sunday, why don't you head to Madam Pomfrey after a full breakfast and see if she can't help you out with whatever potions are in your system?"

"I have monthly check-ups, Mister Potter," Albus stated as he rose shakily to his feet, still unhinged from what the morning had brought and deciding breakfast did, indeed, sound like a good idea. It would possibly help to have a bit of normalcy right then as his day had started off as perhaps one of his worst, ever. "The potions never show up in her scans or this would have been discovered whenever it started. There will be little she can do and they must run through my system."

"Your choice," Harry said dismissively. "Until I can be sure they're gone, I won't be able to trust you or even a single decision you make and, even then, I will have to see the new you first, assuming they aren't permanent like some potions after prolonged exposure."

"Easily understood, Lord Potter," Albus said, turning and leaving the room. "And on that note, however, I would like to recommend perhaps writing the invitation to Mister Slughorn yourself, Harry. He-"

"-He's obsessed with fame and making connections," Harry interrupted, too upset to listen to the old man take far too long to explain something so trivial. "He's likely to come running if he hears from The-Boy-Who-Lived. I'll write the letter tonight."

"Very well," Dumbledore confirmed, too heartbroken to care about Harry's snub or worry about how Harry knew those things, but filed it away for later. "Breakfast, however, prepared by my personal elf, sounds quite wonderful right now," he said as he disappeared through the doorway.

Harry was about to leave before he looked around at the rather large multitude of books around him. "Nah. I'll copy them later when I can appreciate Hermione's expression of gratitude better. Breakfast and then a nap before the DA meeting."

Once out of the office, Harry called Dobby to him. "Hello Dobby. Are you feeling better after what I asked you to do?"

"Yes, Master Harry Potter Sir," Dobby said. "Dobby is being used to seeing bodies like that from time with old bad master, but these were Master Harry Sir's parents. Dobby did not like seeing them."

"I understand," Harry said quietly. "I wouldn't have liked it, either. But, I'm going to kill Snape for that. And I want something truly horrific for him."

"Dobby is thinking he be knowing a few things that Master Harry Potter Sir would be wanting," Dobby offered hesitantly. He didn't think anything bad about Harry wanting to seek revenge. Dobby rather enjoyed it, himself. Especially on his old bad masters. But, it was that he didn't know for sure where he could get some of what he needed. "Dobby would have to take a little time to find out where to get what he be needing, though."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked curiously.

"Dobby is thinking Master Harry would be liking it better as a surprise. But Dobby is promising Master Harry will be happy with it," Dobby said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Good enough for me," Harry agreed. "Just let me know when you're ready. I need to go and warn the girls not to allow themselves to be alone with Snape."

Dobby saluted and popped away to help his master seek revenge. After getting a small battalion of elves to keep an eye on the Greasy Git and to follow Master Harry Potter Sir's girlies.

xXxXxXx

_16, January 1994_

_Horace Slughorn,_

_Hello, Mister Slughorn. My name is Harry Potter. I'm writing to you because our current Potion's teacher, Severus Snape, is inadequate in my eyes. Or at the very least, we despise each other and I would rather appreciate getting out of his class. _

_I'm writing hoping you will agree to tutor myself and a couple of my friends since leaving his class will set the loathsome man on them in retaliation, most likely. He's petty and vindictive and hates me for who my father was since my mother, Lily Evans, decided on James Potter over Snape._

_I'm going to be honest. I've looked into you before deciding on whether or not to contact you. I know you prefer being around those with connections, power, wealth, influence and who can help you in various ways. I know that if you come, it will be for the sake of being attached to the Boy-Who-Lived and all that that means._

_So here are the facts to bring you here:_

_I am Lord of the Houses of Potter, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw,_

_I am one of the wealthier men in Britain,_

_I have the ear of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge,_

_I have contact to the future Lord Longbottom and currently the Dowager, Lady Augusta Longbottom,_

_I have the ear of Director of the DMLE, Amelia Bones (for this and the Lady Longbottom, don't mistake this for having something over them or any control over them. I merely mean to say that we are more than acquaintances and not quite friends, though I am friends with their wards.)_

_I am the Boy-Who-Lived and I believe you know what kind of influence that holds, on top of being Lord of the aforementioned families._

_I also control Hogwarts. I know it was through you that Voldemort learned of Horcruxes and has succeeded in creating them. That also means you know he will return, as do I (and yes, he made more than one – I destroyed a few of them already and learned about this when he attempted to come back to life using them. I know all I need to about them to destroy them and have destroyed all references in the school save one that will be destroyed when I destroy his, so I do not need you here for information. I only desire education from you.) What this means to you is that you will be safest in a place with the strongest wards possible, which just so happens to be Hogwarts' wards. Because I am the rightful Lord and owner over the castle, I have made them stronger than they have been since their creation and also have access to more than anyone in the castle's history as a school. _

_My original intention was to request your skills during the summer and allow you to live at my Manor home, but I want to be rid of my interactions with Snape._

_So, you know what I can offer you, and what being associated with me can provide. You also know I am aware of this and willingly offer my association with you and, while I may desire assistance with some of your contacts for various reasons in the future, my only intention towards you is potions tutoring. _

_You're also quite aware of what it means should you be out there, where anyone can get to you, should the Dark Tosser come back. I neither want, nor need, the information you have memory-charmed yourself for (yes, I know that, too. I told you I looked into you and wanted to be sure I got the right person for the job.) I also have no intention of letting anyone know about your connections to the rise of the dark wanker. That would ruin everything you've built for yourself in your life and I wouldn't ruin that._

_So, all I am asking is that you teach me and my friends potions properly. In return, I offer my association in your Slug Club, protection, money and some of the 'finer' things I know you appreciate in life. I will admit, however, that if I can get rid of Snape, then I hope to give you back your position as Professor and Head of Slytherin House with the stipulation that I be made aware of anyone likely to support the dark so I can dissuade them from that path. Otherwise, they shall be removed from the school if necessary for the safety of the students and even yourself._

_I'm aware the feeling of this letter makes me sound like a self-absorbed and pretentious bastard, but I'm not (unless you're an enemy, but you are far from it – My mother's journal spoke rather fondly of you, which is why I chose to look you up.) I just want it clear that I'm not going to manipulate you, and I won't allow you to manipulate me and we form a business relationship that can, hopefully, lead to greater returns in the future. I will also likely ask you to make potions for me that are well above my current level._

_Sincerely,_

_Harry J Potter_

_Lord of Potter, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw_

_Heir Apparent for Black_

xXxXxXx

**Friday – January 21, During last period after turning time**

Almost a week later, Friday the twenty-first, Harry and Hermione were at Potter Manor, coming to the close of their daily two-hour bonding time. Since Christmas, they had taken to using the house furthest out from the Manor itself to avoid Sirius so they could be alone to work on their soul bond and safely turn time and had been loving every minute of it.

"We really never got around to this in the last time line?" Hermione asked as she gasped for air after a highly enthusiastic snogging session. She was in only a pair of panties that were completely soaked through with her recent release from gyrating on Harry's lap with his own coating her stomach and chest from mere moments ago. She was unable to get much private time at night with her cuddly bed partner and had taken quite the delight in using these sessions to relieve that stress that had been so long in developing since, otherwise, she would be crabby from pent up frustrations. And while she could turn back time to get that private time, there was no need since Harry was just as willing and they were all contemplating helping each other with manual release sooner rather than later. Plus, they agreed the bond could only benefit!

"No," Harry panted along with her, nibbling on the worn-out witch's neck. Their mutual orgasms had been two hours in the making and had hit both hard. It had almost been painful when it finally happened after so long and Hermione stopping long enough to reposition him so he was nestled between them for his finishing moment had nearly been a torture of its own.

"What the bloody hell was wrong with us?" She asked needlessly, rubbing Harry's release on her chest a little in contentment before magically cleaning both of them off with the first wandless spell she had mastered under his tutelage. That was _so_ much better than doing things herself! She didn't ever want to go back to masturbation. There was just no compare.

"This is our life," Harry kissed her on the lips, letting her tongue play with his, "and our chance." He hugged her tightly to himself and leaned back so they could cuddle as they rode their hormonal highs together in the afterglow of their releases. "This is our chance to do right by ourselves. And I'm definitely taking it," he finished, rubbing her back softly up and down her spine, making her shiver delightfully.

"Mum said the goblins and Luna's dad nearly have our betrothal agreements ready," Hermione said quietly, enjoying Harry's warmth on one side of her and the heat of the fire on the other in the sitting room of the property. The possibilities of a bedroom were just too risky for them, they agreed. "Apparently, Luna wasn't kidding when she said he would do pretty much anything she asked of him. Mum said he was just relieved this didn't come up because she was preggers. He's just as happy as Luna is about it, though. He didn't even show a sign of saying no to it at all."

"Are you looking forward to it?" He asked, kissing her shoulder softly on the impression of her bra strap since he knew she enjoyed that.

"Definitely," Hermione agreed, tilting her head so he could take the hint and go for her neck, too. "It just seems so surreal sometimes that I went from not even being sure if we were flirting during the summer and kinky fantasies to actually being able to live some of those out and getting engaged to you. It happened so fast – Flirting for two months, then it toning down and then a relationship where we got wicked almost immediately. I don't regret even a second of it, except maybe that it didn't happen sooner, don't get me wrong," she explained, worried he would take her words the wrong way. "But I still have trouble believing I really have this with you and can actually feel you inside of me if I concentrate hard enough."

That had been the newest development for all of them, a more defined presence of Harry within the girls and them within him. They were still exploring what that could mean since they had to concentrate really hard to feel the others and even harder for the girls to feel each other through Harry. But they had, so far, discovered they could send sensations and feelings through that when Hermione accidentally caused Luna to climax during History of Magic while exploring why she could feel the younger girl while sending her feelings of Harry through that link, thinking it may have been him and wanting to play.

Thankfully, Luna was a squeaky and quiet girl when she finished as opposed to Hermione's loud and enthusiastic nature. It also helped that she still sat towards the back of classes and few people elected to sit close to her, even with her being publicly announced as one of his girlfriends.

Her notes for Transfiguration were quite interesting.

"I know what you mean," Harry said with a quiet chuckle. "This summer was the first time I actually flirted with you that I know about and can remember. It was a lot of fun to watch you blush just by telling you I thought you were pretty," he reminisced with a fond smile.

"And now you've got me ready and willing to sit naked in your lap," she stated with amusement evident in her voice. "You can work very fast when you put your mind to it, Mister Potter," she said, pulling back and grinning at him before kissing him soundly. "It'll be even more enjoyable when we don't have to worry about getting over-excited and having an accident and can get rid of one of us wearing something to protect from that," she said, pulling back. "I'm getting tired of having to replace my knickers."

"Then you should do as I do and not wear any," Luna stated as she entered the room, shocking the two naked teens on the couch. The blonde girl had her hair in a high-arcing ponytail and had transfigured her normal clothes into a red and black micro-skirt, a white blouse that was almost too tight on her slim figure with a bright yellow bra underneath that showed through quite effectively and, as a finishing touch, she had on small silver glasses without lenses while carrying a small book.

"What are you wearing?" Hermione asked, having a sinking feeling in her stomach on top of a little jealousy at not thinking of it first.

"I found a naughty witch magazine the other day and it appeared this was the usual uniform for school girls who were doing naughty things," Luna stated simply with a dainty shrug. Actually, it wasn't witches that were in it and she didn't so much as find it as pilfered it from the boys' dormitory in Gryffindor where Seamus had a, probably not so healthy, stack under his bed.

"It's a Catholic schoolgirl uniform, Luna," Hermione explained, unsure if she should be amused, exasperated or aroused, if she hadn't just had a screaming orgasm that made the last one impossible for a little while and had the energy for the former. "It's a fetish in the muggle world. Not sure about the wizarding one."

"Ah," Luna accepted, having already been quite aware of that. She reached behind her and purposefully set her book on the edge of the table, only for it to fall down. "Oops!" She chirped, turning around and keeping her feet together and legs straight, she bent down to pick up her book, pausing long enough to hear Hermione squeak in surprise. Luna really didn't wear any panties to her times with Harry, it seemed.

"Tempus," Hermione incanted after getting off from Harry's lap and grabbing her wand. Apparently, her time was over by nearly ten minutes. Looking to Luna and then to Harry, she smiled and kissed her boyfriend soundly on the lips. "You two have fun. I'll see you in the Great Hall for dinner, alright?" She confirmed, knowing they would be together and then turn back time to enjoy dinner with her.

"Okay," they both responded while she chuckled and grabbed her clothes to go take a quick shower before heading back to school so she could turn time again to come out just as dinner was starting and not smell like sweat and sex. While they didn't have sex, she was still quite stimulated and wanted to clean up and change her knickers.

As Hermione walked out of the room, Luna prowled over towards Harry and plopped herself down in his lap just as Hermione had been and kissed him firmly on the lips, using more force than the gentle, cuddly girl usually employed. She seemed almost ravenous as her tongue darted in to play with his own. After several minutes of enjoying Harry's lips and teasing his tongue, she pulled back and smiled impishly at him. "Aren't you going to unwrap your present?"

Harry smiled back at her and began to slowly undo the buttons of Luna's blouse while trying to determine what was making the girl so much more aggressive during their bonding time. The past two weeks, she had been getting progressively more ... _frisky_, was really the only word he could think of.

She had begun to ask more than once or twice if he wanted to do more than kiss and cuddle where before, she always only asked the once. Then she began to do more kissing than cuddling, which was abnormal for her. Then she would show that she wanted to be touched more often or do the touching until, just like that day, she was sitting in his lap and becoming just as enthusiastic about everything as Hermione was. The primary difference, however, was that Luna seemed to focus more on his own enjoyment rather than their mutual enjoyment.

At first, Harry thought that she was just feeling more comfortable, but then realized she was wanting to simply go further in their relationship. But now, he was beginning to wonder if it was more than that. Even when they cuddled now, Luna didn't just cuddle and enjoy being curled up into Harry. Now, she would have a hold of his member to play with and he noticed that she always ensured he could see some part of the front her body that was normally covered up by clothes.

He decided he would give it until the end of the week, which would also be the end of the month, to see if he could decipher what she wanted before he just simply asked her unless things got out of hand. She didn't just simply tell him, so he figured he was supposed to try and figure it out. And, to be honest, the naughty school girl outfit had been completely new and confused him even more.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – January 22, 18:15 – Potter Manor**

"I love noodles," Luna stated happily after learning the meal between her family, the Grangers, Harry and Sirius would be spaghetti and meatballs as it appeared on the table in front of her on the promised dinner date from a week before. It was now Saturday, the twenty-second and everyone was meeting to get to know one another. Sarah, Xenophilius' new girlfriend, wouldn't be showing up since Luna didn't want to put that much trust into a woman with a secret that didn't belong to their family such as Sirius. Quite happily, Luna immediately took the end of a noodle and put it in her mouth only to start sucking until the entire noodle slid its way through the pile until the other end smacked her in the nose as it whipped up, causing her to giggle. "They're fun!"

"My favorite part is the garlic bread," Sirius said with a dopey grin. As if to prove himself, he took five of the toasted bread pieces to stack on the saucer next to his plate. His preference seemed to be twirling the noodles into a bite-sized piece and putting it on the bread to eat both together.

"I'm with Luna," Hermione said with a smile, watching Luna play with her food. "I like just about any kind of pasta, but noodles like spaghetti and fettuccine are fun. Don't think I'd want to get whacked in the face with one, though," she explained in amusement.

"You take after your father in that regard, dear," Emma stated, going into mother mode and wiping Luna's nose clean from the sauce and getting a brilliant smile in return. "When we first met, he was always playing with his food. Don't get me started on what I saw him doing with a pizza once. So, Sirius. How are your days filled while you're staying here? Other than running amok naked and scaring women, that is."

The group had met long enough to learn of Sirius' history with the Potter betrayal and subsequent incarceration at Azkaban to get the unhappy parts out of the way and were now moderately comfortable around each other enough to chat amicably, although Dan was a touch more affectionate than was likely proper in their daughter's boyfriend's home.

"Well, Harry wants me to get back into physical shape and, to be honest, so do I," Sirius explained after swallowing his first piece of bread. "I have plenty of time to simply relax and recuperate while getting plenty to eat and exercise without having to weather the elements outside. So, that's my main focus, getting healthy. But to be honest," Sirius began in a conspiratorial manner, "I've spent most of my time outside by the pool."

"Until Sirius is cleared," Harry began, "I don't really want him anywhere near where he could get caught like I mentioned before. But, I'm working on the Minister for Magic to get him willing to try and help me get him freed. I just want Sirius healthy first so he can make a better impression and people will see him as more resilient and less like an actual escaped convict."

"Enough about a geriatric in physical therapy," Sirius waved them off dismissively. "What is it I hear about my favorite godson getting betrothed? You mentioned that last week, but didn't really explain and I'm dying to hear about it!" The old hound was practically vibrating in his chair at the good news and the opportunity to heckle. Within reason while the other adults were around, of course. Dan had already given him the stink eye for displaying himself to Emma, though Sirius didn't want to relive getting laughed at. It _was_ cold, after all...

"My parents don't have many rights in the wizarding world," Hermione explained with a sigh. "So, we're using the betrothals of myself and Luna with Harry to help protect them, while also protect Harry from the high number of girls at Hogwarts that are getting the idea to use love potions on him. Now that he's betrothed, any attempts to do that come with much more severe penalties."

"I'm from one of the oldest families in wizarding Britain," Sirius told them. "I'm well aware of the practices. I'm just glad you were able to choose the ones you love, Harry," he stated happily before turning somewhat serious. This seemed as good a time as any to tell Harry his news.

"But, I should warn you now that I'm the last official Black left. My mother, may she not rest in peace, tried to cast me out, but my father wouldn't have anything to do with it. And when my younger brother died, my own father disinherited Narcissa and Draco officially, not wanting everything to go to what he thought of as a snooty French family name that willingly enslaved themselves to someone he thought wasn't worth the loyalty. So, while I can and have taken up my Lordship, I can't bear any heirs due to my time in Azkaban. I'm physically incapable of it. That means I'll be passing everything that is mine to you." Sirius didn't want to say it in this kind of setting, but Harry still knew from his past life that the man wasn't able to 'rise' to the occasion any longer. His time in Azkaban had, in a sense, magically castrated the man. While there may have been a way to heal from that, he wasn't aware of any.

"Sirius...," Harry began, feeling slightly choked up. The last time he heard this information was after this very same man had died and it was bringing back painful memories.

"So Harry will control six separate family names?" Dan asked somewhat mystified. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"Definitely," Xenophilius said, just as surprised and shocked. "Especially since they're one of _the_ oldest names in our history, as old as Harry's own, and not many can claim that. Ollivander, our primary wand maker, his family is a touch over two thousand years old and is one of the oldest established families that can be confirmed, but they lost most of their wealth. The Potters and Blacks ... Well, the Potters always were fairly intelligent and looked out for one another, so their estate has usually come out even or ahead and was traced back almost three and a half thousand years old, keeping the name they had from their first profession. All of his titles will have noble titles in both worlds."

"The Blacks were in decline for roughly the last two hundred years, but still own a bit of property, though they have almost nothing else other than their libraries. However, they own a fair bit of _political_ capital in our governing system. If the Potter line absorbs the Black, then your looking at a substantial increase in power on top of what is already a considerable amount," Xenophilius continued.

"We've got our ancestral manor in Buckinghamshire which is where many old family homes are since much of the land is warded to be hidden, plus one in London that everyone always thought was our ancestral manor, and a couple of other properties but, mostly, what is left of our wealth is in our library," Sirius stated. "Much of what is in London is considered dark, but we still have one of the largest, most complete libraries in magical Britain. The Potters, Hogwarts and the one or two families that specialized in research are probably the only ones who might have larger. And I'm not even sure about that. Though, it's also possible some of our stuff was sold at some point or went with one of my sisters with their betrothal agreements."

"Anyway," Sirius continued. "Your betrothals! When are you planning on getting everything signed and official?"

"It should be just a few more days," Xenophilius explained as everyone looked to him since he was the primary contact with Gringotts right then. "Their first drafts were more standard betrothals with heavy penalties for breaking the agreement and I think it was a test to see if we would change them," he continued. "I get the feeling the goblins were feeling us out in this negotiation, but I cannot fathom as to why."

"Probably my doing," Harry said sheepishly, feeling a vaguely familiar urge to speak. The words came out of his mouth, but the young Lord had no idea what they were until they were spoken. "We spoke over the summer and I think they are contemplating an alliance with me." Harry was almost as surprised by his words as the magicals that were around him. He had just thought they were feeling him out to see if he was as bigoted as the standard powerful wizards they usually dealt with.

"The goblins haven't allied with a human in more than a thousand years, Harry," Xenophilius stated gently, humoring the boy's joke.

"It's just the feeling I get," Harry said honestly. "Regardless, the contracts show what we wanted, right?"

"Yes," Xeno confirmed with a loud guffaw. "The young Miss Granger here had a bride price that matched what you bought the Granger practice at, making her the highest-priced bride ever by roughly five times the previous record-holder and my Luna is for twice the previous record, which will be returned to you upon completion of the contract, whether that is with or without a marriage," the brightly-colored man stated with a proud grin. Not only was this incredible bragging rights, but it poked a finger into the eye of a tradition he never really sat well with. It was also a father's dream to see his little girl get the best and be considered the best so, being able to honestly state his little girl went for more than half a million galleons. Since the business side of things had been done previously for Hermione, she was considered a cash contract, as was Luna. Girls had gone for much more than that in the past, but only with merging or business transactions.

"Also, the penalty clauses for breaking the contract are practically nothing more than returning whatever money or, in the Grangers' case, you'll own the business building they're using. But, as requested, anyone breaking the contract without confirming they're completely free of magical control and an oath that there's no blackmailing going on will be magically compelled to make it official before they can do anything that is in violation of the contracts."

"I don't get that last part," Emma said, frowning. "Why would you have some sort of mind control aspect to it?" It certainly sounded like a bad idea to the two muggle dentists.

"We're very worried about love potions," Hermione explained to her parents. "Harry's land is practically its own country and he has a _lot_ of it. A lot of girls at Hogwarts have been getting orders from home to seduce Harry or love potion him up and this will compel him to try and break the contract before he gets caught up in some physical romance with someone who is trying to get a bastard child to either take some of his land or money, or steal one of the family lines we were just talking about."

"It also keeps us safe from the same thing happening to us," Luna said while moving the meatballs to look like a smiley face over her noodles. She liked to eat them last. Plus, it seemed like a good way to 'innocently' lick them clean of sauce off of her fork first where Harry could see. She was beginning to think he wasn't wanting to take her advances and what she was offering during their alone time and was getting desperate for ideas to entice him into trying to bond more thoroughly.

Plus the parental figures around her got flustered when they saw it and didn't think she knew what it looked like and that was always amusing, if nothing else.

"While we don't have a whole lot to offer the guys other than the physical aspects," Hermione began, grumbling a little at the idea of being seen as an object, or even desired at all if not by Harry, "some of the girls may try to do that just to get us out of the way for themselves. The contracts will force us to deny anything like that to anyone but each other if it comes to it until they are canceled, meaning we have to go to Gringotts and get checked out which will show the love potions since they cannot be hidden. The ingredients needed for them to function are too easily detected."

That had been something Harry had gone over in extreme detail with the goblins in the beginning. By using their combined bloods to make the ink for the contract and writing in their own, even the elder Grangers couldn't be coerced into breaking the contract without signs. And with knowing the Weasleys had done it in the past, and most of the Slytherin female populace was making plans, it only seemed prudent to protect themselves since they had no idea how to guarantee their safety.

The three teens were devoted to one another already, and that devotion would, in time, create a protection via their bonds against mind-altering magics related to love potions and mind-control such as the Imperius, but they had no way of knowing that for sure. It was their fear and desperate desire to avoid that which would make it one of the first powers they crafted. Still, that was enough to know they had to take steps to protect from either being raped in that fashion, or being controlled into breaking the contracts.

"So, in a very real way, this keeps someone from slipping you something in your drinks and making you think you love them while giving you a very real way to compel you into getting it discovered?" Dan asked, wanting to be very sure of that part. No father in the world wanted his daughter to get raped. Even non-violent methods were still rape.

"Exactly," Luna said with a bob of her head before slurping up another noodle.

"That's something I like to hear," Dan stated with a grin, taking a long pull on his drink as Xenophilius agreed with the sentiment.

"Sirius, there was something I've been wondering about," Harry said after a brief lull in the conversation. "Did my parents ever make any magical portraits? I see them around the house and they're everywhere in Hogwarts."

"Unfortunately, I don't know," Sirius said with a sigh. "I know they commissioned one for the both of them with a few add-on portraits of things for them to enjoy, but I don't know if they were ever finished, nor do I know who they contracted. I wish I did, though. I'd love to have their portraits here to talk to," Sirius said longingly.

"Me too, Sirius. Me too," Harry said with a sigh.

The next two hours were filled with a little eating and a lot of talking as the families traded histories and stories.

The Grangers learned the horrors of Xeno's first attempts at making a chicken dinner and somehow accidentally reanimating it, along with Luna's first spell having been one of the reasons he was half-bald. There was even talk of when the little girl somehow befriended a bear cub and brought it home, with the upset mother not very far behind and both deciding to live in their kitchen for a week before Celeste, Luna's mother, returned home and showed she wasn't happy.

Xeno had been forced to clean the house non-magically while Luna wasn't allowed pudding for a whole week. A _week_!

The Lovegoods learned that Hermione had always been a bibliophile who, as a little girl, was obsessed with older books and tried making her own library at the age of five. The Grangers still weren't quite sure where the majority of the books came from. She had also somehow befriended a pack of squirrels in their back yard, or perhaps bribed them, and had them stealing ladies undergarments.

Hermione denied everything.

Through Sirius, everyone learned of some of Harry's first bouts of accidental magic. Too young to really befriend any animals, though he was fond of trying to summon Lily's cat, he had a wide collection of stuffed animals that could be found walking around the house. But Sirius' favorite story was taking him out into the muggle world while still being breast-fed, only to think that every pair he came across meant lunch was on the way. Sirius didn't tell them that the toddler would magic their shirts open, or that Sirius kept pictures taken from within the Potter pensieve. He did mention that Lily had turned him into a girl for a week, though.

They also learned that he had once been given a toy broom and couldn't be caught by the terrified adults as he flew around the house, somehow dodging their spells by complete accident while laughing like a demented wildebeest.

Hermione explained that still held true, save the toy broom part.

By the time the night had come to a close, Sirius felt like he was a person again, having a good time and able to laugh, despite his clothes being turned into a frilly dress by Hermione after suggesting her, Harry and Luna get matching outfits for their wedding. After all, Luna thought it was an interesting idea.

xXxXxXx

"Master Harry Potter Sir," Dobby whispered to Harry the next morning, poking the sleeping boy on his bare shoulder only a few moments before his alarm would have awakened him for his morning workout.

"Dobby? What is it?" Harry asked, waking up to near full wakefulness. A quick glance at his alarm clock showed it was two minutes before it would have awakened him on its own, so he sighed about the lost time and turned it off before it activated.

"Dobby is getting Master Harry Sir what Dobby is promising two weeks ago!" The elf chirruped happily. Very carefully and with an obvious fear of the item in his hand, he held up a crystal jar about the size of a small mason canister whose lid was transfigured to become a solid piece of the glass with tiny runes etched into it. Inside was what looked like a tiny, one-inch square piece of moss.

Harry grabbed the vial carefully, unsure of what was so bad about this little thing that had his elf so scared of it, only to notice the one inch square slowly thinned to take the shape of the fingers surrounding it, though there wasn't enough to imitate his entire hand. "Dobby? What is this?" He asked, carefully setting a silencing ward around the two so they couldn't be overheard.

Dobby's words caused Harry to very briefly doubt his resolve before squashing that insecurity and committing himself to action. This was worse than he had been able to think up, but still far too gentle for the soon to be dead man in Harry's opinion.

"Have you been watching his habits like our first targets?" Harry asked carefully, looking around to ensure none of the others in his dorm were awake to see him talking to Dobby.

"Dobby has, yes Master Harry," Dobby assured his most wonderful and greatest of all masters.

"Then take that somewhere safe where no one can get to it until I call for you to bring it to me. I'll be ready to go in a day or two."

"Dobby will be ready!" Dobby stated passionately before mangling his salute again and popping away after giving Harry a book about what he was given to protect himself.

Harry sighed and sat on his bed in the silence for several minutes before he felt calm enough to get on with the day and meet his girls in the common room for their training.

Their morning trainings had turned into something curious regarding Luna, as well. He noticed that she pushed herself during those training sessions harshly, like she was trying to prove something to herself. It was more on his list that he wanted to discuss with her in the next couple of days since that, along with her naughtier side during their bonding sessions, kept nagging at his attention.

He had discussed it with Hermione the previous week, and the brunette had not noticed any such changes. When it came to their combined cuddle sessions, things were about par for the course and, any new things Luna seemed interested in doing were still fairly tame compared to the bushy-haired one's desires, so seemed less problematic. And of course, Hermione wasn't there during the private time between the other two. They only spent an hour every other day kissing and such so they could learn to bond and live together.

However, she _had_ noticed the increased drive in her co-girlfriend during the training sessions and had simply thought Luna was pushing herself to be the best, but had promised to keep an eye on the quirky blonde for any changes. Hermione had also promised to not discuss anything with Luna to give Harry that chance first unless it seemed like it had to be done, though the older girl thought Harry was just being overly protective.

In the last few days, Hermione admitted Harry may have had a point.

While Luna wasn't doing anything overtly different from her normal personality, she _did_ have a frightening amount of focus during their training sessions that manifested itself most obviously while during dueling practice against her doppleganger where she seemed to fight all-out rather than in her usual, random fashion with obscure jinxes and hexes. And she really only smiled at Harry and Hermione when interacting and no longer joked with her other self. She treated the doppleganger-Luna as though she were a bad person that had harmed one of her lovers. And the Death Eaters – two now for Luna – were usually dispatched with a lethal curse right away as soon as she was able, usually tricking her opponents into whatever place she wanted to execute her strike while she allowed her doppleganger to keep her on her toes.

Hermione had originally suspected that was just Luna beginning to take the training seriously, but now wasn't so sure. And neither were sure about how to react to this version of Luna since, by and large, she was still the same cuddly, lovable girl as always save for those times.

On top of that, Hermione was still coming to terms with what she had done to Dolohov and her thoughts on the matter regarding that, leading her to appreciate Luna's new methods enough that she saw little actually wrong with them.

Harry decided he would talk to her right after he dealt with Snape. Luna was one of his girls and he had come to care for her tremendously. While he still wasn't ready to claim love for her, he knew it was mainly due to being scared to do so. In his mind, he would admit to himself the sentiment the same way he did with Hermione.

"Time to kick some evil twin arse," he mumbled, striding out of the dormitory as though he wasn't filled with doubt about his relationship or anger at Snape for what he did to his parents and the many other injustices of his life. Not to mention it had been two whole weeks since Snape was apparently done with his potions and hadn't yet done anything with them. That worried Harry more than just a little.

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – February 1 - Morning**

The month of February dawned wet and cold, much colder than usual thanks to the continuing presence of the dementors and icier along the outskirts of the castle walls for much the same reason. While many enjoyed thick blankets and sleepwear, some preferred body heat, like Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger, much to Harry's surprise to find Luna's cold toes once again warmed by his lower back.

_'How does that girl curl up enough to get those under me, anyway?'_ He wondered while also wondering how both girls got into his bed again without him waking up. _'Oh, that's right,'_ he remembered now. _'We went to sleep in Luna's room after we got back last night from working on our homework since we spent so much of our free time doing other things without a time-turner recently.'_

He smiled as he hugged both of the girls' warm bodies against his own as he remembered the story telling from two nights before. It was strange hearing about stories of himself as a baby. Before, he had always wanted to know about his parents and things about them without ever really having much time to really sit and talk, so he had never really heard much about them and, when he did, it was specifically what he asked unless the one telling the story was Remus or Sirius, who enjoyed reliving the past by telling of stories they did together.

But Harry realized that night, while sharing dinner with what was basically three different families, that families wanted to hear family stories. The Granger parents enjoyed it, as did Xenophilius. Harry had never really looked at it from that light before. It was always Harry asked to try and learn who his parents were as people. It was a big difference, and one that allowed him to feel more connected than simply learning about his parents as people.

Harry began to stroke his girls' hair as they slept while he relived the dinner two nights ago with his eyes closed and a soft smile on his face for the next hour. Instead of getting up early like normal, he had called their morning exercise off for the sake of getting things done that day, most particularly his talk with Luna. The Potter lord had been unable to determine the cause of the change in his second girlfriend and decided he needed to know. Hermione had agreed after Luna offered to kiss Harry on the head before clarifying she wasn't referring to the one with lips the day before, after apparently not getting enough of his attention during the dinner two days ago.

It wasn't that the offer wasn't within their limits, as they had pretty much stuck with the idea of anything but actual intercourse until later, so much as it was only about four weeks since she had admitted to being perfectly happy with just simply cuddling and kissing right before the New Year's party. Plus, Harry's earlier comments about the girl becoming more aggressive or perhaps needy seemed to ring more true. Thusly, Hermione decided today would be a day without nudity, save their sleeping arrangements, and normal relationship activities that even McGonagall would be happy with them doing.

Well, what they assumed she would be okay with before she won a very large bucket load of gold from the twins, anyway. Six hundred galleons would give the three a _lot_ of sway with the usually stern Scotswoman.

Regardless, the three would use the day to discuss what they were getting from their relationship and what they wanted, sort of an opportunity to catch up to what was happening versus what they expected of things to make any course adjustments necessary to remain happy in what was an awkward relationship to all three, being that it was their first for each and outside of normal in general. It would even end up being a perfect excuse for Harry to have that discussion while not singling Luna out since he would have it with Hermione, too. And now that they had spent the day before catching up in their classes, or staying ahead in the girls' cases, any turned time could be devoted to their relationship.

A part of Hermione felt it should be her talking to Luna since they promised to always talk with one another, but Harry admitted he wanted to be the one and, if Hermione were honest, she didn't see nearly as much going on as Harry did, so it just seemed proper this way. In a few ways, Hermione also saw it as applying what Daphne had taught in a practical application to see if she could handle deferring to Harry on matters of their family. She had spoken with her mother about it and learned that, while they were a team, unless it was matters of their practice or money she helped earn, they were a team insofar as talking, but usually, the ultimate choices were left to Dan, though that was as much his frugality as anything else, and a lingering understanding that there simply _had _to be a head of household, which was usually understood to be male. It would be something the three would have to work on to find a good middle ground.

Getting up early enough to get out of their hidden abode without anyone learning they didn't sleep in their own dorms, the Triad lazily got up and ready for their Tuesday and went down to breakfast, only to get stopped by McGonagall heading into the common room. "Oh! I was just coming to see you, Mister Potter," she said, holding a long, thin package wrapped in brown paper out to the boy.

"Ma'am?" Harry asked, having a curious sense of deja vu.

"That was found addressed to you on Christmas day by one of your peers who mentioned you were nowhere to be found," she explained. "After hefting it, they knew what it was, but when it was brought to my attention that there was no name on the package, I took the liberty of ensuring it had no hexes, jinxes or other harmful magics on it. I do hope to see how you perform. Have a good day and I'll see you in class," the Transfiguration Professor stated merrily before turning away with thoughts of Quidditch trophies dancing in her head. With the won gold and knowledge of what exactly was in that package, McGonagall would probably have been willing to take a reservation for them for whatever broom closet the three would want to get in to. She would never say as much, of course.

Harry, suddenly remembering the one present he had missed, tore open the wrapping to find a shiny, sleek, black broom handle peering back at him. "My Firebolt!" He breathed happily, his eyes prickling. "I thought Sirius didn't get it this time around because of the changes I made," he whispered. "He didn't even say anything about it."

"Didn't you say we got into a big row over that in the last ... er, Christmas?" Hermione asked, looking around before letting out a secret they didn't want out.

"Yea, but we got together and it didn't happen this time, thankfully. Though McGonagall still somehow got the thing," he grumbled. "I'm glad for that, though. And I even got it back earlier in the week!" He enthused.

"It has a lot of shiny silver metal," Luna stated, entranced. "Why do you think that is?"

"Its acceleration is quite a bit more than standard," Harry gushed, having found his happy place. "It's where you'd rest your feet to brace yourself, plus it protects the bristles. I can't _wait_ to try this out again!"

"Not today you're not," Hermione grouched. _Her_ happy place was two hours of turned time in Harry Potter's lap and she wasn't about to miss that after him getting sick. "It's about twenty degrees out there and as wet as our hot tub. The last thing you need is to catch a cold today."

Harry slumped, agreeing in principle, but not in his Seeker heart. "Bugger me," he mumbled.

"If you insist," Luna stated happily, looping her arm at the elbow with his and pulling him to the Great Hall. "But for now, it's brekkie time! Even after all I ate last night, I'm ravished!"

"I think you mean 'famished'," Hermione said with a smile.

"That's what I said," Luna quipped with a grin.

"Let me just put this up really fast," Harry said with a laugh. He was back in a few moments after running to put the broom on his bed with the curtains pulled back. When Ron saw it, the entire school would learn of it soon after and Oliver would praise the Quidditch gods.

True to his prediction, Ron entered the Great Hall at a gallop, his grin extending to his ears and his pajamas still the clothes upon his body. Apparently, the boy didn't believe the news could wait until he was dressed. "Harry! Do you have any idea what I just saw!" He gasped out as soon as he was sure Harry was there and incidentally catching most of the Hall's attention. Not just because Ron was in his pajamas, but because his entire face was red from exertion, his body covered in sweat from being unused to the physical activity and because the entire school could now tell just how much Ron enjoyed Quidditch.

"Damnit Ron!" Hermione yelled furiously. "Point that somewhere else and go put on some bloody clothes!"

"Or at least leave us," Luna said with a face of disgust. Her interests laid with black hair, green eyes and a male phallus that was a good four inches larger and almost half again as wide as what was pointing in hers and Hermione's direction.

"A _Firebolt_!" Ron practically squealed, his hands shaking up and down in his excitement. "Can I ride your broomstick, Harry! _Please_!"

"Ron," Harry growled out, not appreciating being even closer to the same thing his girls were looking away from. "Go get some bloody clothes on and get ready for class. No one is riding that thing today."

"What!" Ron screeched, showing he inherited more than the Weasley red hair and temper from his mother, but her lungs, as well. "It's a _Firebolt_, Harry! It's meant to be ridden and-"

"Mister Weasley!" McGonagall yelled from behind the boy, causing him to stand straight, much to Harry's disapproval, and turn around in shock.

"Oh _good lord_, Weasley! Do hide your shame and go put on some clothes!" McGonagall groaned, using one hand up high to hide Ron's lower half and looking away from him.

It seemed being called out by his Head of House, who was effectively as old as his grandmother, was enough to turn Ron red and have him high-tail it back to his dorm to get dressed. "Yes Ma'am!" He squeaked before taking off to the spattering of snickers around the Hall. Thankfully, there weren't many people in there eating quite yet, but the news would be school wide soon enough.

"How so very sad," Luna commented, shaking her head and staring at the table after Ron had left, looking very downtrodden.

"What is, Miss Lovegood?" McGonagall asked despite her sensible self warning her not to. Still, the young blonde looked miserable and McGonagall just didn't have it within her to ignore that now that she was paying attention. And with what amounted to about sixty thousand Pounds being won in the betting pool, she felt it was her duty to assist this particular ... couple? Thruple? Trio?

"Ron, Ma'am," Luna said with a sigh. "I do hope he is still growing like girls do. I would feel so bad for Lavender if it stays that size and-"

"Miss Lovegood!" McGonagall squawked in disapproval, thankful no one else was close enough to hear this particular discussion.

"What?" Luna asked, honestly confused. "Harry is nearly twice that size in length _and_ girth and-"

"Oh, _good lord_!" McGonagall groaned as she used both palms to cover her face.

"My sentiments exactly!" Luna chirruped brightly, pointing her spoon at the Head of Gryffindor. This was the only thing those in the Hall would hear of the conversation, but they all saw McGonagall's face and reactions and couldn't tell whether to be amused or scared.

"Luna," Hermione cut in, cutting the younger girl off before she could embarrass anyone further. "It isn't Ron's fault! According to my medical lessons, he's perfectly average for a growing boy around thirteen!"

McGonagall dropped her hands and looked at Hermione, aghast that the young woman would have such information while Luna looked to the blushing Harry. "Sweet Goddess, I love being your girlfriend, Harry," the blonde stated with a happy sigh.

"And this _isn't_ the place to talk about such things," Hermione continued where she had been cut off.

"I _would_ like to know how you learned those details, Miss Lovegood," McGonagall stated with a frown, hoping there hadn't been any hanky panky going on. She didn't know if she could stop it, and doubted it, didn't even _want _to to be honest, but she could tear _Lord_ Potter a new hide if there were! At least since she was learning of it in public.

"We _do_ sit in Harry's lap, Ma'am," Luna stated pitifully at the older woman. Not lying, but not telling the whole truth, either. "What do you expect will happen with a cute girl's bottom wriggling around in her boyfriend's lap?"

McGonagall's mouth worked, but no sound came out for several seconds before the woman simply turned around and walked away, shocked speechless by the thirteen year old girlfriend of what was effectively her boss. That alone was enough to give her a slight headache.

"Luna?" Hermione asked after a moment.

"Hm?" Luna looked up to her co-girlfriend.

"Don't mention Harry's size again in public, please. The last thing we need is to cause _more_ people to try and risk potioning us," the brunette commented before turning to her muffin and butter. She kept her head down so no one would see her smiling at McGonagall's reaction to learning more about Harry than she probably ever really wanted to know or the blush on her cheeks as that became somewhat public knowledge. Not to mention a little pride in there somewhere. After all, she had her man and was quite proud of that and him.

xXxXxXx

Later in the day, after Harry had to put his broom into the protective custody of Luna's room to keep people from ogling it like he did his girls, including keeping it from their hands that did nothing but smudge the handle and what Harry would swear was someone's lip prints.

It was a toss-up between Ron's or Oliver's.

For now, however, Harry was meeting with Luna before dinner for their two hours of bonding time where he hoped to find out what had been going on with his second girlfriend. Though, to be honest, he accepted the few minutes of snogging first.

"I definitely don't like the clothing rule, today," Luna pouted in Harry's lap again. "Can we not do it again?"

"We should be able to do it every now and then," Harry soothed, stroking her hair behind her ear. "The naughty stuff is great, but shouldn't be the only way we bond. I know we do the emotional stuff the rest of the time, but our personal times together can also have the emotional parts."

"I suppose I can agree with that," Luna stated as she nibbled on Harry's neck with an occasional lick, which she knew he had come to enjoy. That realization had been one of the deciding factors that led to her offering to use her mouth elsewhere, though he didn't accept much to her worry and ire.

"Can I ask you something?" Harry asked, trying not to let Luna's tongue distract him.

"You can always ask me anything," Luna reminded, switching to Harry's other side and began to lick more steadily, trying to get his attentions back on her completely.

"Why have you become so much more physical when you were happy cuddling and kissing earlier?" Harry asked as gently as he could so he wouldn't sound accusing. However, he could feel her lips stop sucking on his neck and her body tense over his.

"Don't ... Don't you want me?" Luna asked quietly, her hot breath tickling his neck.

"Of course I do," Harry said, pushing her back just enough to look into her teary eyes. They were going from silvery-gray to a deep, dark blue as her tears began to fall.

"Then why?" Luna asked with a tremor to her voice. "Why didn't you give me the option to go with you and Hermione?" Harry's eyes widened, realizing what had caused this.

"Oh Luna," he whispered, feeling guilt gnaw at him from within. He swallowed heavily, but Luna continued before he could. "We explained that to you. I didn't even want _Hermione_ to go, but she's known me long enough to read me and knew I was planning something."

"B-but once she knew?" Luna asked sadly.

"I guess I just wanted to make sure I could keep one of you safe in case things went pear-shaped," Harry said, pulling her into him for a hug and kissing her on the neck by force of habit. "I knew I could protect one of you there, but couldn't be sure with two and I wanted to stick as close to my original plan as possible. Is that why you changed things?" He asked, stroking her back gently, causing her to shiver lightly as he tickled her spine.

"I ... I wanted to be more like Hermione," Luna admitted, trying not to cry at the thought that Harry might break up with her for this. "I th-thought that if I w-was as n-naughty as her, or more so, then y-you might want to keep me and let me join you next time."

"You've been offering to go so much further because you don't want me to leave you behind?" Harry asked, unsure of exactly what was so shocking by that. The girl had an incredibly fragile disposition regarding her friendships with him and Hermione. She always knew they would be friends, but as a relationship, it seemed she was absolutely terrified of being alone again. He already knew that, but not that she thought it was an actual possibility or that she would sacrifice her physical being in order to maintain their relationships.

"I'll do anything you want, Harry," Luna offered quietly, lowering her hands to her skirt and raising it to show that she was, as normal, without panties to show herself to him. "All you have to do is accept."

Harry closed his eyes for a brief moment before he leaned forward and kissed Luna hard on the lips, trying to show how sorry he was for letting her live with this fear for so long after realizing her change in attitude.

Misunderstanding, Luna moaned into the kiss and began to work at Harry's pants, undoing them with near-desperate motions and speed.

Harry pulled back from the kiss and grabbed Luna's hands just as his pants became unbuttoned and held them between the two of them, between her breasts and against his chest they were so close to one another. "Luna, I _will not_ leave you. I promised you when school started that I would always be your friend-"

"I know," Luna interrupted, letting out a single sob. "My 'friend'! Not my boyfriend or my husband or whatever else we may become. I don't want to lose this!" She cried out.

Harry leaned forward and kissed her hard to keep her from talking before he pulled back. "Luna, you don't get it," he began to explain. "I'm in love with you and Hermione," he said for the first time, enjoying her now dark-blue eyes widening and her lips twitching in her desire to smile happily warring against her lingering doubts and fears.

"I-"

"Please let me finish," Harry requested, putting a finger to her lips to silence her and smiling as she finally let herself smile before kissing the tip of his finger. "Luna, Hermione wanted me to give you the option, but I overruled her because I was being stubborn and wanted to try and stay as close to my original plan as possible. And when she realized what I was up to, I was so used to doing things between the two of us that I never really considered adding yet another person. Ron is the only person I've ever really trusted and he betrayed that a few times. The last time was definitely the worst," Harry explained.

"I should have offered an explanation first and given you the option," Harry admitted. "But it has _nothing_ to do with Hermione doing more with me physically than you and I have done. Sex, or anything sexual, will _not ever_ be a part of something like that. The _only_ thing that will have any affect on is our own, physical relationship. I will not leave you for not wanting to do naughty things with me, nor will I do more just because Hermione and I do."

Harry moved Luna's bangs behind her ear, amused that she could actually blush for such an innocent action. "Luna, if we ever do anything naughty, I want it to be because you _want_ to do it for the sake of wanting to. Whatever it is and whenever it is. I don't want us to have to do it when we're not ready or for the sake of getting something."

Luna nodded slowly, accepting his words. "Do you hate me for this?" She asked, sniffling. "Do ... you think I'm a pervert or a scarlet woman?"

"I think we're all perverts," Harry said with a grin, kissing her gently and rubbing his thumb over her cheek. "We wouldn't bathe together or cuddle naked in bed otherwise. But, no. I don't think you're a scarlet woman or have _any_ traits of such a girl. You're absolutely wonderful as the Luna Lovegood I know. That's why I fell in love with you," he told her.

"You also fell in love with Hermione," Luna said with a smile. "That's why I was worried that you preferred her to me. And the only way I thought I could get you to let me stay with you was to either offer more than her, or perhaps do things she wouldn't likely do, or be useful in a fight," she told him. "I'm sorry I almost ruined our relationship."

"You didn't, love," Harry said with a grin. "You just had me worried that something was wrong. You were getting ... Well, think about how you were when I kissed you a few minutes ago. You offered to let me have you however I wanted, even sex, when you had been content with just cuddling and kissing while we were together and then had a sudden burst of physical progress and desire. I was just a little worried about you."

Luna smiled brightly. "I'm sorry I made you worry," she said with a shy expression plastered on her face as she looked down at their laps where her skirt was still bunched up around her waist, showing him her bald arousal. She put her skirt down to cover herself up and then looked to Harry who was looking at her without an ounce of blame, contempt or disgust. He simply looked at her like she was precious and that made her feel lighter than air. "My offer stands," she told him, kissing him again gently, the way they used to before she feared losing him. "Anything-" kiss. "Any time-" kiss. "When we're ready-" glomp.

"And when we're ready," Harry said, accepting her sudden and firm hug and nibbling on her ear, "I will gladly and happily accept so I can show you _exactly_ how much you mean to me," he whispered into the ear before nibbling on it again, making the blonde girl gasp as his hands moved to her bare bottom to squeeze the firm globes in a gentle massage that had her enthusiastically kissing him back.

"Can we still keep our usual activities roughly about where they are?" Luna asked, breathing in with a squeaky gasp as his fingertips did something _amazing_. "I would really like to feel some of those sensations some more!"

"I was serious when I said we would go as far as you wanted," Harry said. "As long as you really want it, for the sake of being with each other, I'll agree to whatever you want. As long as we have one day a month now to discuss the relationship without nudity and the like, such as today." As if to prove his point, he dipped his face down to suckle gently on her collar bone, a place where Luna was especially sensitive, just like her bottom where his hands were kneading gently. The sensations were no more extreme than the majority of her body on her bottom, but she enjoyed it as if it were.

They spent the next hour snogging like the teenagers they were, slowly exploring each other through their clothing. While they had fixed the original problem, Luna had promised to keep her clothes on to Hermione after learning of the plan and wasn't about to break that promise.

xXxXxXx

[Lime Start]

"How did it go?" Hermione asked as soon as Luna literally skipped out of the room, humming a merry tune. She threw one leg over Harry and plopped herself down in his lap with a firm roll of her hips.

"Since I didn't invite her to Azkaban with us," Harry began, his eyes crossing as Hermione applied pressure most enjoyably with her weight, "she was worried that I was going to forget about her. To counteract that, she wanted to try and get a little more promiscuous to keep my interest while becoming a better fighter so she could be useful. That was why she was offering to advance so much sexually. She wanted me to want her and thought it would be worth trying to be desirable like you are with me. Only she didn't seem to understand how much more she was doing compared to you and me. She only saw the comparison between the two of you."

Hermione looked down sadly, frowning. "But she's better now, right?" She asked, looking up nervously. "She's willing to go at her own pace?"

"Yea, it's all taken care of," Harry said with a smile. "She wants to mainly stick to how things were, but wants to do some of the advanced bits still. I think she likes receiving orgasms without doing it on her own," he suggested mischievously.

"She's not the only one, Mister Potter," Hermione said with a light growl before she dipped down to have her way with his mouth.

"Uh uh, my naughty first," Harry growled back, trapping her hands between her legs where she was trying to open his pants so they could spend their time as they normally did. "Your idea was a good one and I think we should discuss things before we get to our usual fun time."

Hermione's shoulders slumped and she let her weight rest on her rear instead of her knees as frustration kicked in. She had _really_ been looking forward to today's release. "I didn't mean with _me_!"

"Well, it's still a good idea," Harry said with an insufferable smirk. "So, how have things been that you want to change if there _is_ anything?"

Hermione's initial reaction was to say she was perfect, he was perfect, the relationship was perfect and it was time to get on with their jollies, but she decided to really stop and think about it for a few moments. "Actually, there _is_," she stated, sounding moderately surprised.

"There now, you see?" Harry chuckled, stealing a kiss on the tip of her nose. "So? What is it?"

"Can...," Hermione blushed and looked down at her hands, still in her lap. "Can you start acting a little more aggressively?" She asked, looking and sounding extremely shy about the request.

"Aggressively?" He asked, as confused as she was shy at that moment. "How do you mean?"

"_Take_ kisses from me, grope and touch me, tease me ... er, take control when we fool around, things like that?" Hermione explained, ending as more of a question as she looked at him hopefully. "I love how considerate you are with us, but we aren't made of glass and you really only do things when we ask you to or when it's scheduled like these bonding times. Maybe even randomly pull me aside for an extra hour of turned time now and then?" She _really_ hoped for the last option.

"You ... want me to control you?" Harry asked, wondering where Hermione's desire to be, well, _controlled_ came from.

"Not so much 'control' as 'dominated', perhaps?" Hermione corrected, still blushing. "I ... I would like to try having fun by you being ... well, in control and taking charge, not really so much doing as you command, though that may be fun on occasion. I really liked how you were when you took control on the train coming to school and several times since then. But, it isn't controlling me, but..."

"Dominating," Harry finished, trying to wrap his mind around that. "But ... I thought you hated being objectified and thought of as inferior and slavery and all that? Isn't it the same thing?" He wondered aloud, trying to ask something he couldn't quite put into words.

"Do you see me as inferior or as an object? Or your slave?" Hermione asked, looking like she already knew his answer.

"Of course not!" Harry stated, almost offended save for her expression showing she didn't think he did.

"Harry, something about girls, especially ones who like to read and end up with those really cheap bodice rippers, is that they like a man who can take charge and be powerful," Hermione explained, maintaining some pink in her cheeks. "You _are_ powerful and commanding, Harry. I've seen you release that power and your commanding presence on several occasions when you took control over the situation," she said, shivering with a lusty smile as she remembered those moments. "That's one of the things that made those imaginary books turn into real fantasies for me. I really learned about relationships primarily from some of my mom's romance novels and most of those tend to follow the same kind of plot points. And since those books were always so much more focused on the relationships and the sex, they appealed to me more than other books with plots that had romance more as something just to mention, so I really enjoyed them more," she told him, slightly embarrassed to tell him that.

"I ... suppose I can try," Harry stated with a blush, thinking of several of the questions he remembered her asking her mother during their talk before school started from her memory. "I've just never really thought of you as something to try and control," he explained. "I've always thought of you as an equal and respected your opinion when I was smart enough to listen without just running off somewhere."

"That's why I fantasize about _you_ doing it," Hermione said softly, stroking Harry's chest. "Of grabbing me, holding me and taking what you desire from me." She once again shivered as her very powerful mind supplied images that her recent experiences made all the more real. "I know you wouldn't hurt me. When you're near me, I feel powerful and capable, but you're still always taking care of me. That's why I'm in love with you and why I'm willing to pretty much do anything except actual sex for now. I'd probably even be willing to do that if you actually asked... It may change if we start to get close to something I've not actually been able to think about realistically, but I'm willing to give it a shot and see what happens," she told him. As it was, she was already looking forward to their next stage. She already knew and dreamed about that next stage and was only waiting for him to show an interest in it himself.

"Luna said much the same thing, except the dominating thing," Harry said with a sigh. "I just feel like we're moving too fast."

"Why?" Hermione asked, honestly curious. "I mean, I know I _should_ feel that way, but I'm perfectly okay with the speed at which we've been going and am looking forward to when we go further."

"Same as we spoke about at Christmas," Harry said with a shrug. "Just seems like we aren't supposed to go this fast even though it feels okay."

"When you think it's too far," Hermione said, leaning in and whispering as her hands crawled up his stomach under his shirt, "then let me know. Otherwise, enjoy whatever comes, even if that's me," she grinned impishly before ducking in to start kissing him furiously, only to squawk in shock as he grabbed her by the arse and put her on her back, kissing her harshly on the mouth as one hand held her hands above her head and the other massaged her left breast for several long seconds before pulling back with an amused glint in his eye.

"Good boy," Hermione said with a huge grin.

"Just doing my best, Ma'am," Harry said cheekily, causing Hermione to giggle as he kissed her again. "By the way, I wanted to tell you something," he said, pulling back after a moment, deciding to share the same realization with Hermione he did with Luna.

"Hm?" Hermione questioned simply.

"I love you, Hermione," Harry said, looking into Hermione's chocolaty eyes.

"Believe me when I tell you," Hermione began, cradling Harry's face in her hands as her happiness reflected in her eyes and smile more brilliantly than anything Harry had seen in them before, "that what I'm about to do to you would have been _infinitely_ better if we were both naked," she growled, pulling Harry down over top of her. "That's an 'I love you, too', in case you missed it," she said, slipping her hand into his pants to show her happiness in the more muted fashion with a hand than what she truly wanted to do right then.

[Lime End]

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 5, Past midnight – Faculty apartments**

That Saturday, the fifth of February, Harry knew not to take any chances with his current target. The one time he had tried to duel the man, he had handed Harry his butt almost effortlessly. While he had little doubt it would be a difficult victory, assuming the man could win now, Harry was not willing to take any chances. Not after having shared so much with his girls the previous nights and finally fixing things between him and Luna that were worse than he feared.

"Are you ready, Elf?" Harry asked Dobby, once more in his assassin's outfit that his own clothes turned into and having turned time very early morning to get the bastard.

"Elf is being ready," Dobby stated, grabbing his master by the pant leg and quietly entering the potion master's domain. Immediately, both looked around in a half-circle, trusting each other to cover their backs, and ensured the room was secure. Seeing nothing, Dobby motioned Harry towards the bedroom.

Dobby, being a house elf, and Harry in his outfit, didn't trip the security wards that the rightly paranoid man had set up. He was laying in his bed, his wand on the bedside table and half a bottle of whiskey beside that. Harry rolled his eyes before snatching the wand off the table and slipping it into a pocket within his cloak. He couldn't discount the possibility of the man having another wand on him, though. A quick cursory check showed intrusion detection wards, along with some nasty defenses, around the first entrance to his quarters and simple detection wards on each portal from one room to the next so he could determine where any infiltrators were.

Considering the wards on the castle, Snape obviously didn't think he needed more than that, which was normally true. But, most people ignored house elves and no one remembered Shifting anymore. Otherwise, going through the first door would have been enough to awaken the man from his slumber. The same with passing through any of the doors. But, since the wards ignored house elves and slipped around him while in his assassin's outfit. But at the same time, he couldn't cast magic or the wards would discover him, thus making the outfit useless except to run around without being detected.

Now was a perfect example. Harry held out his hand and cast a powerful stunner at the sleeping man from a few feet away, not wanting to get too close in case that sleeping state was a ruse and they were somehow detected. However, it was enough to give the man sudden warning that caused him to roll off the bed suddenly, letting the spell impact where he was as he rolled to his feet, grabbing his real wand from a holster on his leg in the same motion.

Harry barely dodged the killing curse as he dodged the non-verbal assault by the much-hated potions professor and came back to his feet about to launch a massively overpowered cutting curse, only to see Dobby stunning the man from behind, followed by a silencing spell, petrifaction, rope binding, another stunning curse, more rope, a disarming, another stunner and then finally a boot to the head.

"Nice job, Elf," Harry said approvingly. "Take him to the room."

Several minutes later, after Harry took every single item of any sort of value from Snape's rooms, he followed his faithful elf to the room he had created like he had Luna's where Snape's personal Hell was going to begin.

"Elf. The veritaserum," Harry commanded, taking the vial and starting off with five drops of the substance, giving it a minute to take effect before reviving the man to get information he had always wondered about. He started a dicta-quill first, though, just for record-keeping purposes.

What followed was three hours of questioning that left Harry ready to do far worse than he was about to as the answers spewed from Snape's mouth.

_**[Questioning Start:] - Skip to "Questioning End" if you don't want to read this; it suggests some fairly dark things, including some of the darker things this Snape will have done, some of which will later be relevant. This will touch on only a few things from Harry's questioning to save time.**_

"**What is your full name?"**

"Severus Tobias Snape."

"**What is your birthday?"**

"January sixteenth, nineteen sixty."

"**Are you a Death Eater?"**

"Yes."

"**Did you join the Death Eaters voluntarily?"**

"Yes."

"**When did you become a Death Eater?"**

"June eighth, nineteen seventy-five."

"**What did you do to earn your dark mark?"** Harry asked, having always been curious about that. He knew they were all horrible things, but it had been a hot topic of debate amongst many who knew that part of Snape's past. He added an extra two drops to the hated man's tongue with a stick that had been under some hippogriff manure courtesy of Buckbeak.

"The cell was under my control to test what I could and would do wherein everything that happened once they were captured was my command. We broke into a mudblood home with two magical girls and the youngest, a magical son to two non-magical parents. The father's eyelids were removed so he couldn't shut them and conjured spikes were then used to impale him to the wall while the mother was stuck to the wall to keep her out of our way."

"The oldest girl was scheduled to start Hogwarts in a few months, which is how we found them. She was made to perform a striptease before I violated her in each way until she stopped struggling. Once she was no longer of any amusement, I gave her to the others and turned to the younger sister, aged seven."

"I did the same to her, though instead of making her striptease, I ripped her clothes off and took her violently and without mind alteration since she kicked me in the groin before I did the same to the boy, age six."

"After violating the last mudblood and letting him get passed around, we let them watch while I tortured their mother by making her choose which was to live even while the other men continued to violate them. Eventually, since she didn't make a decision, I left them alive while I skinned the children and dissected them in front of their parents before doing the same to the adults and rendering them into potions ingredients. The Dark Lord was so impressed that he gave me the mark there and then instead of the usual ceremony."

Harry was shaking in rage, but knew not to let himself get overwhelmed with his rage. Still, letting Dobby kick him in the balls seemed like a good compromise for now.

"**Have you raped any students while in Hogwarts?"**

"Yes."

"**Did you ever rape a Weasley, Granger, Lovegood, Bones or Greengrass girl?"**

"Not yet."

Shivers ran down Harry's spine. **"Did you plan to rape any of them?"**

"Yes."

Harry snarled before adding another two drops of veritaserum to the tosser's tongue. **"Who did you have plans to rape?"**

"Any girl of moderate attractiveness and especially those close to Potter and daughters of men who wronged me in the past. I had plans of getting the Granger bint pregnant with a modified memory of sleeping with a large number of men or the Weasley twins to see her expelled in disgrace and the Weasleys suffer until recently. Now, my plans are to use the opportune moment to get her and Potter shagging like common mongrels with a modified memory that it was rape so they would forever be apart and both get disgraced, along with a few other of his bints."

"**What is a list of all Hogwarts students you've raped?"** Harry asked, letting the list get recorded. Most were Slytherin girls fifth year and above, which is when he really began to prey on them. The stress from OWL's encouraged a belief that their grades were slipping on their own, apparently, and hid their suspicions under a stronger fear of failure. But there were a couple older girls from other houses, though Harry didn't really know any of them personally. Thankfully, none were girls Harry was actually close to, though he had been looking for a chance to blackmail both Greengrass sisters and had only been waiting for a good opportunity to get Hermione, Ginny and more recently, Luna.

"**Why were you slipping Dumbledore potions?"**

"To control him to get my way and because he was a valuable resource. It would also ensure he was weak when the Dark Lord returned."

"**Are the potions Dumbledore was under permanent?"**

"No."

"**Why would you not make the potions you put Dumbledore under permanent?"** Harry asked, curious. He knew it was much riskier to use temporary ones.

"I needed to be sure I could cover my tracks and make a clean exit if necessary. Permanent versions of the potions would do more harm than good and I needed him functional to be capable of assisting me if and when necessary, especially if I was caught in anything I did that was against the law."

"**Why does Dumbledore think he trusts you with his life?"** Harry asked in case it wasn't the potions.

"I made him believe I was in love with Lily Evans and had turned over a new leaf and wanted to repent for my sins by turning into a spy for the Order of the Phoenix while, in reality, I was spying for the Dark Lord. By sacrificing a group of twenty Death Eaters to the Order of the Phoenix that had actually been new recruits Imperiused to go down dying, my position was cemented with Dumbledore's faction even though he lost dozens of his own people."

"**Are you a loyal Death Eater?"**

"Yes."

"**Why did you join the Order of the Phoenix?"**

"To sabotage them. They were a thorn in my master's side and it was the perfect method to see to the death of those within that group I hated, specifically James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Edgar Bones."

"**Were you aware the Longbottoms were going to be attacked?"**

"Yes."

"**Do you know if they can be healed?"**

"Yes."

"**How can the Longbottoms be healed?"** Harry asked with an eye roll.

"They were attacked with a spell of unknown origin that Bellatrix cast upon them. While it has a counter, I do not know it. I only know the spell locks the mind down."

"**Do you believe the spell Bellatrix used on Frank and Alice Longbottom was a Black family spell?"** Harry asked, wondering suddenly if he could scan all those books into his own grimoire and then search for something with those effects to find the spell and the counter.

"Yes."

"**Why did you violate my mother's corpse and mutilate my father's, Lily and James Potter, respectively?"** Harry asked, noting to follow through and try to help Neville out.

"Lily was a girl I lusted after since we were seven. I wanted her, but she always refused me, even before Hogwarts and the few times I was able to brew potions to help in that endeavor. During Hogwarts, even while she refused Potter's advances, she refused to be with me. Though she was dead, she couldn't refuse me any longer and I could steal her hairs and learned to modify the Polyjuice potion to work with samples of hair from the dead so I could Polyjuice muggle women and have her in life as I did death. I mutilated Potter's body because I could and it was something I wanted to do since the first time I met him."

"**What did you do to my mother's, Lily _Potter's_, corpse?"** Harry growled, his fist shaking in rage and his entire body quivering in barely restrained fury as the atrocities continued. Only the knowledge she was already dead stayed the greasy bastard's death, along with Harry's desire to make him regret ever laying eyes on Lily Evans. That, and he had used the hairs from dead people as well and was able to turn into them and wondered why he was able since he thought it was only because he took the hairs while they were alive and decided he was going to find out every potion advancement the man had made so he could post them later either under his mother's name, or give them to Luna and Hermione to decide.

[Questioning End]

Harry wanted to just simply kill this man, but knew he couldn't. He didn't have the skills to keep someone alive if he tortured him, either. It would be over far too soon that way. He continued down a long list of questions of known Death Eaters, any of his own and other known safe houses and stockpiles of potions and ingredients, along with new questions over what he knew about Draco's new marriage, which turned out to be nothing more than Harry already knew for the most part. Harry also questioned about some of Snape's current illegal activities and associates in the seedier aspects of society, finding out Mundungus Fletcher could never be trusted, along with which Slytherin house members were surely not to be trusted due to their loyalties.

The questioning went on for another four and a half hours before Harry had run out of questions, even the embarrassing ones. It turned out Snape's mother wasn't a prostitute as many had thought, but was actually an abused house wife who couldn't escape her abusive husband. It was depressing that she had what Snape believed to be a strong form of Stockholm Syndrome that only allowed her to give him calming draughts and never anything to make him a better person. Snape was his father's son, no matter how hard Eileen Prince had tried to help him.

Severus Snape was going to suffer. Not a simple torture curse, no salt in cuts on his skin or even a beating. Harry doubted he could accomplish either of those well enough to make the man truly pay for what he has done and would do. That pathetic excuse for a man had violated his mother in every way possible, he had destroyed the corpse of James Potter, he took their hearts, he even took Lily's hair to brutalize her body with other victims and he was going to do horrible things to Harry's own girls.

That's not even counting the numerous women he's tortured, brainwashed, raped and killed, the men he's simply tortured and killed or what he had done as a Death Eater. Harry waved his hand, getting the man ready for what was to come as he brought the Death Eater out of his unconscious state.

The larger number of stupefy spells from Dobby after re-stunning the man after his questioning had him groggy as he began to come to, but it wasn't fast enough for Harry's taste, so he took a step forward and bitch-slapped the bastard hard across the jaw.

"Potter!" Snape snarled, spittle flying from his mouth. "Release me at once or so help me, I'll not only have you expelled, but obliviate you back to your birth and watch them give you the Kiss!" The effect of his rant was greatly reduced by the heavy iron shackles that held him to the wall in the dungeon by the wrists and ankles, and the slightly looser one around his neck so he couldn't choke himself to death.

It was also highly amusing to see that very same man completely naked as he tried to pull away from the cold stone of the wall and choke the younger boy. Harry had removed all of his clothes with that wave of the hand a moment ago, showing his sallow body, six inches of manhood, the dark mark on his left forearm and a curiously long scar on his stomach where it looked like someone had once tried to gut the man.

"You really aren't in a position to be making any threats," Harry said calmly, his face showing almost no emotion. The only tell he had on his face was a slight quirking of the lips. "Those shackles you're in are iron, which as you know, restricts the magic within you. That's why we don't use them as cauldrons, not that you've taught us that, of course."

"Let me out of here, Potter!" Snape raged, pulling hard on the shackles to try and reach for the boy in front of him to wring his neck. "I'm going to kill you as soon as I'm out of here!" Snape put as much of his rage behind his occlumency barriers as possible to calm down enough to begin looking around the room for some sort of escape and-or weapon, preferably both. But if he had to take the little prick down with him, then that was perfectly fine at this juncture. However, there was nothing in the room aside from the two of them, his shackles, a wooden bucket, a heavy, cast-iron door and a strange, floating ball of light in the corner that gave off a sort of bluish-purple light. If he wasn't mistaken, it was a low-yield imitation of sunlight for certain plants.

"Get out of here?" Harry asked, looking politely confused before his eyes widened in feigned recognition. "Oh! You think you're leaving here alive," he stated as though Snape had just told an amusing joke. "No, _Professor_. You won't be leaving here alive."

"As soon as Dumbledore sees I'm missing, he'll search for me," Snape ground out through gritted teeth. "And once he finds me down here, I'll tell him everything and he'll _let_ me punish you! He'll even _thank_ me before I'm done with you!"

"I know what the two of you planned," Harry said, ignoring the soon-to-be dead man, twisting slightly and pacing in the ten-by-ten room. "Dumbledore wanted me and a few girls spiked with various potions so we'd shag and they'd end up in pregnant before we were forced to forget each other. And you, of course, planned to take Dumbledore's plan one step further and spike me with something that would make me your slave. Am I wrong?" Harry asked, facing his potions professor and clasping his hands behind his back.

"I'll still make you my slave," Snape snarled, his lip curling into a sneer. "I'll even make you watch as I rape each of your whores and then force you to do it, too, even as you cut open their swollen bellies and killing your own spawn!" Spittle began to fly from Snape's mouth as his eyes reflected back the unnatural light. "I'll make you snap your own spawn's necks in front of them and then slowly choke the life out of your bitches even as you keep pounding away! They'll _know_ who you are and what you're doing to them and they'll _cry_ from it! They'll beg for mercy as their lives are ended by your hand!"

Harry's eyes narrowed. He gently and slowly pulled out a crystal specimen jar that Dobby had given him days earlier that had a solid lid that was completely covered in runes, ensuring the capsule's survival. Not from what was outside of the jar, but from what was within. "Do you know what this is?" Harry asked as Snape's eyes followed the little jar. Within, there was a very bright green, almost incandescent, neon fuzz that was flat against the crystal jar, contorting itself to the shape of the hand holding it.

"No?" Harry asked after a moment of silence. "This is 'Lyssa Bryophyta', or more commonly known as 'Mimic Moss' and 'Blood Moss'. It only grows in Greece," Harry looked at the fuzz within the jar as it slowly shifted, one little tendril at a time. "It's called that, because it is the only carnivorous moss in the world. It actually reaches for blood and living material to feed on."

"There's no such thing," Snape growled, believing this to be some foolish prank or ploy to make him talk. "Even if there were, you don't have the balls to kill someone. You're just a stupid Gryffindor who can't do anything right!"

"It's not really a moss, of course," Harry said, ignoring the man. "It is classed as one, in its original state, but it is known as 'Mimic Moss' for a reason. It will actually feast on your body while adapting and growing to imitate it. It'll use your own blood vessels, where it hasn't got any, and your circulatory system to try and imitate your biological functions, slowly replacing everything in your body except your organs and bones with its own," he explained, having read the book Dobby had given him so his master wouldn't hurt himself with the dangerous substance.

Harry waved his hand, forcing Snape back into the wall with a quiet thud and a grunt and then twitched his finger to stick the man to it. Then, he put on the the leather gloves that had been specified, since the moss wouldn't go for dead tissue and couldn't move fast enough to get past his hand. He then kneeled down by Snape's feet and opened the jar, taking the quarter-inch wide and slightly larger than an inch long piece of greenery and placing it on Snape's big toe.

Snape immediately screamed as the rhizoids, the small, root-like filaments of the Mimic Moss, burrowed into his skin under his toenail, attaching themselves to the blood vessels within to begin bonding and feeding. "Get this bloody thing off of me, Potter!" Snape roared, struggling against the sticking charm on the wall.

"No," Harry said quietly, calmly. "You know, there are certain things I'm not supposed to tell you or anyone else, really," Harry commented, watching for the moss to fully attach itself to the sick excuse of a man. "But did you know that I came back in time by five years? My mind did, anyway," Harry stated, for all the world sounding as though commenting on some silly story from his first year.

"You're mad!" Snape yelled, trying to kick the moss off of his foot and trying to ignore the wriggling and burrowing he could feel. "You're mad and you're evil! As soon as Albus learns of this, he'll kill you himself!"

"I'm so sorry!" Harry exclaimed suddenly, looking up into Snape's incredulous eyes with his own. Harry suddenly looked absolutely terrified and scared to death. "I know it was wrong! I know I shouldn't have done it! But it was to save the girls he was going to poison! Please give me a second chance! I promise not to do it again!"

Snape's jaw had dropped as Harry spoke, and it remained open in shock as Harry's face went from terrified to evil sadist with the virtual flip of a switch. Snape knew he was fucked.

"I hate him for it," Harry explained, "but sometimes that unexplainable desire or need he has to reform _everybody_ will work to my favor. Assuming, of course, you managed to escape a room that no one knows about, cannot find without my showing them the way and has just as many protections as the Headmaster Study. The mortar between each stone in this room is drawing out the magic from your body at a rate that will keep you running almost near magical exhaustion. There are similar runes on your shackles and the door while only I am keyed into the wards on the door, which is also in a place only I can access and is silenced on top of that, just to play it safe. No one knows about this room because I had Hogwarts make it just yesterday. You won't be found and you cannot escape. You're going to die down here, slowly and all alone."

Snape's face went back to calm neutrality for the first time since his awakening. He believed the little prick. He was going to die here. But if nothing else, he could approve of the bastard's plan. "Quite Slytherin of you," he said lowly, blocking out the pain of the thing burrowing into his toe. "I never thought you had it in you."

"I don't know why," Harry said with a sinister grin. "I killed Quirrell during my first year, you know. I also killed the basilisk in second, though I'll admit that could be considered nothing more than a beast. But then again, I've been killing quite a few people, recently."

"What?" Snape asked, his eyes narrowing. "I don't believe you."

"No?" Harry asked with a gloating tone to his voice. He wasn't proud of what he had done, nor did he think it was the sort of thing to gloat about. But he wanted Snape to truly know just how screwed he was and just how much Harry had fooled him. And appearing to be remorseless just seemed one of the easiest ways.

"My first kill this year was Delores Umbridge. I've got a Firebrand dagger that literally melted her alive in her bed, after I looted the joint to the bedrock, of course. After her, it was Lucius Malfoy, and then his wife, Narcissa," he said, smirking when Snape's eyes widened. "I went in with a form of magical travel that only I can do, though my girls are learning it and nearly have it down pat. It allows me to bypass any ward, even here at Hogwarts and the Ministry. Plus, my house elf could take me if I asked him to."

"Impossible," Snape growled, getting angry. Whether it was because this _boy_ could do something he couldn't, or whether it was because he really didn't believe him, even Snape couldn't say.

"I forced them both to speak under veritaserum, took everything in their house, and then left after using the same dagger on them. After them, I went after Fenrir Greyback and several of his pack mates after polyjuicing into Lucius to pay someone to lure them out. Good ol' Dung. He'll do anything for some coin, as you're well aware. Then, me and Hermione both went to Azkaban and killed several of the Death Eaters there. But, Hermione got a little messy and used magic."

Harry pretended to look off into the distance and smiled warmly. "I have to say, I was _very_ proud of that girl. Didn't even hesitate to blow off Dolohov's head when it was her turn. It affected her so much, her, Luna and I spent the rest of the night naked together in the Lord's Quarters," he said, giggling and knowing he was slanting this all wrongly, but he knew Snape was dead now. It was just a matter of time to let the moss work its magic.

"G-Granger?" Snape spluttered, shocked. "Impossible!" He yelled suddenly, fighting against the sticking charm that still held him to the wall. "_You_, I _might_ have been able to believe with all of this! But _not_ Granger!"

Harry smirked again, gently holding out his wand. "I, Harry James Potter, swear on my life that all the actions I just spoke of to Severus Snape are true. So I have spoken, so I be judged." There was a brief burst of light that caused Snape to blink, but as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the Potter spawn wave merrily at him.

Harry looked down at the sound of a wet squelching sound as the moss pulled its way into the large toe, seeking shelter and allowing only a few growing tendrils to stick out for oxygen. "There we go! It looks like it's made its new home!" He stated happily, grinning widely.

"I'm going to get out of here, Potter," Snape snarled, showing only the anger he felt despite the large amount of pain as the tendrils slowly moved about inside of him. "And when I do, I'm going to kill you, all your whores and even your bloody owl!"

"Well, you've certainly got time to try," Harry said with a shrug. "This won't be quick, you see. This stuff grows about an inch every two or three days. Plus, it'll keep you alive until it dies. It doesn't require food, because it survives off of you. You won't require food, either, or water. You'll feel the ache in your stomach, of course, but your body won't need it. I don't suggest gnawing off your limbs, but I'm certainly not going to try and stop you from it. I'll let you find out on your own whether or not the door can be opened by anyone other than myself or not, though."

Snape only sneered, not giving Harry the satisfaction of seeing him scared or worried.

"Of course, it will require at least a little moisture other than you, which is what the bucket and water is for. It'll keep enough moisture in the air to keep things hospitable for our little green friend. But, there's just one other thing I'll do. It'll help you and, of course, it'll make me feel better, too."

Snape's sneer increased as he snorted, only to suddenly splutter as Harry began to undo his trousers. "What the hell are you doing, Potter!" He screamed, believing he was about to get violated.

"Well, the moss needs liquid to survive," Harry explained, pulling himself out and pointing towards the bastard's face and releasing a clear stream, causing Snape to sputter and yell in outrage. "It spreads easier and follows the moisture," Harry began to whistle as he angled himself first one way and then another for almost a full minute.

"I'm going to kill you, Potter!" Snape roared. "This will seem like a mercy killing before I'm done with you!"

"Ah," Harry sighed happily. "I can't begin to tell you how much water I drank before doing all this just for that. But look at the bright side. We've just proven I'm more male than you are!" He gestured towards Snape's genitals and laughed when the older man roared in outrage.

"By the way, I was told to give you a message," Harry said right before he opened the door. He turned around only to smirk as he saw Snape glaring at him hatefully as piss dripped off the end of his overly long nose. "Pond Lily says she can forgive the word, but not the action and _all _of your victims are waiting to meet you on the other side."

Snape actually had to press his butt against the wall to keep from relieving his bowels as the name he had given Lily Evans before Hogwarts passed Harry's lips and the message came through. He didn't understand how the boy could have known about that name, or where the message came from, but he was sure the Potter brat was trying to mess with his head and, thusly, elected not to say anything.

"I promised I'd pass that along," Harry stated before leaving the room, the door disappearing as soon as it was closed. He was ready to turn time again and get plenty of sleep.

xXxXxXx

"How did it go?" Luna asked as Harry crawled into bed with her and Hermione, enveloping him in a gentle embrace.

"Did you find out what you planned to?" Hermione asked as well, running her hand over his chest as her and Luna gently pushed him to his back in the middle of the bed so she could embrace him like Luna did from the other side. Both girls were a little disappointed he didn't let them join him in taking out Snape, but they also knew this was something he felt he needed to do alone considering what they learned Snape did to his parents' bodies, especially his mother's.

"It went well," Harry said, wrapping his arms around the girls and hugging them tightly, finally able to let himself feel the sorrow of what he learned. "And yes, I found out everything. It was even worse than we had originally thought."

"How so?" Hermione asked while Luna tried to sooth him with soft kisses.

"He was ... I don't think you want to know," Harry said after a moment.

"We need to know," they said together while Luna continued with Hermione doing the soothing kisses this time. "It would be careless of us not to be aware of all threats, especially ones that may still be possible."

Harry sighed, but agreed. "He wanted to rape you both and other girls, _has_ raped several in fifth year and above," he began, getting gasps of horror and disgust while both clung to him desperately as their minds provided imagery that repulsed them.

"With Dumbledore's plan to use the two of you, Susan, Lavender and Ginny, he knew he couldn't do that since he wanted you," he gestured to Hermione with his head, "to think it was a bunch of random guys after you got pregnant or the Weasleys to have you expelled in disgrace, and that was one of his more tame selections. Instead, he plans to have us love and lust potioned up until all of you girls were pregnant, then we'd all have been made to forget each other while you were all spirited off to seclusion. Well, that was Dumbledore's plan," he began.

"Snape intended to have me rape all of you while pregnant and kill you and the babies after giving me a necromantic potion that would have enslaved me to his will."

"He's dead, right?" Luna asked. "And if not, we can fix that little oversight?"

"As good as," Harry responded. "He's stuck in a room that siphons off his magic and binds it as well, plus it's a room that didn't exist until I created it. I also put a piece of Blood Moss on his toe-"

Harry was cut off by Hermione and Luna's gasp of shock.

"How do the both of you know what that was and even Snape didn't?" He wondered. Seriously, it was strange that his first seemed to know practically everything and his second was getting more and more like that almost daily. It was like what one didn't know, the other did and, in a rare case, one would know something the other didn't, usually relating more to the worlds they grew up in.

"I read about it in a book on rare plants," Hermione said with a blush, pleasantly surprised that even Snape didn't know about it. She also found herself incredibly relieved and ... pleased ... with Snape's punishment. "It was mentioned in '_1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi_' without a description since it wasn't really either one, but since I thought it was a moss because of the name, I got annoyed that they left it out."

"Daddy and I have traveled to Greece and were nearly caught up in some when my mum was still alive and one of the natives we were meeting pointed it out to us," Luna explained, noting Hermione's pout that the younger girl got to go to Greece and she hadn't as of yet, especially since the older brunette had wanted to visit for a long time. That was the source of her favorite foods and favorite legends since she was _six_!

It was perhaps a testament to just how used to the idea of death they had become in such a short amount of time that Hermione was able to get jealous of such a small thing while in the middle of discussing one of their professor's murders. Or a testament more to their bond, if one were to be more precise. Bits and pieces of the girls from other lives that Harry was connected to were converging for the sake of themselves and Harry, helping them understand and become more comfortable with what they had been doing and would do.

"Well, he'll be dead soon enough and can't escape unless he can mimic my magical signature," Harry said through a yawn. "Dobby also made sure to hide the room from other house elves so they can't help him if he thinks to call on one. Are you girls ready for bed?" He asked.

"Just waiting for you," Luna said, snuggling firmly to his side and sighing contentedly.

"Good night, Harry. Luna," Hermione said, kissing both goodnight and receiving the same in return from both.

xXxXxXx

Two days later on Monday, the seventh, the faculty would find Severus Snape didn't turn up for any of his classes. Investigation of his private suite would show almost everything he might value had been taken and the man had apparently run off into the night without any signs of what may have caused him to leave without warning.

While Dumbledore knew Harry was likely the culprit, he reigned in the powerful urge to do whatever it took to find his wayward professor, knowing it wasn't his own mind telling him to do so. Instead, he chose to let the students know potions classes were canceled until a week later, Wednesday the sixteenth so he could find the lesson plans and take over, though he would maintain Snape's open office hours each day to answer any questions if they wanted to see him in his office to do so.

Harry also took the liberty of sending his letter to Skeeter after remembering he wanted to talk with her to discuss a business relationship to protect him and his girls in the paper.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 11, Morning**

Finally, Friday the eleventh dawned bright and early. It was still rather cold, but it had dried up a bit recently. There was a thick, low fog along the brilliant green landscape, making the Forbidden Forest look like something from muggle legends of enchanted forests. One could almost expect to see a beautiful spirit glide out of those mists to offer some arcane and world-saving quest while bestowing a magical powerful artifact to help along your journey.

Or it could just be Hagrid. Carrying a spare pair of long johns. Whatever magical powers those had, no one wanted to know.

"YES!"

Hermione and Luna shot up from the bed in shock, holding onto each other as their hearts pounded in their chests.

"What the bloody hell?" Hermione asked.

"YES! Yes, yes, yes!" They heard from the main sitting room.

Hermione actually growled as she pulled the thick blankets off of her and stepped out of the bed, stomping into the sitting area, only to stop as her anger left her to be replaced with amusement as she saw Harry dancing about ridiculously around the table where she recognized his Runes and Arithmancy projects. "Something good happen?" She asked, wrapping an arm around Luna as the sleepy blonde walked up to her and cuddled close for the warmth Hermione provided.

Harry stopped hopping around and smiled at his girls a bit sheepishly. With the use of the time-turner and the fact that they spent so much time together, Harry learned of something that he had never really known about before. A girl's monthly cycle could change to sync with other girls living closely together. And since both girls had begun to use the time-turner, the time-magics involved only helped, so to speak. As of two days ago, both of Harry's girls began theirs within a few hours of each other and because Hermione was taking Luna's advice, it wasn't quite so easy to ignore the pains associated, so she was a little easy to upset, hence his letting them sleep in.

Much safer than upsetting them.

But, it was for that reason that both girls were clothed in the pajamas he got them and he couldn't help but appreciate just how cute they were. "Sorry I woke you," he apologized.

"Why the celebration?" Luna asked, stepping forward to kiss him and then sit down on the couch, followed by Hermione who didn't kiss him as long as she normally would. She enjoyed their personal and naughty times, but she _really_ wasn't in the mood for much beyond the usual pleasantries right then and Luna was very warm.

"I think I figured out the runic sequence I need to make my wands read intentions so they know the right effects!" He stated happily.

"For your vanishing and scourgify wands?" Luna asked, looking over his notes. She had been following Hermione in her schedules for those two classes, having very much enjoyed her time sitting them for when she was taking notes, and was doing all the same work as Hermione, but just simply not turning it in. Plus, she absolutely loved the rune puzzles in the Quibbler. Runes had been a big part of her life since she was first learning to read, write and do basic math. Since her mother died, however, she had stopped learning about it and was happy to experience them again outside of the Quibbler puzzles.

"Yup," Harry said. "For all of them, really. I got the idea from intent-based wards. A bit of adaptation and adding in more runes to accept mental commands and I think I'll have it."

"That's great!" Luna gushed happily, proud of him. His idea was much simpler than what she had considered. But, she hadn't offered to help because Harry admitted he needed to learn these subjects to help for getting rid of Voldemort. It would also require much less work than her idea, too, to incorporate.

Hermione yawned, feeling rather unmotivated and ... icky. There really wasn't much else to say about it. She felt like utter crap. After two years of using spells to avoid the unpleasantness she was experiencing, she rather disliked being reminded of what the normal method of dealing with her monthlies was. Plus, her favorite panties were a bit too tight because of it, and that just made her grumpier. And that potion Luna taught her to make apparently worked more effectively the longer you used it rather than immediate effects.

If Harry checked his chocolate frog stash, he'd find only the heads bitten off of their bodies due to her grumpiness.

"Great going, Harry," she told him, trying to give him the enthusiasm she knew he deserved for his accomplishment. _'Assuming it works,'_ she thought, immediately feeling bad for being so negative. His ideas really were impressive. She just wasn't a very happy person right then. "When do you think you can test it out?"

"Couple of days," he said with a grin, rather proud of himself. "Anyway, breakfast will start soon. Do you two want to get ready and go down or wait a bit?"

"I'm hungry," Hermione stated. She very much wanted more waffles and by gum, she was going to get them. Those and all the fresh berries she could get a hold of. _'Just need to find Dobby and let him know,'_ she thought, looking around and wondering if he was there. _'I wonder if Dobby could get hotwings, too.'_

xXxXxXx

In a manner reminiscent of Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, a loud squee was let loose as Hogwarts heard the bells chime to signify lunch was starting. She had managed to stay on her feet without tripping for four whole hours! And she hadn't forgotten to breathe for even longer! Granted, that was because she kept talking to herself, and at quite the rapid rate, but she had done it.

"YAY!" Hogwarts hopped up and threw a fist in the air before bending slightly and wagging her bottom and shaking her arms in a fun-looking dance she saw Luna do once that she called her victory dance. "Success! Crawling, walking, breathing, playing with my toes and learning my limits outside of the castle; all done! Just one last thing to learn before I can go out and meet Father!" The room around Hogwarts shifted to the one last thing she had left to learn, much to her chagrin, causing her to glower and glare at the offending item. "We meet again, Arch Nemesis," Hogwarts hissed, having learned there were facets of being human that weren't all that much fun.

The toilet remained silent, mocking her in its immobility.

Potty training!

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 11**

Like an invading force clad in crimson red and bright orange, Amelia Bones portkeyed into Hogsmeade with Algernon Croaker at her side, three dozen Auror Trainees in the orange and another thirty of Amelia's top Aurors, and forty of her off-duty Aurors that didn't know how to perform the Patronus charm in their usual red uniforms, of the nearly two hundred that were employed with her department, not counting the ones who were capable of the charm and always stuck at Azkaban for obvious reasons. They tended to be selected because they had Occlumency training to help block out the effects of the dementors and because they tended to have no family in case of accidents, which weren't unheard of.

As a unit, those three currently capable of it cast the Patronus to disperse the dementors that were gliding around the village near their portkey arrival point, surprised by the large number actually within the village considering they were supposed to be restricted from entering it and four had apparently ignored their orders and several were on the outskirts of the town. Looking around, Amelia growled in the back of her throat as her eyes narrowed, actions which were mirrored by Croaker who also elected to curse the Minister and his foolishness. The entire village was coated in thick ice showing how long the dementors had surrounded them and every single aspect appeared dark and gloomy while the villagers themselves appeared to look little better than the general Azkaban inmates, at least from what they could see through windows. Outside, there wasn't a single person who was willing to brave the dementors' effects any longer.

"Damn you, Fudge," Amelia snarled. "Perks! Johnson!"

"Ma'am!" The two female Aurors, formerly a hitwitch team and capable of the Patronus, stepped to the front of the group so their leader didn't need to shout. They, along with the rest of the the official Aurors, had been surrounding the greenhorns for safety.

"Remain here and question the locals about the dementor presence. Find out if they've caused problems and just how badly they're suffering from Fudge's idiocy!" The monocled woman barked. "I also want to know if there've been any incidents!"

"Yes Ma'am!" The two women saluted. They immediately turned on their heels and ran first to the tavern to speak with Rosemerta, who would have the majority of the scuttlebutt from the little town. The women knew better than to walk and they would admit that they wanted to see what the Potter boy could actually do. Perks' little sister, Sally-Anne, spoke rather highly of him. Granted, she also spoke of the idea of many girls wanting his babies, but the family didn't _think_ the two were related.

"Permission to speak, Ma'am?" Tonks asked from near the front where Amelia wanted to ensure she was brought with the group. Questioning showed Tonks hadn't known about the relation between them until Potter had pointed it out, but she also didn't know why he was so focused in her other than the obvious possibilities regarding a young male adolescent and a metamorphmagus. But neither got that pervy feeling from him.

"Granted," Amelia grunted, surreptitiously checking for any signs of resentment from the others at Amelia's mother hen like attitude recently with the clumsy Trainee. She was happy to note that the confused and curious expressions were there, but nothing more save from one male ass by the name of Barnaby Laddey who had delusions of grandeur and his sights set on Amelia's chair and Tonks' arse.

"For future reference, isn't the Ministry held responsible for anything that might happen with the dementors here? Specifically suffering equivalent to Azkaban on innocent people? I know we would be if there was a death due to this," Tonks asked.

"A good question and a very legitimate worry," Amelia stated with a grimace. "And the simple answer is yes. If any of them brought it forward, it could cause a public outcry," she agreed. "The problem is that Fudge didn't care so much about that as he did wanting to be seen doing something that looked big to protect the students and Potter. Sadly, there weren't enough people who could talk him out of it and this is the result."

"Why does Potter allow it?" One of the Trainees asked, forgetting to request permission to speak. They were _supposed_ to be on their best behavior today, which is why he wilted under Amelia's warning glare.

"He probably doesn't actually know he can order them away," she stated. "Lord Potter is still a kid who only learned of his place in our world a few months ago, despite his capabilities. Let's move. Stick together! We've only got one Patronus as guard remaining."

Amelia and Croaker began moving at a quick pace, getting several steps ahead of the group. "I think we should talk Fudge into removing those blighters regardless of what he thinks he should be doing. They're a risk to Susie," Croaker growled, looking around them as if to watch for any of the dementors hoping to catch someone off guard. He was very fond of Susan and wasn't thrilled with the idea of her Hogsmeade weekends being shared with them.

"Agreed," Amelia stated for much the same reasons. "Especially without any signs of Black around here and after Potter's bringing a lack of trial to light."

Unseen by all of them, Alastor Moody was both disillusioned and under an invisibility cloak, two actually, and his foot and peg leg silenced separately with a mild disinterest charm on himself so people would ignore any tracks he left and the movement of the air as he passed as he followed the Auror group up to the castle, mentally grumbling at no one sensing anything amiss. It was just sloppy by his way of thinking. He had been told about this little shindig and what was involved by one of his contacts, which was actually one of the surveillance charms in the Ministry restrooms. They had started out as a test of their security, but he wound up learning more than anticipated and elected to keep them active, where they have been for the last two decades.

People felt safe in the loo when they needed a quick place to hold a silent conversation. And you picked up some of the _best_ blackmail material there.

As Amelia approached the gates to Hogwarts, they opened silently, allowing her and the others entry.

xXxXxXx

"Lord Potter, thank you for having us today," Amelia began in full Director mode that her position entailed. Harry had met the large group at the doors of the castle and took them into the Great Hall where his girlfriends were already waiting, along with those Harry considered his Lieutenants, which also happened to be the ones Dumbledore thought of as Harry's own Inner circle. It seemed Susan was barely able to hold herself back from hugging her aunt, but knew she shouldn't interrupt what was, in reality, a formal function that she wasn't a major player of.

"I'm happy you could come, Director Bones," he responded with a smile. "Everyone will be showing up in a couple of minutes. This is a group I've been personally instructing for a little while now and they help me walk around to help people out. They'll be doing the same tonight, so I'd like you all to get to know them so you can remember who to speak with if you need any assistance later," he said to the group at large.

"With your permission, I was hoping to hold the duel before the lessons so we don't interrupt all of the students after they've begun to learn this and then have to wait," Amelia requested. "We were thinking of sending you against a Trainee first, since you _are_ still a young man, and if you manage to succeed there, then we'll put you up against someone stronger."

"Works for me," Harry said with a grin. "So long as they agree with it and it's voluntary. Do you know who it'll be?"

"Trainee Laddey," Amelia stated, hoping Potter put the pretentious bastard on his ass, "will be the first."

"That's fine," Harry said with a nod, noting the man he was apparently going to duel as the Trainee sneered at him by his embroidered name tag. He was also reading some powerful negative emotions radiating off the man, a skill he hadn't experienced for a few weeks now except a few moments of random input. From what Harry could tell, it was the same sorts of feelings he got from Draco, so he was probably hoping to make a name for himself through this. "Now, your Aurors and Trainees will be sitting here on the front and second row in the center," Harry explained as the room began to shift and change into an arena type of setting with the dueling stage in the middle falling down so that everyone would be able to see what was going on, even the small firsties who preferred the front so they could actually see over the taller students.

McGonagall and Dumbledore rushed into the room at that moment, wondering what a large group of Aurors was doing in the school after being alerted by another student from Professor Babbling's classroom where they saw them approach through the window. McGonagall was worried something had happened while Dumbledore feared they had discovered what Harry had done and was hoping to try and save the boy. It had now been six days since Harry had captured the Potions Professor and people were beginning to wonder what had happened to him, even if most of those people gleefully wondered if he owed someone money or, in a few cases, ran off to become the next dark lord. Plus, as far as he knew, Slughorn hadn't contacted Harry back yet, and Albus was beginning to wonder who he could approach. "What's going on?" Albus asked loudly, being well aware of what the room had turned into.

"They're here for a Patronus lesson, Professors," Harry called out from below, his voice being magically amplified by the room so they could hear even though he was speaking normally. "I'm also wanting to give a refresher since I've noticed less students seem to be practicing it and are playing around with the shield variants I showed them." Harry smiled and waved to the students as they began to enter the room, a little shocked at the new shape, but recognizing something was big about today with the large number of Aurors and ... whatever the carrot-looking people were.

"Ah," Albus said slowly, subtly putting his wand away before anyone saw it. "Might I sit in on this lesson? Since I'm here anyway, it would be most informative to see how well you teach," he explained, walking around to sit in his usual chair from the other side of the room where the teachers' dais was still raised.

Harry smiled and nodded before he felt something ... twitchy. He analyzed the feeling for a moment, feeling himself getting the same feeling of being watched and of being prey for some predator that he got when he visited Diagon Alley and wound up with the Flamebrand daggers and that had developed while on the run before coming back in time. He began to look around the room carefully as he tried to determine what it was he was sensing.

"Madam Bones, you aren't attempting to sneak some sort of attack on me or the school are you?" Harry asked calmly while he was preparing himself to let loose with so much magic he would probably take out most of the school in a bursting wave of stunning magic. Searching for that twitchy feeling, he felt himself being drawn to a section of the tiered floor a few levels above where everyone else was at and slightly out of the way.

"What?" Amelia asked, shocked. "Of course not!"

"If you are, I recommend telling me now or whatever happens is on your head," Harry growled, memorizing where the source of those feelings were while making sure not to look directly at it.

"Lord Potter, I am _NOT_ trying to-" Amelia was cut off as a veritable explosion of magic rushed out of Harry quickly and in great quantities, all launched at a part above their heads where some of the students were heading towards.

As one, the Trainees and Aurors all ducked and raised shields with their newly ingrained reflexes, as did some of the students who had taken Harry's lessons better than others. However, as soon as those Aurors and Trainees saw him firing above them, some of them elected to fire back at Harry, only to gape as Hermione and Luna cast Harry's shield variants to swing those spells around the Triad and back around at them.

"CEASE FIRE!" Amelia yelled out under a sonorous charm, causing her Aurors to follow her commands, though they all began to pump their magics into shields, while the Trainees simply stopped firing due to their training. When told to cease fire in the class, you didn't expect your opponents, your classmates, to keep firing, so that would be a habit they would need to learn to break, much to Amelia's consternation.

Amelia's party watched Harry carefully as he ran up the steps, his wand trained on something they couldn't see while his girls kept their wands trained on the Aurors in case they would try anything, staying with Harry to keep him protected. Croaker's battle mage hadn't bothered casting a single spell having been around long enough to know that the boy was after something above them, though she kept herself ready, just in case.

Harry could feel the source of the emotions he had been feeling, but couldn't feel any new emotions from the spot, so he carefully cast a spell to check for anyone invisible, trusting in his girls to watch his back long enough for him to do so. "Aguamenti," he incanted, spraying the small stream of water across the floor until it hit higher than it should have. He immediately summoned for wands, invisibility cloaks and portkeys from that small area, coming up with three wands, two invisibility cloaks and four portkeys. Still seeing nothing, he cast a very overpowered finite to end a disillusionment spell only to find the unconscious form of Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody.

"This is either really good, or really bad," he said just loud enough to be heard by Amelia's group and his girls. With a sigh, he first bound Moody with a body-bind and then ropes before he then woke the scarred ex-Auror up, getting a death glare in return. "Want to explain what that stunt was about?" Harry asked. "I suggest answering. I got four wands, two invisibility cloaks and four portkeys off of you."

"Harry! That is my friend Alastor," Albus explained. "While this is a little strange, it is actually quite normal for him and-"

"I don't care if he's your _son_, Dumbledore!" Harry snarled. "He was hiding out in my school and was planning to attack me while my girls were right next to me! He's answering my questions even if I have to bring out veritaserum to get them!"

"That's illegal, Lord Potter," Amelia stated. "Although I'm curious, myself. By his presence and how you sensed him."

"It's not illegal on my land if I administer it," Harry stated coolly. "As for how I sensed him, that is one of my personal secrets and not something I'm giving away. Moody, start talking. Anyone else interrupt and I'll show my displeasure."

Despite himself, Moody grinned. "You asked for me to come, even if you didn't ask for any particular time and expected a response for the summer if I remember right, eh boy?"

"Why invisible?" Harry asked, not showing any signs of recognition even if he wanted to mentally roll his eyes at Moody's paranoia and eccentric ways. They actually seemed fairly tame after spending time with Xenophilius Lovegood.

"Didn't wanna be seen," the old man grumped. His fake eye was scanning quickly enough to appear almost a blur, trying to overcompensate for his bound nature, which was making him quite uncomfortable.

"Why today?" Harry asked.

"You've got a lot of questions, Lad," Moody growled with narrowed eyes.

"And you're not offering enough answers. You're still pretty good with one peg leg. Want to see how well you do with two?" Harry didn't blink even while Moody barked a laugh and several Aurors tweaked an eyebrow in surprise. None would have really expected the Boy-Who-Lived to threaten someone. Or believe him when they heard it.

"I wanted to see how you'd fare against today's odds, Boy. If you aren't worth my time, then I'm not botherin'. Understand?" Moody asked, not hinting at what their conversation was about since he didn't want more people to know about it than needed to for as long as possible.

Harry put his wand under Moody's chin as he leaned in close and canceled the sound amplification on himself. "One last thing since we're being a little vague here for the audience, but what did I want from you in my letter?" He asked quietly so only Moody, Hermione and Luna would hear him.

"Training," he stated gruffly, finding he rather liked the idea of training the Potter Lord.

"Fine. But we're discussing this later," Harry said, removing the body bind and the ropes surrounding the older man after taking a few steps away to ensure Moody couldn't sucker punch him or do any other physical assaults. "I admit, I forgot to check for hidden blades and weapons," Harry grumbled as he grabbed the man's hand to help him up and showing his own shrunken sword that currently looked more like a dagger at his hip.

"That you thought about it is good enough this time," Moody said, grinning frighteningly. He _liked_ this boy! Oh, he'd make the brat suffer for a few weeks once his training began for embarrassing him in front of so many Aurors and Trainees, not to mention what looked like three-quarters of the school if not all of them, but he liked him. "Just be more careful later." He immediately took a large gulp from his hip flask, letting the pain relief potion do its magic to ease the aches of being hit with so many spells and thankful that Potter stopped with the deluge after he was down and out and it wasn't worse. Though, how he knew he was out would have to be looked into.

"What was that about?" Hermione asked as the Triad made it to a spot no one would overhear them.

"I _am_ curious about how you knew he was there," Luna agreed.

"Remember the occlumency where we last tested them?" He asked, making their eyes widen as they remembered he could somewhat feel people around him. Not a true Empath, but something similar from what they could tell.

Harry allowed the sound magics to amplify his voice again as the students were filling the seats and was grateful the castle changed to suit the needs at any given time. "Hello everyone! Today, we've got something of a treat for you! It appears it got out that I'm teaching the Patronus and Director Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is always looking to help her people be the best they can be, so she decided to see if my view of the charm can help increase their numbers of Patronus casters compared to the usual."

"For those curious, especially if you were anything like myself and didn't know for far too long, Aurors are the backbone of Magical Britain's security. They guard important locations, protect us from the day-to-day baddies in the world and are there to protect us from whatever may try to harm us in general. If you're a muggleborn or muggle raised, such as myself, they are the magical bobbies."

"So, the treat you're all about to get is something of a test of my abilities. In exchange for having her Aurors here, Director Bones has considered my request to sit in at a couple training classes the Aurors get as long as I don't cause trouble and only if this is really worth the effort of having a brat there," Harry grinned like a loon as a few of the students chuckled at Harry.

"Malfoy! What was it you asked in our first lesson about my ability to hold these lessons?"

"I asked if you even knew how to duel," Lord Malfoy drawled lazily with his pet wife at his side and his bodyguards standing a few feet away. While he wouldn't normally bother answering, he was quite looking forward to what he believed was about to happen.

"Correct. You're all about to see me get my butt kicked!" Harry exclaimed, perhaps too happily at the idea while the other students began to whisper amongst themselves. Seeing Harry actually fight, especially after what some saw only a few minutes ago against _Alastor Moody_, of all people, and his duel with the teachers in the beginning, was something every single one of them wanted to see. Even if some of them just wanted to see him get taken down a peg or two.

Amelia stood as she saw Harry look to her and stepped up next to him on the center stage. She _almost_ wanted to chuckle at the bright and proud smile her niece was shooting at her. "Laddey! Front and center!" The stern woman barked, causing the man to hop up in shock at being called out so suddenly. "This, ladies and gentlemen, is Auror Trainee Laddey! Those going against Lord Potter today will be by volunteer only and he seemed particularly interested. He's second in the dueling rankings behind only Trainee Tonks, who doesn't want to fight family, which is why she isn't up here. For now," she finished ominously.

Laddey stepped up to the stage and sneered subtly at his opponent. There was _nothing_ quite like 'beating the Boy-Who-Lived' on your résumé. Even if he was a thirteen-year old with almost no training behind his belt, that would be sure to get him noticed and would work wonders for picking up birds. _'Let's see those bastards make fun of me after _this_,'_ he snarled in his mind. His inability to pick up girls was something of a running joke amongst _all_ the Aurors and Trainees and he expected them to eat their words after this. Though he also didn't think it had anything to do with his personality.

The crowd began to settle down in anticipation as what appeared to be a glass partition formed between them and the stage, showing the strength of the wards put in place by the castle. The staff looked at Dumbledore questioningly as they saw the shield, knowing he had never been able to form something like that and usually had to put the shields up manually from his own power.

Albus didn't bother showing any signs of confusion or fear, or even contempt at Harry's greater control over Hogwarts, even as he only just now realized it for what it was. He hadn't had a single sip or nibble of anything that his own, personal house elf didn't put in front of him and he didn't cast an entire battalion of detection charms and spells on to ensure safety. He had also told every elf that was at Hogwarts that they weren't to obey the previous Potions professor, but Harry had apparently already given that order. It really was necessary since the boy told Snape how he got into his rooms, not that Dumbledore was aware of that. But they also weren't allowed to obey Dumbledore if they thought that his orders were suspicious and anything outside of every day potions like calming draughts and the like were run by Harry first.

But, Albus wanted to see this, just as badly as anyone else, perhaps more so. Albus had found himself adrift and lost after the harsh betrayal that the potions still in his system still attempted to tell him had to have some reasonable explanation for. So, the old man hoped to be able to trust in Harry that he could do what was needed since the headmaster still knew the prophecy was real. At least he was sure of it after seeing it in the Hall of Prophecy. Until then, with Snape in the picture, he couldn't be totally sure. But he also feared that he, himself, may not ever be able to fully lead the fight again since he now couldn't trust his own judgement.

"The rules of the duels are standard for international dueling. There will be no unforgivables and once a person is down, you do not attack them needlessly," Amelia stated, looking more at Laddey than Harry since the man always seemed to cut it close. "Am I understood? Good. Duelers ready? Begin!"

Laddey immediately fired off a chain combo of stunners meant to bracket Harry and then get him with the last shot, but Harry actually ducked down and fired his own from near the ground, hitting the shocked Trainee who had expected to be done and was already lowering his wand in the face, causing him to spin arse over teakettle three times as he went flying back.

It was over in two seconds.

The students cheered in amusement while the Aurors and Trainees looked shocked while Amelia looked thunderous. _'If that's normal for number two in the dueling ranks, I'm firing our instructors immediately,'_ she snarled in her mind.

"In our first lesson," Harry began, keeping his wand trained on the Trainee while Madam Pomfrey checked him, "we discussed a major problem a lot of people have and some of our teachers helped validate that point. Can you tell me what that was, Jenkins?" Harry asked the timid first-year Hufflepuff who had nearly made a corporeal Patronus on her first attempt so long ago.

"Eep! Er, he was too sure of himself and didn't take you seriously?" She suggested quietly, blushing furiously at being singled out again. Having been thrown into the spotlight with the Patronus lessons and being one of the first for the shield charms had made her an interest of Harry's to call on sometimes and, if she were honest, she was developing a massive crush on the Boy-Who-Smiled-At-Her.

"Exactly," Harry said with a smile and nod of the head. "His wand was already falling by the time I decided to knock him out. Whether it was from his pride or his belief in his own ability, he expected that to take me out. If he did that on the job, he'd be lucky to make it home that night and if he had a partner, that partner would no longer have someone watching out for them. Don't assume anything. The only reason I didn't send a follow-up stunner once he was down was the rules to the duel. If you need to do this in a fight that isn't being monitored by some sort of referee, make sure they're out! Stun them a second time, take their wand, put them in a body-bind and wrap them up in ropes if you have the time. If you're outnumbered, never leave them with their wand! Pucey! Can you tell me why?" Harry asked the older Slytherin who was a major ass.

"So they have to pay you to get it back?" The troll-like Slytherin boy asked, causing Harry to laugh.

"Well, if you want to add insult to injury, I suppose you could do that. But I was going for them not having it if their comrades wake them up. If they do and they have a wand, then they're back in the game and dangerous. If they don't, they can either try to take you out physically, or they can be used as a human shield. And if they're your enemy, don't be afraid to use them as such! It could save your life!"

"If there's another one, can you make it last longer?" Colin Creevey asked, causing a few laughs.

"Depends on if they want to toy with me or not," Harry said with a smile, looking at the woman in charge.

"We have a few others we'd like to pit you up against," Amelia stated as Harry looked to her. "We have seven others who'd like to try, to be honest."

"Bring them up," Harry said with a shrug.

"All of them?" Amelia asked, shocked, forgetting everyone could hear them. "Isn't that falling into the same hubris trap you just warned everyone about?"

"Not at all," Harry explained. "I fully expect to get my butt kicked. But almost every day, I go up against a total of nine enemies during my morning dueling practice. One is a copy of myself that never gets weaker and is always just a little faster and stronger than I am, doesn't slow down and can't be beaten. The other eight fight with similar tactics as your general dark wizard and known reports of Death Eaters. I'm not doing this because I think I'm going to win. I'm doing this because I want to see if I can fare even a fraction as well with smaller numbers and no one who has every skill I do and the same amount of power and can't be beaten. The only difference is I won't be using spells that will cripple, maim or possibly kill."

Amelia had no idea what to say about that save one thing. "Who are you casting these potentially lethal spells at?"

"Advanced training dummies," Harry responded. "They can do anything a real person can do and can respond at whatever setting I want. Be it realistic or worse, like my twin version of me that doesn't weaken."

"I'd like to see these, if I may," Amelia said after a moment, wondering if she could use them for her department's training.

"After this and if you can keep it to yourself," Harry agreed. "Ready to go?"

"Tonks, Robards, Gamps, Hammer, Stein, Fields and Shade!" Amelia called out her three Trainees, three Aurors and Croaker's battle mage to the platform. The Trainees were obviously in their bright orange with the Aurors in red, but only a few recognized the simple black of the last person and they assumed she was there for something special, though they also assumed she was a man due to the genderless appearance of the robes, the shadowing of the hood and the voice augmentation if she spoke. "Same rules but, this time, we'll be adding them in at staggering intervals. Ready?"

Harry only nodded, turning himself so his side was to Tonks, who was the first on the platform, to make himself a smaller target while she did something similar, though she spaced her feet apart farther and bent her knees a bit more, both showing that the robes actually split down the middle of the front and back for better maneuverability.

"Begin!" Amelia called out, moving to stand by her people to send them in when she chose to.

Tonks showed a marked improvement over Laddey for a few immediate reasons. The first, and best in Harry's eyes, was that she didn't stand still. She was always moving. She threw out a jelly-legs jinx and then a stunner before moving to the side in case Harry tried the same stunt as he had with the first duel, which saved her from her robes being turned into lead.

Harry, too, had immediately gone mobile and decided to have some fun by throwing a simple tickling jinx at the girl that he knew was quite sensitive, using his future knowledge a bit unfairly, and then threw a transfiguration in an attempt to turn her robes to lead, just dodging a stupefy that whizzed over his head.

For another fifteen seconds where both parties were grinning widely, they tossed back colored balls of light like confetti, not actually managing to hit either of their opponents. That looked to be a steady duel, so Amelia nudged Robards forward, watching him walk into the fray and launching his own curses to knock Harry out from the side.

Harry had been waiting for that, however. His morning dueling and his past experiences both in the war and with the Dursleys left him with absolutely wonderful situational awareness. Rather than completely dodge the spells, especially since they weren't the bright, vibrant red of his or Tonks' stunners, Harry formed the mobile shield variant he taught not too long ago and redirected Robards' spells at Tonks, making the young woman's eyes widen as she dove to the side and rolled back to her feet with a "Bugger!" thrown in for good measure, only to roll out of the way again as Harry didn't turn to the new threat and focused on her for another few shots.

As soon as Harry saw her move, he turned to Robards and sent a concussive blast towards the man who had been steadily getting behind him so Harry would always have his back to one of them. That was immediately followed up with conjuring a shield behind him of heavy steel to block Tonks' stunner and then sending a burst of water to the floor under Robards as Amelia sent Gamps into the fray.

Gamps came in and went with one of his favorite openers. "Incendio!" The fireball rushed towards Harry too slow to hit him before Harry threw up a hand out of habit and a thick stream of frost and frigid air bellowed forth, turning the glowing sphere of fire into a frozen ball where the flames themselves had actually frozen.

"Wandless..." several voices breathed in shock. Shade couldn't help but grin at the idea of facing someone capable of wandless magic again. It had been a very long time for her.

Harry leaned back to led the ball of ice pass him, cursing at his stupidity of falling into habits used during his morning workout as his hand moved down and froze the water under Robards who was sending a string of ropes at Harry, trying to tie him up and flubbed the spell as his feet and robes froze to the ground, keeping him from moving. Robards looked down and then back up just in time to find himself getting hit with a thick, geyser-like stream of water that pushed him off the platform before the ice itself was vanished by Harry, who dodged and rolled towards Tonks who had tried to sneak up through Harry's blind spot and quietly around the large metal slab that had been covering his back.

Amelia quirked an eyebrow and sent in Connie Hammer, the next in line as soon as Robards was knocked out. This was a woman who had been on the force for twenty years and knew better than to go in wand blazing. It hadn't helped the others and she was hoping to not draw attention to herself quite yet.

Harry rolled directly into Tonks' personal space and was about to send her into sweet oblivion with a stupefy at point blank range when he noticed Gamps sending another fireball that was going to hit them both if they didn't shield or move entirely. He grabbed Tonks' wand arm and twisted around her so his arm was wrapped around her, holding her tightly in front of him which caused her to notice the large ball of fire hurtling towards them.

_'Bloody hell! Taken out by my own side and used as a human shield by my cousin. This day sucked,'_ she thought in the split second it took for Harry to shove his wand forward with a yell and somehow disburse the wall of flames before really letting the idiot have it.

"Power limiting seal, five percent, release!" Harry snarled barely loud enough for Tonks to hear. However, she felt his magic pulse through her, nearly causing her to do something embarrassing in front of a few hundred hormonal teenagers as she felt his raw power make practically every bit of her body hum and vibrate as it coursed through her.

Harry batted away Hammer's long line of disabling hexes with a negligent wave of his hand as Amelia sent in both Stein and Fields, hoping to put an end to this before Gamps risked killing her Trainee. Harry paid the new people no attention as he sent bone-shattering hexes, piercing hexes that were blunted so they felt more like getting hit with a cricket bat, and a blasting charm directly into Gamps, putting him out of the fight permanently.

Amelia's eyes widened as she looked to Shade. "End this before someone else gets hurt," She commanded. She tried to ignore both Croaker and Moody's hooting and hollering. They were enjoying things _far_ too much. _'Men...'_

Harry twisted Tonks around and down, making her fall to her back where he cast a temporary sticking charm between her robes, hands and feet to the floor, using so much power that only he could remove them or the concerted effort of several people before grabbing her wand in his off hand and just barely throwing up a shield in time to block incoming fire from four targets. As Tonks began to yell things at him that the students probably shouldn't hear, he sent a silent and wandless spell at her with a negligent, _'quiet'_ as his mental command to his magic.

Harry used both wands at this point, dodging a conjured rope that someone charmed to wrap around him from around the shield, and transfigured the large slab of metal into a bunch of metal ball bearings, sending them cascading in every direction except his with another, smaller shield.

Stein, a middle-aged man who had been an Auror for only two years during the last war and since then, held his feet to the ground to keep his footing and cast several powerful reducto curses at Harry's shield to weaken it, but off center so as not to hurt the boy if they broke through while Hammer and Shade banished the metal marbles back at Harry, summoning those that made it behind him.

Fields transfigured several of the marble-like balls into spiders and birds, causing them to go after Harry, only to flinch as they were eradicated by a large gout of flame while the metal balls that were supposed to be hitting him began to circle his body in two concentric rings.

Shade grinned behind the shadows of her cloak and decided to use one of the boy's own methods against him, coating the entire floor in water on Harry's side of the platform and then turning it to ice.

Harry grumbled as he made a very quick border around Tonks' fallen body to keep the water and ice from touching her and then transfigured spikes to the bottom of his feet about three centimeters long, just enough to keep traction without being too obvious. He then took off running from his shields since he noticed the four remaining opponents were beginning to circle it and him.

He leapt over a bone-breaking hex and rolled to his feet before launching a confundus at Fields, making the man think the others were his enemy. It only lasted long enough to take out Stein, but Harry grinned still before Shade fixed the man up.

Just as Stein was brought back to the land of consciousness, Harry hit him with another stunner and a metal cask landed over top of the fallen man with air holes for easy breathing and then the three remaining members were too focused on defense to help their fallen comrades.

Harry cast a quick disillusionment charm on himself and then put up another metal wall before he quickly stepped out, running over towards the two Aurors in red who were taking this opportunity with Shade to get a quick breather and surround the C-shaped wall. Harry was able to confund Hammer to take out Fields, and took out Hammer just before he had to dodge Shade's spellfire.

"How can you follow me?" Harry asked in shock as the person's casting followed wherever Harry went, causing the boy to release the disillusionment since it was a waste.

"Two methods," Shade said, still casting. "When you move with a disillusionment that isn't perfect, there is a distortion in the air. The second is one I won't be discussing with you." Once she was done speaking, her casting sped up drastically. Harry had only time for defending for nearly three very long minutes before an opening became available where he could dodge and put the woman, which he was not truly aware of due to a distorted voice and androgynous figure in robes, on the defensive just long enough to... THERE! Shade's wand flew into Harry's hand, victim of a summoning spell that didn't have to be cast to hit a target and thus, couldn't truly be avoided.

"Very good, Lord Potter," Shade began, giving a nod of respect to the boy, only to suddenly fling her hand out and cause the massive amount of ice on the floor to rush up and hit Harry's entire front.

Harry released a burst of magic that sent the ice away and dove again as many of the ball bearings that weren't currently circling him rushed towards him. Growling in anger, he sent a handful of the hard objects towards Shade who side-stepped almost negligently.

Shade formed a ball of magic in her hand and lobbed it at Harry and ducked as a shock wave rushed outwards like a magical grenade. She quirked a hidden eyebrow as Harry formed a V-shaped shield that seemed designed to cause the pressure to split around him.

The battle mage's eyes widened as Harry continued to use both wands in his hands to send an unrelenting torrent of magic at her. She pulled another Harry and wandlessly created a wall of marble and then transfigured herself into a snake to move while Harry was focused on the now useless defense.

§This boy is something else,§ Shade muttered to herself as she was moving into position behind Harry. She was finding herself greatly enjoying the little fight even though she was under several handicaps. Harry immediately turned to the sound of the voice he heard and noticed the black garden snake, much to said snake's shock. §Oh shit!§

As Harry's hands came around to blast her, and Shade not knowing if the boy knew it wasn't a simple conjuration, the Unspeakable quickly transformed back into a human and jumped. It wasn't the simple jump to the side that had been happening often, but a magically-enhanced body jumping up ten feet into the air and over Harry's shocked expression where an arm was wrapped around his neck and a wandless stunner was delivered point blank by the woman who didn't want things to go on any further.

She narrowed her eyes as she saw the bracelet on Harry's left wrist where he had grabbed to try and remove the arm of his aggressor. She noticed a percentage marker and her eyes saw enough magic surrounding it that took the shape of runes that Shade knew there had been something extremely wrong with the boy. She didn't know all of the uses it could have, but the primary one, if she was reading the runes correctly, was management of his power levels, meaning he was under a handicap just as she had been. If he had only been fighting at five percent power, then to be frank, she never really wanted to do so at full power. Shade was limited to an even smaller percentage of her own magic for the sake of security and knew it would be total annihilation of whatever area they fought in otherwise. She didn't know he couldn't go higher than that, though.

Neither Shade, nor Harry, paid any attention to the loud cheering of the wonderful duel they got to see.

Shade woke Harry up, getting a rueful grin in response.

"Looks like you got me," Harry chuckled.

"You did surprisingly well, Lord Potter," Shade offered in rarely-given praise. "It has been a long, long time since I've fought on that kind of level. Few people are capable of using two wands at once and fewer still with wandless magic. It was enjoyable."

"I probably should have stuck to it wandlessly," Harry grumbled. "I'd have been able to put more power into things and fire off spells faster if I had. How did you do that leap thing you did at the end, anyway?" He asked.

Shade's hooded head cocked to the side, obviously evaluating. "You can amplify your physical abilities by channeling magic into your limbs, just as you can do so to heal more quickly or defend against spell damage. This works on top of your natural abilities. Therefore, the faster and stronger you are, the more the amplification will do. If you intend to practice, I would advise going down to one percent of your power and try using little amounts at first."

"How did you know about that?" Harry asked, wide-eyed.

"I could read the device on your wrist. Like you, I was also limiting my power to about one percent, though mine is a mental limitation through Occlumency and perfect control over my magical reserves," Shade stated as they got to Tonks who was glaring. Only now did Harry realize he had also gagged her with a small red ball that had black cord around her head. The death glare she leveled at him told them both she knew _exactly_ what was in her mouth and she didn't like it one bit. Though, her blush could have suggested that the glare was a cover. Harry hoped to never find out.

"Sorry, Tonks!" Harry apologized, vanishing the ball gag and removing the sticking charms. "Here's your wand, back."

"Thanks for keeping me from getting frozen," she grumbled, her hair cycling between angry red and embarrassed orange. "And for keeping that prick's fireball from roasting me alive, though I didn't like the idea of being a human shield. I thought you were just joking about that part when you were telling people that."

"Er, you weren't a shield," Harry stated nervously. "I just didn't want to leave you at my back and needed you to know what was coming so you didn't stop me from defending against it. Then I didn't really want to give you a headache with a point blank stunner, so I just stuck you to the ground. Seemed like the best thing to do with you at the time."

Shade smiled, though no one could see it.

"So, you beat everyone but the bloody battle mage. How d'you feel about that?" Tonks asked with a smile, deciding to be done with the rest of the stuff. She got her butt handed to her by a thirteen year-old, but at least she could claim it was Harry freaking Potter.

"The what?" Harry asked, looking to Shade. He had read about the phrase before in his History of Magic books, but never got much information on them.

"Battle mages," Shade began, her head cocked to the side again, "are a division of the Unspeakables who are trained almost purely for combat with an exclusive focus. We are used to defend against things that are beyond normal human abilities. If someone summons a demon or there is need to defend against something like a nundu, we are the ones who get called in where the average, and even above-average, witch or wizard would likely fail."

"That's so cool!" Harry said with a grin. "So, I probably can't ask for your actual name, then?"

"Shade is a code name," the Unspeakable said, amused. "While we can generally allow ourselves to be known, it is not recommended due to the potential security risks. But since we generally focus on pure combat except personal study, we are exempt from the usual policy on hiding our identities. Most of us still choose to. At least in relation to Unspeakables."

"So, not even a first name?" Harry asked. "Can't really figure out who you are with just a first name," he tried to wheedle.

Shade was silent a few moments before shaking her head. "Perhaps another time, Lord Potter."

"Hm," Harry pondered. "Shade is interesting, but not really a name, is it? I'll call you Steve for now."

Shade cocked her head to the side again, letting out a chuckle before waving her hand at the hood of her cloak, thus turning that chuckle into a throaty chuckle as voice distortion was removed and a rich, melodious voice spoke from the depths of the hood. "I'm a woman. Perhaps you should choose something more appropriate?"

Harry and Tonks' heads snapped to look at first the hidden face, then each other, then to the form-hiding robes, back to the hidden face again before Tonks lifted a hand on autopilot and groped. "Bloody hell!" Tonks exclaimed, showing that there was at least a C-cup under those robes.

"Release. My breast," the voice spoke, the tone one of severe warning. One could almost picture an eyebrow twitching with a nervous tick.

"Er, right! Sorry," Tonks said with a blush, her hair turning pink and her face red and trying to ignore the fact that she just groped another woman and that it was in front of all of Hogwarts. Thankfully, they were facing away from the students. Or at least Shade was, so her body hid the embarrassing action.

"Well, one of my Trainees will miss this, but I think the loss worth it," Amelia said as she approached the blushing group. Well, Harry and Tonks were blushing, but Shade's face was still hidden.

"Sorry about that," Harry said, deciding to ignore what he just learned. The robes, much like Hogwarts robes, hid everything of interest of the female body and now he couldn't stop being curious about what Shade looked like.

"Don't be. He's going to be on bitch duty when he returns for that stunt he pulled," Amelia growled. "Were you hurt at all, Trainee Tonks?"

"Only my pride, Ma'am," Tonks spoke, moving to attention. "Lord Potter defended us both from the attack."

"Well then, how about those Patronus lessons?" Amelia suggested.

They would come to find out that almost every Trainee and Auror would have something better than when they started and that trying to form a Patronus while one is broadcasting its powerful feelings made the lesson _far_ more successful.

Shade would also learn just what two angry girlfriends staring you down could feel like and found it somewhat amusing that they stuck by his side after the little duel. She'd be even more amused at just how cuddly the two would be after the Aurors had left and the Trainees got to kip out in the inn in Hogsmeade for the next two days' Hogsmeade weekend.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – "Amante" means "Lover" or, literally, "One who loves" in Italian (or maybe "one who loves me" - I don't remember exactly. Italian lessons from a friend in Italy who was a chef with a penchant for tripping over things kinda like Tonks. Almost always had a broken leg o.O) Clara was flirting with Harry. Not because she was trying to seduce him, though she may have accepted it, but because she is a naturally flirty woman where she can be.

(1) – Many asked why it was so important to actually mention a woman's monthly cycle in a story when I could just ignore it and pretend such a thing didn't exist. Other than the fact that I don't have a problem with reality, THIS is why it was so important about that spell to numb the pain. I know it SEEMS useless right now, but this is for something in the future of the story (though I will promise now that it has nothing to do with Harry, Hermione or Luna having any sort of mentally challenge children and is about someone else.)

(2) – Daphne's rant will become important regarding certain things in the near future (summer.) I wanted it explained here simply because it fit very, very well with mentioning Pansy and Draco's situation. I'll reference this conversation when it is truly important so it can either be re-read, or just to remind you. It'll also be important when recognizing Draco and Pansy's public relationship.


	22. Surprise and Official Betrothals

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter21** – Surprise and Official Betrothals

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Perverted Grandmother, Suggestive Language, Nudity, Adult Situations, Adult Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Updated previous chapter** with the dueling scene to add several things I forgot to add (and posted beta'd chapters one through twenty.) It clears a few questions up several people had and brings up a few things I completely forgot to say.

**This chapter is what I refer to as a bridge chapter**. One that is low in action and filled mainly with necessary bits. Next chapter will have a rather substantial amount of activity and heavy plot advancement.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Faery Heroes" by Silently Watches (H/Hr/L – Based off my own "Champions of Lilith" challenge. And I did not spell "Faery" wrong.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_The Triad's relationship is outed at the school and McGonagall won the 600 Galleon pool. Hermione talks with Madam Pomfrey about learning to heal and magical birth control in general. Harry abducts Snape and discovers what he had done and sets him to die very slowly. Discovered Ginny's mental state. Spoke with Clara Zabini about getting potions and ignored attempts at setting Harry up with the daughter Leonora. Discover Azkaban deaths and Skeeter mentions it and Sirius' lack of trial in papers. Harry talks with Luna and discovers why she began to get ruthless during training and physically advance their relationship so quickly and soothed her worries of abandonment. After the first time Harry tells Hermione he loves her, she uses her hand to bring him to orgasm for the first time. The duel with Aurors and Trainees where Harry beat them all (three of each) and Shade, a battle mage he lost handily to once she stopped playing around._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Saturday – February 12, Early morning**

"It's been months for us to get to this point. Months that should never have had to pass," Fred spoke lowly the morning after Harry's duel with the Ministry employees, his face more serious than anything anyone but his twin brother had ever seen before. Had the students or faculty seen it, they would have sacrificed small animals for their safety. At least the Slytherins would, anyway.

It still wouldn't have saved them, of course.

"We kept having to change the plans repeatedly. The _Enemy_ wouldn't take his turns and kept adding to his own arsenal and prank count, the bastard," George agreed with a petulant pout, throwing a dagger at a Harry Potter plushie that had been purloined from some unfortunate first year that had left it alone for too long. The knife flew by the plushie with a few feet to spare and stuck into a bag of potatoes that the two had been considering turning into booze and selling, a plot that had been abandoned by the one once known as 'Padfoot' after the 'redheaded she-demon from the darkest depths of hell' had found out about it. The log that had been found detailing who the Marauders were and some of the information on their map, which was how they learned the password, that had been found in the Marauders' hideout that had been hidden until they discovered it, had gone into great detail on that particular demon and how it was constantly putting Prongs into its thrall. Padfoot wondered if it was apparently part succubus or Veela.

"But we finally came up with something for the entire school," Fred let loose with a Malfoy-worthy smirk.

"We will have our vengeance," George growled.

"Correction, my conspirator in crime," Fred stated, wrapping his arm around his brother's shoulder. "Our vengeance is realized."

"Activate!" They both exclaimed, turning the rune work through the majority of the castle active. The hardest part had been getting to the other common rooms besides Gryffindor and the teachers' quarters, but it had finally happened. The prank to punk them all was now in place.

xXxXxXx

Luna awakened with a grin, stretching out her legs and arms as she arched her back and basked in the warmth of Harry against her back, his morning visitor prodding her in a way that she preferred to believe meant even asleep he knew he was in love with her. She could also tell Hermione's arm was stretched across him and her hand wrapped firmly around what Luna believed was now her favorite toy while Harry's own was holding Luna's tummy to keep her pressed firmly against him for added warmth. Luna loved how cuddly her lovers were when they slept. She twitched her long, floppy ears as Harry's breath tickled the fur there and elected to get out of bed early. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, and that meant that the Triad would be going to visit their parents.

The perky blonde giggled as she wriggled her poof-ball tail against Harry, making him moan and twitch slightly from the tickling feeling and rolled out of the bed, just so his hand would rub her panty-clad bottom and the curious itch there. Stepping into the bathroom, Luna twitched her new, long whiskers at herself in the mirror as she washed her face gently before trying to figure out how her tail seemed to remain in place, but felt slight pulling sensations based on the cloth of her panty's movements. It felt like constantly having a finger moved or when a ghost went through her. The panty cloth actually went through the tail, curiously. So it was sticking out and couldn't be hidden at all.

"Well, that is certainly inconvenient," she muttered before decided to simply do without the garments for the day before remembering why she was wearing them to begin with. "Oh, bugger! I still have a few days left." Grumbling, she grudgingly transfigured them to fit properly, wondering if she would have to eat a carrots for breakfast and whether or not this would be a good excuse to try and do something rabbit-like with Harry finally. Her near-constantly twitching nose twitched a little faster as she fell to the excitement of the idea before shaking her head to clear it of naughty thoughts.

Wondering if her boyfriend and co-girlfriend had become animal people too, she decided to fall prey to the urge to hop about by skipping into the bedroom and yanking the covers off of the other two.

"Bite my botto-!" Hermione spluttered, coming to wakefulness with a jerk as she looked around the room. "What?" The bushy-haired one could tell something was decidedly off about the morning. Frowning as she tried to determine just what that was, she moved her long, bushy tail to her head to scratch her noggin in contemplation. Triangular-tipped ears seemed to have protruded from the top of the head to poke out of the dense hair.

"Oh goody!" Luna exclaimed as she hopped up and down in place with her hands balled into small fists and bent down in front of her chest as Hermione looked to her. The older girl licked her lips as her eyes focused on the rabbit-looking Luna, pausing as they licked slightly elongated canines. "You look like a red fox! Your hair has gained some reddish highlights and whiter on the inside portions and around your bangs! Your eyes even turned a little more golden in color!"

A sort of gurgling growl came from Hermione as she stood and licked Luna's neck, breathing heavily and scraping the skin lightly with her teeth. "Luna, my dear. You look almost good enough to eat," she purred, beginning to nip lightly.

Luna's long ears went straight up and she stilled as she looked at the older girl and then darted her wide eyes to Harry. "Er, Harry? Perhaps you could catch Hermione's attention?"

Harry looked away from his hands, which had slightly thicker skin and sharper nails, along with a long, feline tail that twitched behind his head as if broadcasting his confusion. He looked up with his slitted eyes as his new ears picked up the sound of Luna's nervousness. His new whiskers tickled something fierce, as well.

However, when he saw his blonde girlfriend looking like quite the delicious rabbit, and his brunette girlfriend already nibbling and apparently trying to taste her, he moved to pounce before he caught what was going on. He immediately got up and pulled Hermione off of Luna gently, much to Hermione's annoyance and Luna's nervous gratitude.

"Calm down, love," Harry soothed, kissing Hermione and holding her close to him as he kissed her hard. He had to brace himself from falling back onto the bed as Hermione discovered his tongue had become a bit rougher and responded enthusiastically.

"You should taste her, Harry," Hermione growled as her leg began to kick for a moment as his fingers scratched right above her new tail over her tail bone. "She's _delicious_!"

"So are you," Harry said, but did as suggested and kissed Luna's lips and finding Hermione was right. She really _was_ quite tasty. But, he was also more aware of himself than Hermione was since the older girl wasn't quite fully awake. She wasn't a morning person and usually took several minutes to wake up, and usually didn't get that way until their morning stretches or after her morning tea or coffee. "So, any idea why we have animal appendages?"

"They aren't real," Luna stated as she smiled at Hermione as the brunette girl realized what she had done and said. "They feel real for the most part, but my knickers go right through it, sort of like how it feels when Peeves goes through people, without the cold and slimy feeling. My tail is actually warm and fuzzy. Either of you wanna pet my bottom and feel?" She asked, turning her backside to her frontside and grabbing Harry's hand to mash it to her now even cuter derrière, or so she thought, at least. She smirked as Harry grinned in amusement.

"Feels like a large ball of cotton," he responded.

"But how?" Hermione wondered aloud, stroking her own tail curiously before switching to her apparently ticklish ears. "I can actually feel them, but it's like feeling cotton or pudding. Or, I guess a ghost, like you said. And my ears tickle, but they aren't even real! I shouldn't be able to feel anything from them!"

"I don't know," Luna stated, hopping around and giggling. "But, whatever it did, I feel like I can hop ten feet into the air." Out of curiosity, she tried a small jump and made it four feet up without much effort, though she did rush behind Harry when Hermione's gaze turned a bit too intense for a moment. She realized she was somewhat skittish of the bushy-furred one. Of Harry, too, but she felt too safe with him to override that flight response.

"Moving my body feels incredibly ... smooth," Harry stated, feeling like he was constantly tensed to explode into motion. He kept rotating and shifting as he tested his body's abilities. He found he was quite a bit more limber, too. And he had the urge to lick all three of them. _'Neither of the girls can know that or it just might get suggested,'_ he warned himself. _'Maybe I could just find a nice sunbeam somewhere.'_

"We can't possibly go out in public like this!" Hermione exclaimed, opening Luna's wardrobe and finding their clothes all looked the same. Hers continued the red fox theme, Luna's a rabbit and Harry's what appeared to be a panther or other large black cat. Or maybe just a house cat that was all black but didn't scale larger well. Trying one of the garments on proved that their tails would still be functional, but it was like they were immaterial and could move through the cloth just as Luna had described. "It's like working with water. Too much pressure and it gives."

"You two bathe," Harry said, knowing nothing would stop them during their monthlies from getting cleaned up each morning. "I'll check outside and see if my clothes in my dorm changed, too, along with anyone else. And try not to eat one another," he warned, dressing up like a cat and rushing out.

Luna's ears stuck up straight again and she went very still as Hermione's gaze turned to her. Then the blonde's whiskers twitched nervously as Hermione grinned.

xXxXxXx

Harry frowned as he noticed that not only had every single one of his clothes turned into the same garment, but every one of the boys in the dorm had turned into some sort of animal like him and his girls, and their clothes, at least the outerwear, seemed to all change to suit that same theme. And attempts to transfigure the clothes back to normal would work for all of half a second before going back. A quick test also showed a glamor lasted for even less time than that and conjurations would remain normal, but change to suit the theme as soon as put on.

"Whatever this is, it's impressive," he muttered.

"What?" Neville mumbled as he woke up from Harry's moving, looking at the more popular boy. "Harry? I know you always get up earlier than everyone, but you've never woken me up be- ... what the hell happened to you?" He asked as he finally noticed Harry looked ... different.

"Whatever it was, it's the same as you," he said with a shrug, pointing at the Longbottom scion.

Neville's eyes widened as he felt his own head to find two rounded ears. He would also find that his clothes were made to resemble a bear and his tail would be a small ball of fur. Seamus would find himself looking like a dalmatian whereas Dean would become something of a peacock, complete with the urge to twitch his entire head like the birds and strut around imperiously. Ron, once he discovered his own problem, knew he would never stop Draco from using the weasel comments. "Oh Merlin, no," Neville muttered.

"Could be worse, mate," Harry said with a smile, realizing this was just some sort of prank. "Luna's a rabbit and Hermione's apparently a fox. I had to stop the latter from taking a bite out of the former, who keeps wanting to hop around."

Harry left and rushed back into Luna's rooms to deliver his findings, only to smirk as he found Hermione had apparently found another quirk of her new foxy nature: she rather liked to play and had conjured or transfigured a few rubber ducks to pounce upon in the water, along with some floating rubber carrots in an attempt to get her co-girlfriend to join in the fun. Luna was already very playful, but didn't seem to be enjoying her tail which was apparently now quite soggy. "You two having fun?" He asked as he stripped down and joined them in the large tub, only to yelp in surprise as Hermione pounced and dunked him.

xXxXxXx

Knowing that the prank was at least across all of Gryffindor, the Triad left nearly an hour later without much worry and found that it was actually the entire school that had been hit by the prank, even the teachers. McGonagall looked disturbingly like her tabby animagus form, and appeared to be nearly just as mad as a soggy cat; Flitwick was a bit too much like a dachshund; Dumbledore made for a very fetching goat and even Filch had been pranked, looking much like a porcupine, but less friendly. That, however, was probably a mistake since he kept threatening people with the needles from his back.

"Fred! George!" Hermione snarled, baring her slightly elongated canines. "This had better only be temporary!" Interestingly, while many students would have left for Hogsmeade already, they didn't seem inclined to do so while looking like fur-people, so many silently cheered Hermione on in the hopes of their aesthetic freedom finding them and letting them continue with their Hogsmeade trip with a sense of normalcy. It was mostly those who enjoyed their new accessories that had either already left or were showing them off to the less fortunate selections their friends had obtained.

The twins were already sitting at the table, basking in their awesomeness, according to them, at their latest prank. They were telling everyone about it and happily accepting blame. McGonagall was apparently talking with Dumbledore about negotiations for deactivating the prank and no punishments since the staff couldn't make heads or tails of it, though Flitwick was suspiciously pleased and Professor Babbling was owning up to her namesake at the thought that the twins had done something truly amazing with her subject, especially since some of the first and second years were amused by it and it would likely increase her class numbers. And apparently, only Flitwick and Babbling, who rather enjoyed her mink animal look, were ambivalent and didn't care if the changes lasted for the day. Though Dumbledore normally appreciated harmless pranks, his mindset recently had not been conducive to appreciating humor. Both twins now looked like monkeys, baboons to be precise. Harry rather hoped those were fake red butts the two were sitting on.

"Hermione!" Fred cried out gleefully, holding his arms out as if in welcome. His overly wide grin was really quite creepy. "My, my...-"

"-Aren't you looking rather foxy, today!" George joked, his grin somehow even wider than his brother's.

"Can it!" Hermione snarled again. "We're supposed to be heading out to do some business today and we can't go out looking like this!" Actually, they were just going to meet their parents and, if all was well, then sign their betrothal contracts during dinner with their combined families. But showing up as victim to a prank, including one that gave her fuzzy ears and a tail, would annoy her to no end.

"Sorry, Miss Granger," George stated snootily, turning up his nose as he took on a posh accent.

"But it's a time-delay that affects anyone inside of the castle, assuming it isn't extended," Fred continued, imitating his brother.

"Won't be over until after dinner tonight when the activation sequence is automatically reversed. There's nothing we can do before that," George offered hesitantly, seeing Hermione's teeth baring more and more as her lip curled up in anger as though she were getting ready to tear into them. Both twins had to fight the urge to fling feces and hide in the rafters. Poor Lee, who appeared to have taken on leopard qualities, had to shower twice before they learned to fight that urge. Especially since they found it so amusing.

"Lavender!" Luna squealed happily, skipping to the blushing blonde. "You're a rabbit, too! We're like sister bunnies! Does my nose twitch constantly like that, too?"

"Yes," Parvati stated, not thrilled with how things turned out. Lavender made for a beautiful bunny-girl, but Parvati? She was unhappily carrying the basic appearance of a shrew. The ears were sort of cute, but she was _not_ thrilled with looking like a frumpy old lady. What was worse, Padma didn't even match her like the Weasley twins did, but was instead looking like a cute little red panda and apparently loving it. "You both constantly seem to twitch with new smells, or so it appears."

"I'm going to make you regret this," Hermione seethed, a growl coming from deep within her chest and sounding as though it came from the belly of some much larger, much more dangerous beast. The twins were suitably cowed, of course. They knew this girl could be dangerous. A quick glance at Harry showed him exploring his new teeth, and possibly his new tongue, in curiousity and generally ignoring the others.

"Sorry, Hermione," Fred pleaded. "But after so much time and Harry pranking the school and several larger pranks before that, we just felt like we had to catch up!"

"We had our reputations to uphold, you know," George agreed, also pleading their case.

"FRED! GEORGE!" Ginny Weasley stormed into the Great Hall, her usually red hair now matte gray and what looked like a black, rectangular mask wrapped around her eyes like either some romantic hero or a standard bad guy from the cartoons Luna was fond of watching through Hermione's memories. Her tail appeared to be moderately large and heavy and striped in the same gray and black, but her gait was less striding and more waddling now with blackened hands and feet, though the latter were hidden with three pairs of socks. "I'm going to rip you both new arseholes for this!"

"Ooh-ooh! Ah-ah!" The twins screamed in a less-than-human fashion before flinging something that most certainly _wasn't_ chocolate at their shocked sister before attempting to rush out of the hall. Ginny's eyes widened with just enough time to banish the projectiles headed her way back towards the twins in the middle of their escape and get them in the backs of their heads and knock them over the tables they were trying to leap over in their escape. Thankfully, what they threw was only scrambled eggs.

"Quack!" Madam Sprout was not a happy water fowl and just barely failed to catch the troublesome duo with a spell as they exited the hall. She did, however, decide to waddle after them.

"Grr!" Hermione growled, looking down as she heard a quiet "meep!" Curious, she looked under the table to see the Creevey brothers looking very mouse-like.

"Don't let Cat-Harry find us," the brothers whispered frantically before crawling away quickly and quite nimbly, she would have to admit. With all those legs under the table, they didn't appear to touch a single one.

"This is just ridiculous," Hermione grumbled.

"You think that's bad?" Ginny asked, spinning her wand dangerously between her fingers and itching to use it. "One of my roommates is apparently a sloth and it took her half an hour to get her socks on before she fell asleep. Other than her socks, she's still naked on her bed."

"Really now?" Dean asked, strutting up as his chest swelled and his tail feathers spread out a bit.

"Please, everyone," Dumbledore began an impromptu announcement as people began to mostly settle down. "Try to hold yourselves together and a-a-a-advise-" Dumbledore coughed to try and hide the fact that he had just bleated like the goat he was currently imitating. "Er, please let those in Hogsmeade know you were all pranked if they a-a-ask-" He coughed again, blushing even through his beard. "Yes, well... Have a good da-a-a-ay. Oh come now," he finished with a sigh before looking at the students who were stifling their laughter before shrugging and bleating again, just for fun. The laughter of the children was a soothing balm to his soul as his memories assaulted him as his choices and actions in the past decade were remembered and mourned. He went back to chew on his curd, that is to say _oats_, as he mused.

"Hey Lavender?" Ron spoke up when a few of the girls around her had separated slightly. He had been hoping she would end up alone at some point, but knew this was the best he could get after the last week of observing her in the mornings. His face, as a result of the instant observers now watching, was slowly getting redder.

"Yes, Ron?" Lavender asked, wondering if the redhead was finally going to man up. She wasn't a stupid girl, despite what some may think. And Ron was many things, but circumspect and subtle was _never_ going to be something he was accused of. At least not any time soon.

"I was wonderin' if you would want to spend some time in Hogsmeade together," he asked carefully, making sure not to speak too quickly or come off too nervous. That didn't mean he wasn't still shaking at the idea of public rejection, but outside of Harry, he would be the only boy in his year to say he had as much as asked a girl. Actually, Harry hadn't even done _that_ much. He explained what he wanted and then let Hermione and Luna state they were together and accepted it. So, realistically, Ron could honestly say that he was the first to put his pride on the line like this.

Lavender's first impression was to squeal, but she tamped that down ruthlessly. She could tell he was nervous and any loud noises were likely to cause him to run. "You mean like you and me, together?" She asked simply, making very sure not to appear like the idea was a bad one and showing at least a little interest in it. Had she remembered her ears, she would have worked to keep them from sticking straight up much like Luna's. Thankfully, it was enough to catch Ron's attention for a brief moment as he answered, so his fear didn't increase.

"Er, yea," Ron confirmed with his face now looking almost cherry-red in nature.

"I demand a shrubbery."

"What?" Ron asked, bewildered.

"I said that's fine with me," Lavender said again, wondering why Ron was shaking his head and whether or not he was thinking anything she should slap him for. She knew he looked at her chest, but he also didn't stare. At least not more than for a few moments. But he didn't seem to be thinking that type of thing, which was surprising since she had the largest bust of the first four years already as she was already an upper C-cup, much to her ire and pride, depending on the situation. And despite how interesting she found him, she wasn't about to be _that_ friendly for anybody. "Are we just meeting for lunch or dinner, or are we spending the day together?"

"Which would you prefer?" He asked through a relieved grin.

"Oh, you're spending the day with me," Lavender stated with an evil grin of her own. It was Lavender's belief that Ronald Weasley was quaintly cute and she was socially sharp enough to know training a boyfriend before he learned all sorts of bad habits would be perfect. He had several bad habits and immaturities, but she felt confident she could mold him into a competent boyfriend. Worst-case scenario, she failed and found another one later. But finding one that had the same connections as his to Harry Potter, the man who was Lords Potter, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, would be all but impossible. But while she wanted to marry well, she didn't believe it was worth sacrificing her self respect or turning him into something he wasn't. _'Still, it's worth the effort to see if it works out.'_

Ron felt a shiver race down his spine and mistook it for something entirely different than the dread some sixth sense tried to warn him of. The part of him that felt it, and him by association, was too young to be whipped.

Minutes later, as the students ate the foods more closely associated with their animal forms, such as Ginny eating everything while Luna ate only vegetables and fruits, the Great Hall was assaulted with postal owls, two of which were guided in by Harry's own familiar. Harry's nose twitched in disgust at the flowery scents from both, remnants of someone who tried to cover a personal disgusting scent with too much perfume and another whose hands were simply infused with too much smoke from what was likely a very thick cigar. Hoping to get the worst offender out of the way sooner, he pulled out the one that felt as though it were soaked in vanilla extract, which was a very common use amongst housewives or those who didn't want, or were unable, to buy other scents.

_Your Lord Potter, _

_Lord of Houses Potter, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff,_

_Heir Apparent of House Black _

_I have received your letter showing your interest in an exclusive reporter, and can certainly understand your desire to have the best there is. I accept your request for a meeting this Friday, the eighteenth of February. I must admit I am most curious about this information you believe I will desire to know over any other. I will see you then, Lord Potter._

_Sincerely,_

_Rita Skeeter_

Harry shuddered in disgust, but stuffed the letter into the envelop it was received in to hopefully hide the scent within it. He next opened the second letter, somewhat appreciative of the scents of fire, cherry and something thick he couldn't quite identify, but believed was some sort of alcohol that his uncle liked to tell people his own that he offered to high-profile clients was lightly soaked in for flavor or some such rot.

"Smells like my grandfather's study where he smokes his pipe," Hermione muttered, looking curiously at the letter before turning to her bacon which held a bit more interest to her nose and taste buds. She pouted lightly as Luna gave Hedwig and the two unfamiliar owls the bacon that was near her.

Harry grinned a Cheshire grin and kissed his First's cheek before turning to his letter.

_Lord Potter,_

_On this, the twelfth of February, I tell you well met. I am honoured that you would send me owl post. I must admit to being rather surprised to hear from you, though I don't find it surprising that you've heard of me. Your mother was one of my best and brightest pupils._

_I had mixed feelings from your letter, most of them not very good. You were correct in your belief that your letter came across somewhat ill-tempered. But I don't hold that against you. I was more concerned with the rest of your revelations._

_I appreciate your forthrightness, but I think I would like to meet you on neutral grounds before making a final decision. For convenience, I have booked a conference room at the Leaky Cauldron for this Saturday for lunch from eleven thirty to two past noon. That should provide us time to clarify where we stand and what we expect from one another._

_Sincerely yours,_

_Horace Slughorn_

"What were those all about?" Hermione asked, tilting her head back so Luna could scratch under her chin. It was curiously wonderful. A shame it only lasted a few seconds since Luna was simply experimenting. And another owl dropping a rolled up newspaper interrupted the scratching session.

"Damage control, if all goes well, for one," Harry said, making a mental note with his Mental Hermione who made the suggestion to remember the date and vanishing Skeeter's note and allowing Mental Hermione to recreate it in his mind, along with everything else he came across from that point forward. There was also a suggestion to enter and have a chat due to new developments that she had no direction on.

She also took the opportunity to voice her extreme disapproval of not working on his mental defenses himself and letting her do it all. While she was actually a part of him, she wasn't him and not all of her choices were likely to be what he wanted.

"And the other?" Luna asked, making a smiley face from eggs and pulling Harry from his thoughts about his subconscious ordering him around in his own head. She was going to eat them since it was 'Egg Day' and she was determined to put the smiley face into her belly, along with hash browns and fruit smash. She definitely wanted bacon, but had to make a decision between that and the carrots that had been put on the tables by the house elves. It just seemed logical to go from the most unhealthy option to the healthiest.

Plus the bacon didn't make anything for the face since she wouldn't eat it.

"From a guy named Slughorn that used to be the potions professor here. I was going to ask him for private lessons instead of sticking it out with Snape for myself and a few of my friends. But, I am going to ask him to take up Snape's duties again since he held them before and Snape isn't making it to his classes for whatever reason it may be."

_'Not exactly a lie,'_ Hermione considered, chewing on a bacon and egg sandwich she made from a croissant. _'He's getting better at misdirection. I don't know if I should be proud or annoyed.'_ Rather than consider it, and resolving it didn't matter so long as he was honest with her and Luna, she swallowed. "Think he'll do it?"

"Most likely," Harry said with a non-committal shrug. "I have information he wouldn't want to have made public, but I'm going to try and avoid that route. I'm basically offering the guy something he would already want and is almost nothing to me."

"How so?" Hermione asked.

"Slughorn is one of those people that loves the comforts of wealth, class, prestige and any other similar pursuits. He made it his business to basically socialize and network with anyone of significance, popularity, power or even other connections and the combined network he created, he calls the 'Slug Club'. It's even got a vampire, if I remember right."

"Oh dear. It seems it's been roughly a month," Luna commented as she saw the front page of the Daily Prophet from someone further down the table. Seeing the same thing, Hermione opened her copy of the paper and began reading furiously. As it turned out, the Malfoys weren't the only ones who had Heart Stones.

_**Azkaban Deaths Verified!**_

_By: Rebecca Bradley_

_It comes as quite the relief that we can actually verify several of the deaths from Azkaban for what they appeared to be. As many of you know, You-Know-Who was a fan of the Pureblood way of life and all of his followers were such Purebloods as the LeStrange family, the Jugsons, Avery family and Antonin Dolohov, whose body was never found, they followed the old practices, much like the late Malfoys. Heart Stones on hand by the Ancestral Heritage department at the Ministry have deactivated, proving that they have, in fact, lost connection to their living counterparts to which they were synced._

_As many of you may already know, a Heart Stone is tied via blood and gains a slight charge over time since the connection flows from the living body to the stone. The longer it exists, the longer it will take for the light to die out, showing the death of who it was connected to since the stone holds the magical charge for a short time. Because these Death Eaters have been incarcerated for more than a decade, their Heart Stones have only recently gone out, starting initially with Dolohov's own, and the LeStranges by the time this report went to confirm this information. The stone for Roderick Jugson has also been reported to have dimmed significantly, but has not yet died out._

_There is also an uproar regarding the inheritances from these families. Despite wills being in place for some, such as the LeStranges, there is also the matter of pre-existing contracts that lay unfulfilled that are causing problems and keeping those wills from being read and inheritances from being bequeathed. Details will come in the next few days regarding this issue._

_The fear that those remaining in the prison were polyjuiced impostors, a concept suggested by Lord Potter that threw much of the Ministry, and the DMLE especially, while frightening, is thankfully nothing more than a nightmarish thought with a frightening chance at being a good possibility. While we are unsure of what happened, the Director of the DMLE, Amelia Bones, had this statement to make: _"We still don't know what actually happened, but we currently suspect that Dolohov somehow managed to follow Black's lead to escape, but had to eliminate those who may know something about his plans and wasn't as up for the challenge of crossing the ice-cold ocean as Black was. Regardless, we still urge everyone to maintain vigilance until we can be sure they are all accounted for."

_As evidence, or a lack thereof, suggests Sirius Black hasn't had a trial that documents have been found for, no one knows his current mental state or what his plans were. We only know he was heard commenting that someone, most likely Harry Potter, was at Hogwarts and he immediately escaped. As such, we must suspect he is dangerous and possibly armed until verified otherwise._

_For current information on Black, see page 8_

_For information regarding Black's incarceration and events leading to it, see page 6-7_

_**The-Boy-Who-Loves**_

_By: Elizabeth Smith_

_One can almost hear the thousands of hearts shattering like delicate porcelain across the country and more across the world as the heart of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, has been taken. Not only once, but twice over, following the old traditions to rebuild his family._

_Hermione Jane Granger (14) and Luna Celeste Lovegood (13) have captured Lord Potter's (13) heart, according to the gossip at Hogwarts, which found its way into letters sent home to mothers and sisters, which was in turn discussed elsewhere and recently overheard by us at the Daily Prophet. As big as this information is, it still shocks us to find it took this long to become public knowledge, which makes us wonder if it may have been kept quiet for some reason, though we don't know why or even how. Considering Lord Potter's control over Hogwarts, it's possible that has been a factor, or that they wished to keep it quiet for their own reasons. After all, while Harry Potter is famous in Magical Britain for taking down He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, he is famous the world over for surviving a curse that has never failed to kill before on top of his family's own, rich history, to say nothing of being the final descendant of the first school devoted to learning magic in the world which determined how the world now teaches magic in schools across its lands._

_As many of you are aware, any magical family with substantial holdings, be they financial, political or personal, with only one single member remaining, or even one with cause to believe siring heirs could be a problem, has the right to take on multiple partners in our world and is, in fact, encouraged to maintain the number of magical families in our culture. This is even more important after the previous wars in which many families were wiped out entirely. Our population is still roughly a third of what it was fifteen years ago and perhaps an eighth from fifty years ago._

_While most would have a single wife and require a mistress, or more, Lord Potter is not just Lord Potter, but Lord to each of the Founders, as everyone now knows. That means he is actually encouraged to take a wife for each family line as a single girl is unlikely to provide enough sons for the family's continuation. This means Lord Potter requires five wives and likely one mistress for each family line. He has, as of yet, not been available for comment, so we do not know if he intends to continue with tradition or not, but we shall see. After all, there are more wife slots available, but they may close quickly._

_For more information on Miss Granger and Lovegood, see page 10_

_For more information on the Potter family tree, see page 12_

"That would be a lot of girls," Hermione grumbled. "Scheduling private time for them all would be ridiculous and leave everyone with far too little." The idea of little more than a kiss every week and a half, if it were a realistic or even expected plan, would have put her into a very foul mood. The daunting nature of the scheduling and the loneliness she would expect in such a case was actually kind of shocking to the girl whose bond with Harry would require far more than that little amount of time. Plus, she was growing extremely fond of the constant companionship between her, Harry and even Luna. Practically the only time they spent apart was the nights they slept apart and had to use the loo anymore. _'That's actually something I should probably look in to,'_ she thought suddenly, coming to the realization that she actively tried to include the other two in literally everything. They even bathed together now except nights where she slept in her own bed.

"I'm only interested in you and Luna," Harry said, mistaking Hermione's musings for fear that he would agree to those ridiculous numbers. He kissed his bushy-haired First on the cheek and hugged her around her waist affectionately. "Even if the idea appealed to me, and it doesn't, I could never appreciate them like I do the two of you and the idea of another girl in my bed on either side of me at night is more annoying than anything else."

"Oh, I know," Hermione explained, already quite secure in that knowledge. She could just tell, like Luna could, that the idea of being romantic with anyone else was as repulsive to him as the idea of her or Luna with other men. While they could admit to physical traits that were attractive, they actually did not _feel_ that attraction to others and were, instead, actually disgusted with serious consideration of other people. "I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the idea that they would actively encourage ten or more girls for the sake of reviving those lines, twelve if you end up Lord Black as well. I mean, I can understand the importance of a family name. But expecting anything loving between one man and that many women is actually a little amusing."

"It wouldn't be expected that there was love with those women, though certainly hoped for in most cases, merely baby-making," Luna stated with a shrug. "Will you pass me those oranges and blueberries?"

"I just can't imagine willingly going into a marriage without love," Hermione said, shaking her head as she handed the bowl over to Harry's Second and quirked an eyebrow as the tiny blonde girl began smashing the blueberries with a conjured hammer to put into her milk while apparently trying to control the squirting juice to hit a conjured target on the other side of the plate. "That was a large part of my hesitance about this whole thing, after all. I had to be sure Luna would fit with us first and was really worried she wouldn't or that I wouldn't be able to be her friend strongly enough to handle it."

"Are you going to do it, mate?" Seamus asked from a little down the table where he had just finished the article about Harry's love life and holding it up to show Harry. "Two girls for each family name?"

"I've got two girls and I'm happy with that," Harry said, shaking his head. "If I start spouting love for anyone else, get me to Madam Pomfrey quick!"

"Speaking of which, I'll need to visit her before we head out today," Hermione reminded them. "I've got a quick test on some of the materials she wanted me to read over for my beginner healing lessons." Hermione wanted to confirm her mastery of the spells to confirm pregnancy, baby gender and whether the baby was magical or not. While embarrassing in many ways, and requiring an hour-long talk to convince Madam Pomfrey that the Gryffindor held no reason to suspect she may be with child, she had used her mother's pregnancy as a very good place to start with her basic medical knowledge. _'Now to see if Mom is willing to be my guinea pig for the day,'_ she thought somewhat ashamedly. _'At least I know I do the spell right enough to know that I'm not pregnant, even if Pomfrey _did_ force me to learn it while she cast it on me half a dozen times... and demanded I see her each day for the next week...'_

"You're taking healing lessons from Madam Pomfrey?" Ginny asked, looking somewhat surprised. The Triad had taken to speaking quietly amongst themselves and bits of their conversation rarely got heard over the general hum of the rest of the hall's students. But the redhead made a point of trying to sit near them to be as aware of as much as possible.

"It's mostly self study," Hermione admitted. "But she's giving me the books to read and learn from and is giving me quizzes on them while teaching me about the human body and basic medical techniques. Mostly stuff to keep someone alive long enough to get them to the hospital." Hermione frowned as she noticed a portion of cloth stick out of Ginny's pocket. _'Is that one of Harry's underwear?'_ She shook her head, clearing it of such an impossible idea. _'Honestly, I just helped him pick them out over the summer. And I doubt she would carry them around in her pocket. It's probably something magical that just as a similar look like a handkerchief. Those are old-fashioned enough to be still widely used outside of formal wear, after all.'_

Still, what could look similar to a pair of black silk boxers with ice-blue lightning streaks on them in the magical world that Ginny would have on her?

"Oh, well then, good luck with it. I learned a lot of basic home remedies from Mum growing up. I could show you what I know as well. It's mostly stuff for bruises, cuts and sore muscles, though. Mum thought it was proper for a girl to learn how to take care of her family and taught me all sorts of things. That's why I'm so good at potions, too, and didn't have to do hardly anything to catch up in that class. But now that I'm caught up with first year studies, I've got loads of free time and nothing to spend it on. Plus, I hadn't really had time to make friends this year because of that and last year ... well, I wasn't really into making them," the redhead said quietly, knowing that Hermione was a friendly girl and would really react in only one way. It was time to become important to her future husband! That article in the paper gave her hope for the future that she could be quickly and easily accepted if she started right away.

"It may be a little while, but I'd be happy to!" Hermione agreed happily, forgetting about the boxers as Ginny stuffed some wrapped biscuits into the pocket, effectively hiding them for later consumption. "As for friends, you can come to us any time, you know. We spend most of our time in the library anymore. Today, we have to go and get some things done, but we have tomorrow free if you want to study with us."

"Really? I didn't know you could leave school except for Hogsmeade itself," Ginny said curiously. "When are you leaving? Are you planning on spending time in the village?"

"Well, we don't have to be at the house for another five or six hours," Harry said. "I think I'm going to do a quick workout, visit my project and then spend the remaining time going through some junk I got a while back."

"Would you like some help?" Luna asked, using some pineapple chunks from who knew where as imitation front teeth.

"No," Harry said shaking his head. "Not the first day, at least. There's something special I'm looking for that will be a surprise." In point of fact, he was planning on not sifting through the junk from the Room of Requirements he had obtained, as he suggested, but get his girls their engagement rings from Griphook.

"What about your project?" Luna asked, tilting her head to the side after taking a drink and sporting a pale blue/purple mustache from her fruit smash.

"You remember what I said my project _is_, right?" Harry asked slowly.

"With the evil bat, yes?" She confirmed, dunking her fruits into some whipped cream and making a noise of enjoyment as though the discussion of their tortured professor wasn't a big deal and causing Ginny to look longingly at the blonde's plate.

"Why do you guys always get whipped cream for that?" She asked, taking a whopping spoonful of it for her own use, just because.

"The house elf that works for him knows we enjoy Harry's cream," Luna stated with a smirk as Hermione finished her food. "He brings it for us because of that."

"Well, I'll see you later," Hermione said, kissing Harry's cheek. "Let me know if you need me for anything. Try not to get into trouble."

"If you think you're up to it," Harry allowed after saying goodbye to Hermione. "Just remember it isn't a pleasant project."

"I know," Luna stated simply, looking around and wondering where the Thundercats had gotten off to. She could feel them around her, but not see them.

On the other side of the Great Hall, Draco stared at his nemesis, who basically ignored him anymore these days. That suited him quite well, however. He was biding his time, staying under everyone's attention and using his new wife for the only thing she was really good for. She had never been that intelligent, or even that attractive if he were honest, but she was under his total control, which was enough. But with that taste of control came a hunger for more. More minions, more control and more of what he wanted, when he wanted it.

"Pansy," he grunted quietly so only she would hear.

"Yes, Master Draco?" She asked. Referring to him as anything else but the master of His house save in a setting where it would be inappropriate, would require reeducation which would be painful by necessity, so her Master said and willed.

"Follow Granger. Do not be seen, but determine why she is constantly going to the medical wing. I want to know if there is anything we can use against them," Draco drawled, playing with the knife and digging its tip into the wooden table absently.

"Yes, Master Draco." Pansy nodded once and left, preferring instead to do anything _but_ Master Draco's will. But she couldn't. While she could think anything she wanted, her body and her mouth did whatever Master Draco demanded. When she spoke, even if she wanted to say 'no', what would come out would be whatever he so desired. Whatever actions her body took, they were what he commanded. There was leeway, where she could stay within the letter of his commands, but very little. She was not to be seen, after all. So as soon as she was somewhere hidden, she disillusioned herself, silenced her steps and breathing, and still ducked behind objects and within shadows to keep herself hidden.

Neither she, nor Draco, were aware of the hidden eyes, however, that held them constantly under supervision and surveillance outside of the Slytherin dorms

"Crabbe, Goyle."

"Yea, Boss?" They asked, now _hired_ thugs by His Lordliness. They were no longer friends, as Lords didn't have friendships with commoners, Lord Malfoy explained. But, they could still be around him as his hired bodyguards, not that he needed them of course. But, they got two galleons a week which was high pay for little required effort. They just had to learn to use the unforgivables effectively, which he promised to teach them over holidays at his house, which was newly warded with help from those disgusting goblins. But, the Ministry wouldn't be able to get through without express permission, now.

"I want you both to start looking around for female targets," Draco spoke lowly and carefully. "Easter break is coming up soon and we're going to need to practice our skills. I believe this country is long overdue for a proper Dark Lord and you two are going to be the first of his minions."

"What are we goin' to do with 'em?" Goyle asked a little loudly.

"Quiet, fool!" Draco hissed, look around discretely to ensure no one had heard the oaf's question. The closest person was Astoria Greengrass with the other first-years, but that was a good five feet away in a fairly loud room that had hard stone walls that amplified the general noise and covered it up, it seemed. At least she didn't appear to have heard them. "What do you _think_ you'll do with them? You're going to use them and then destroy them!"

Very slowly and deliberately, Astoria took a bite of her eggs, keeping her right ear directed at the angry Slytherin just a few feet away. The eggs tasted like metal and almost refused to go down when she swallowed. It didn't help that she saw Crabbe give her a long look-over through her peripheral vision before moving on to the next girl.

"Wouldn't takin' a student make people notice?" Goyle asked slowly, his face scrunched up as he thought hard on the concept.

"Very good," Draco looked at his minion appraisingly. "I was hoping one of you would catch that. And yes, it would. But if they leave for the holidays as well, or you know of someone outside, or just want to do a simple raid somewhere, that's what you need to think about." Actually, he had been planning on putting that Greengrass bint in her place, both of them, for joining up with Potter, but knew he couldn't. But, other than the girls at Belinda's Brothel, he didn't really know of any others that would be easy to get. _'Perhaps a bribe to someone at the Ministry to find out Granger's address, or perhaps...'_

"But, we could also Imperius them on the train," Draco said lowly, "so they run away the first night after being at home to join us. Little would be sweeter than making them actually come to their own demise, don't you think? Quick, clean and simple."

Some part of Astoria knew she would regret not being able to hear what they were talking about in harsh whispers and with the leader of the little group glaring so badly at the other and dumber two. But with Goyle looking at her again, this time with a leering grin, she decided it was time to leave. Whatever they were talking about, she knew to stay away and warn the other girls in her dorm as was their custom when an older student was eyeballing them or making threats.

The dark lord aspirant kept his group quiet as Astoria and another first-year that had been sitting beside her left before turning to the other two. "We'll talk about this later. For now, follow Potter and see what he does and where he's going."

"Right, Boss," the two minions accepted their orders with nods before going back to their meals until Potter left while Draco decided on the best way to go about killing that blasted hippogriff. He had some scores to settle and had been laying low for a little long enough to appear as though the married life grounded him, so he wasn't likely to be the first suspect for anything now.

_'I'm going to start by taking away everything you hold dear, Potter,'_ Draco swore in his head. _'It's time to even the score.'_

xXxXxXx

"You should know what to expect," Harry began, both him and Luna sitting in a dark hallway that hadn't seen use in over six hundred years until Harry opened it up and made an entirely new room for his business. Harry had noticed their tail and had used a secret passage to get into the ancient hallway and left the two stooges scratching their heads in confusion while he made a mental note of Draco's actions.

"Snape will have the Mimic Moss on him," Luna said, not taking her eyes from the door.

"Well, that too, but he's also naked and probably pissed off," he explained with a blush. "And ... probably smells like piss."

"Why?" Luna asked curiously, wondering what would make Harry look so sheepish.

"I pissed on him right before I left last time," he explained with a little embarrassment.

"Haha!" Luna broke into riotous laughter, actually bending over and falling to her knees in front of Harry. "That's brilliant! I wish I could do that!"

A few minutes later, while she was still giggling occasionally, Harry opened the door and followed Luna into the room.

Snape's head hung limply until the door closed with a loud 'clang'. His hair was ratty and even more grease-covered than before and he looked dehydrated. Still, he had enough fight in him to snarl, albeit quietly due to being silenced.

"Why on earth did you shrink his penis?" Luna asked, tilting her head to look at Harry.

"I didn't," Harry grinned.

"Oh," she replied simply. "Then maybe that's why he was always such an arse and why you're so nice. You're quite a bit larger."

The chains holding Snape up and attached to the wall clanked loudly as the man struggled against them to try and claw at the girl in front of him who mocked and ridiculed him. He repeatedly launched himself forward fruitlessly in vain attempts to get at the girl to no avail.

"I wanted to come and see you, Snape, because I wanted to make sure I let you know that Harry has mine and Hermione's support in everything he does. Even this," she said before looking down at his waist area and then back up. "Though I didn't expect to see this much of you and find myself greatly disappointed on top of being disgusted."

The chains clanked and clanged again as the man leaned as far forward as he could and tried to bite the miserable chit in front of him.

"He really is a violent man, isn't he?" Luna asked as she stepped away from the frothing man who was quietly attempting to yell insults and threats at the both of them. "I wish the Mimic Moss would go faster, though," she sighed, looking at the man's foot where half of it was a yellowed green from where the moss was replacing everything but the bones and blood vessels of the body. He no longer had toes, as they had fused together and grown into the stone floor so he could no longer lift his foot.

"He is, yes," Harry agreed. "And I considered adding more to other parts of his body, but the book I have on the moss says you shouldn't try to take a sample from a larger amount without specialized equipment or it'll reach out and get you. The more there is, apparently, the further and faster its reach."

"Plus that would make it too quick," Luna stated her opinion while glaring at the older male who glared right back. "It would have also been nice to see you had turned him into a eunuch, but I suppose you don't want him to bleed out."

"Agreed," Harry stated with a smile. "I was planning on coming down here to piss on him again to help the moss grow and make sure everything was going properly. Plus, it's just something I think my parents would appreciate, along with all his other victims."

"Oh, please do!" Luna requested happily, bouncing in place and clapping her hands quickly as she smiled brightly. "Did you by any chance eat asparagus or something to make it smell worse?"

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "Er, no. Plan on watching, then?"

"Definitely," Luna said as though it should have been obvious. And to her, it was. As Harry pulled himself out, Luna approached and peered at him critically, then to Snape. "May I aim it?"

"Er, I don't think so. Not this time, at least," he said with a little embarrassment. Some things were just too weird to allow his blonde Second to get away with. Plus, that was one aspect of their relationship he really didn't want her getting any stranger thoughts on.

"Oh, poo," Luna grumped, suddenly brightening before shaking her head with a frown. "No, that wouldn't work. Far too messy...," she complained.

Harry chuckled as he launched his yellow stream of vengeance – er, make that justice – and covered the angry man once again in a yellow liquid.

"Hm. You should drink more water," Luna commented idly.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 12, Bones Manor**

"So, what'd you think of Potter's performance yesterday?" Amelia asked Croaker as the older man finished his lunch at her home. They had been unable to talk the day before after Potter's Defense lesson, mostly because they were busy debriefing their people and getting those viewpoints to help with this particular meeting. It never hurt to have other points of view, after all. Plus, Amelia had been salivating over his training dummy animation charms. The idea that it modeled a working, thinking, golem-like mind structured off of the caster's own was something that had caught not only her attention, but that of Croaker and his entire Unspeakable department. Not just because of the inherent value of such a charm and all its possible applications, but because the dummies were capable of using magic as well. The only downside was that it drew that power from what you enchanted the dummies with or drew from the caster, meaning whoever charmed them couldn't be included in the fight or fight elsewhere. But for an expendable defense force of golems under the caster's power?

"Scary," Croaker grunted. "Shade said he was doing all that on a power-limiting seal of some sort the likes of which she wasn't familiar with, but had him at a severe disadvantage about equal to her own. On top of that, it was as much wandless as it was wand-magic and he even took out your seasoned Aurors and used that Tonks girl's wand when it was still attuned to her."

"Yes," Amelia frowned in thought. "They were scared of going all out against a child, especially when that child was Harry Potter. At least that's what they say. I have no doubt that Hammer held back since her usual modus operandi is to take out her target's legs if a simple stunner won't do the job. She's always been a bit of a hard-ass. But the boy was right about his ability to take on multiple opponents, which honestly scares me, too."

"Aye. If he ever went dark, we'd have reason to fear him," Algernon stated with a sigh, sipping on his tea. "It also raises questions about the break-in."

"How so?" Amelia asked.

"The boy used wandless magic, and a lot of it," he explained with a shrug. "Shade said it was more powerful than what was used at the Ministry, which would have also diluted to appear weaker before we got a reading. We've no way to match it to him after so much time and such a degraded sample, but it raises the question of whether or not the boy could have done it himself."

"How would he have known about any of it?" Amelia chuckled. "How would he have gotten down there? I could agree that he may have had the raw power to do the deed, but neither the know-how or the awareness of the existence of either the repository or the Time room. And no matter his power, there is no known or suspected way to break into the repository unless some idiot keyed him in and only you are currently able to do that and only you and I know that. Well, Fudge as well, I suppose, but the oaths he took make that an impossibility with you alive."

"Yes, I suppose it is somewhat ridiculous when you point it out like that," Croaker sighed. "I suppose I'm jes' gettin' old and as paranoid as Alastor."

"Oh! Did you see him? As giddy as a school girl when we were leaving!" Amelia laughed with a great deal of amusement. "I swear, I honestly thought he was going to break out into dance! When he watched Potter's demonstration of his usual exercise, I swear I saw a sparkle on his cheek that had to be a tear!"

"Jumping in with a battle cry and mad laughter didn't seem all that normal for him, either," Croaker snorted. "The idea of facing off against yourself while the alternate is stronger, faster and doesn't wane ... That is one hell of a daily exercise program."

"One hell of a magical room, too," Amelia stated, sighing after being told no one was allowed to examine the room to recreate it. Then to have the door move and be impossible to call back up with an explanation that the castle didn't want to be looked at just shocked her like when she learned about those Thundercat things. That one was in the middle of taking off with some unfortunate Ravenclaw's knickers when it looked at them as it realized it was being watched, hissed, and then kept on walking just showed that Hogwarts was really changing.

Didn't help that Tonks had tripped over one named 'Jinx' and had become fast friends with the bugger, or that no one could stand within ten feet of them and remain standing. The one known as Marduk also wouldn't stop glaring at them all. Seemed to want to be rivals with Moody, as well. They kept comparing who had better plans for taking out as many of the enemy before getting taken down themselves. She wasn't sure, but Amelia was under the impression that they believed the other was some enemy in disguise, too.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence where each was lost in their own thoughts, Algernon finally sighed and set down his teacup. "I'm worried," he said simply.

"About?"

"Potter. The thefts from the Ministry. The boy's recreation of a lost technology and the flimsy excuse of it being created by someone else on top of creatures that haven't existed before that I think I remember hearing some muggle children talking about once that suggested they were a powerful race with powerful items from another world or something similar. His frightening power levels. Albus' strange behavior as of late. The recent string of deaths. Even that Death Eater, Snape, seems to have up and disappeared with nary a trace that he was ever even in the castle!"

"Minerva confided in me that Albus demanded a head count from each Head of House to make sure they weren't missing any students," Amelia said quietly. "As soon as they realized he was gone, the man seemed to be as driven as during the last war when his Order was still effective(1) and checking on his flock, questioning elves and she wasn't sure what else. He was checking on some of Hogwarts' treasures, too, though she wouldn't tell me anything about what _that_ meant. Just that it wasn't gold or the like, despite the name."

"Good on 'im," Algernon said respectfully. "The man has been nothing but weak the last decade and a half or so. Even in the Wizengamot, he barely fought any measures to go one way or another. He just tried to keep the status quo."

"I've noticed, but always felt he was just getting tired of the constant fighting and arguing," Amelia mused.

"It's called getting old," Croaker grunted. "You'll be figuring it out soon enough."

Amelia glared. Being reminded of her age was _not_ something she appreciated. Not when she had been having similar thoughts about that, anyway. "So, back to the topic at hand. What _are_ your thoughts regarding Potter's display? Something other than 'scary', preferably."

"He'll either be the greatest power the Light side has ever known, or its worst ever enemy," he said with a careless shrug. "He's powerful, has the political capital to do damn near anything he wants, controls the largest and most publicly known school in the world, to say nothing of its importance to our society should he choose to use it as he could. He has the ability to mold the minds of the students during seven years of their developmental years. If he chose to utilize that, it could be good _or_ bad. On top o' that, I hear he's planning on changing the structure of education there. New classes and who knows if he's going to do right by the students."

Amelia nodded sympathetically to the idea. "I've thought much the same. Especially after seeing how many of the students seemed to look at him. I swear, that little first-year Hufflepuff looked ready to have his children," she said with a laugh. "Susie tells me that Potter's actually legitimately devoted to his girls and doesn't even realize half the girls are ready to throw their knickers at him and knows that he has a few girls who just want to shag to get at his family lines and he's not rising to the bait. So to speak. But he's admitted to me about updating the curriculum. He wants to add some classes on wizarding customs, at the very least. Asked me for ideas on who to hire in case I knew anyone needing a job."

"I want to observe him when he shows up," Croaker stated firmly. "And I want you to try and engage him in the classes. Let's find out what he has to offer. His observations and points yesterday were spot on and frighteningly sensible. Especially his explanations on engagement with the enemies. A little harsh for students, but it's the real world kind of thinking they should have. Not that holding their hands shite the headmaster is currently promoting."

"Looking to recruit him already?" Amelia asked, raising one dirty-blonde, thick eyebrow. "I've seen you recruit right out of Hogwarts before, and I know you've got sights set on Granger, but that's usually something you approach during their last year there."

"We _might_ be appraising Miss Granger's candidacy," Croaker allowed, confirming more strongly than anything he had ever confirmed before.

"And Potter?" She queried primly.

"He's being observed," Algernon offered diplomatically. "As you know from when he and I first officially met, we're plannin' on offering some assistance for something coming up, though I can't tell you what. Not because I don't trust you, but because there's no tellin' what it is, quite yet. The lad's got a prophecy of some sort hanging over his head and I know the goblins have a lot of movement regarding the lad. Even their king is taking a direct interest in him."

"Bloody hell," Amelia grumbled.

"That's also why I wonder about him and the Ministry thefts. His questions about when we got interested and the like were all referencing some point in the time line of events except for when he asked who was charge, but even then he wanted to know when they decided to help him. It just seemed a little strange at the time, if you'll pardon the bad pun."

"He could also have just been worried that you got interested because of his lordships," Amelia countered, playing Devil's Advocate. Not because she felt the boy was innocent in any way or that he wasn't capable of being just as cunning as anyone else. But because she believed it was important to always try and think of at least one opposing viewpoint in her profession. It wasn't required of her, it was actually a concept she brought with her into the job, but she was proud of her stance regarding that. She rarely thought of more than one, which is why she hadn't thought of the same plot as Harry since she felt it was simply too obvious to be anything else. Magicals, by and large, just didn't do complicated unless it was overly complicated and far more convoluted than anything else.

"Agreed. But I still plan on watching him and seein' if I can maybe observe him when 'is guard is down. There's something off about that boy," Croaker grunted.

As Croaker fell into an introspective mood, or perhaps just broody, if she were honest with herself, Amelia decided it wasn't a _bad_ idea. And the lad could only be a boon to the department. _'Perhaps I'll keep an eye on him as well. What boy _doesn't_ dream of being an Auror and catching dark wizards?'_

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 12, Potter Manor – Hour before dinner**

"Hi honey! How ... What on earth?" Emma stared in shock at her daughter and her two friends, trying to decide if it was a new fad in the magical world or something to be worried about that her daughter was sporting animal parts that appeared to be real and not something worn on a headband or belt. That didn't stop her from reaching forward after the immediate hug she had given to feel the furry appendages atop her head, though. "Soft..."

"There was a school wide prank," Hermione explained as she laid her ears back from the tickling fingers. "Everyone became some sort of animal, at least a little bit, like this," she gestured toward Harry and Luna as though to prove her point.

"I'm a bunny," Luna chirped happily, hopping over to hug her father who found the whole thing quite amusing. Of course, from a guy who would wear a 'not food' sign when visiting dragons, his amusement could be about something from a month ago.

"I can see that," Emma chuckled warmly. "As long as it's safe, I suppose. Well, I think I'm going to go for a walk for a few minutes. Want to join me, Hermione?" She asked, giving her daughter a unique look. One that mothers across the world developed to tell their children to do as they were told, even if not actually told to do something.

"Er, sure," Hermione agreed nervously, wondering what she did wrong or what her mother knew about. _'Had Madam Pomfrey owled her about our recent talks? God, please don't let Mum think I'm preggers, too!'_

"See you in a bit," Emma told the others as she put an arm on Hermione's shoulder and guided her out of the double doors leading to the pool and beyond at Potter Manor. Somewhere quiet where Hermione's embarrassed exclamations wouldn't be heard.

"That reminds me," Harry said as he turned to Sirius, who was trying to hold back his laughter at seeing the effects of a school-wide prank. "Sirius, I need to talk to you."

"What about, Pup?" The Lord Black asked, bounding over excitedly to Harry as the two went towards the library while Xeno and Luna were busy talking about the merits of being part animal and Luna was telling her father that Hermione liked to taste her.

"I find myself in need of help," Harry began as he watched Luna hop out of the room to lead her father somewhere to bring up what she had experienced on Christmas day, having been attempting to figure out a way to do so without coming across as crazy or possibly hurting him that his wife didn't come to see him as well. Sadly, while she knew her father wouldn't believe her to be crazy, Luna didn't know how to spare him the pain of not seeing Celeste one last time.

"The girls aren't ... you know ... in the _pudding club_, right?" Sirius asked, looking paler than normal and a bit scared. He remembered well the fear he received every time a girl came to him a month after their _special_ dates.

"No!" Harry exclaimed, mildly annoyed since what he was going to discuss was not a happy topic in any way. And they didn't even do what would be required to be accused of that! "Worse, actually."

"I'm listening," Sirius became serious immediately and sat on a plush couch across from the chair Harry took. There wasn't much Sirius could think of that was worse than a pregnant girlfriend, except maybe one girlfriend finding out about such a status with another girlfriend.

"I'm going to be honest, you won't like what I've done or why I had to do it," Harry began.

"Why don't you just tell me what's going on and I'll help as best I can," Sirius offered as diplomatically as possible. "I promise to withhold any judgement until after I've heard your story."

"This began with finding out about plans between Snape and Dumbledore," Harry began, telling about the plot to potion him and several girls up with Albus' original plan, then Snape's alterations and the use of the Thundercats, which wound up including his creation of them and why, to act as his spies. Then he explained visiting his parents' graves on Christmas night and what they said, followed by learning about Snape using potions on Dumbledore and then kidnapping the bastard potions master and the veritaserum-induced questioning.

"And you say he's dying? You've taken care of him?" Sirius snarled, curling his lip in disgust as Harry's story came to a close.

"Definitely," Harry promised. "It'll take months where he'll starve and beg for something to drink, but the Mimic Moss will keep him alive as long as there's moisture in the air. And I go in every couple of days to check up on him and piss on him."

"Well, you're right, I don't like it," Sirius said as weariness overtook him. "I don't like any of it at all, but I'm glad you took care of the slimy, greasy, bastard, son of a bitch-"

"-I'm not done yet," Harry interrupted.

"What?" Sirius asked. "There's more?" He looked horrified that Snape and what he did to Lily and James' bodies wasn't the worst.

"Er, yes," Harry admitted sadly. He then explained what he learned about the Longbottoms from Snape's questioning, but he was able to avoid confessing to being the one to off Bellatrix since explaining that would require more than he could give. He simply pointed out that he could no longer get Bellatrix questioned to determine what had happened. "So, basically, what I'm asking your help for is to go to Grimmauld Place and see if you can find the spell that Bellatrix used on them. I know you hate it there and I don't want you to leave and be vulnerable, but Neville's a good kid and I feel like I've got to try. Do you have any idea where to begin?"

"There are a couple it could be," Sirius admitted after a few moments of contemplative silence. "I'm aware of them, but haven't actually learned the spells. Don't think I'd remember them if I knew them before, anyway, since I forgot a lot of the magic I used to know. They were held as a right of passage type of thing and I was the embarrassment of the family for not making it into Slytherin. But, you're correct. The cruciatus doesn't do to people what you say happened to Frank and Alice. The victims may break, but they don't turn into vegetables. They either get their ability to function back or the physical pain kills them. I have no doubt Bella would have tortured them, but from what you say, she was after information, right? There's no way she would have broken them before getting it and Moody caught them in the act?"

"Yea," Harry said, thinking about what Sirius said. "But to be honest, I never thought of that, before. I mean, she was trying to find out both where I was and what had '_really_' happened to her master."

"Exactly," Sirius mused thoughtfully. "If she was questioning them for anything, then she wouldn't break them until she had what she wanted. Bella was damn good with the torture curse and knew how to hold back. Didn't mean she liked it, of course, but she wasn't stupid. Just crazy. With Moody and his team moving in, she wouldn't have wanted her victims to get away. She would have tossed a curse to keep them out before she was taken down. If it's one of the three I think, it takes almost a minute to cast properly since they're in a sequence of two to five parts. And each part, however many it is, will have to be countered. That's what makes them so insidious. But if Moody and his group showed up, it was probably a tip-off via floo call or Patronus message, so it isn't even like it would have been hours of time, either. The accepted story just doesn't add up."

"So, do you think you can help me by either looking for the spells or getting the books so I can sift through them?" Harry asked.

"I'll look," Sirius acknowledged. "I don't feel comfortable with giving you those books since a good many are cursed. Also, I can get a replacement wand from the family trove and deal with Kreature, too. That little worm-"

"-Give him specific orders not to deal with anyone but you, me and Dobby," Harry interrupted. "There's information you'll need later about all of this. But, he misses Regulus. If you treat him better, he'll probably be better in the future. Actually, have him listen to you, me, Hermione and Luna. Hermione'll be able to help him become better," he continued, deciding to try and make the little bugger at least moderately nice again by having Hermione help with the locket. Unless something else was different, anyway, that caused that to not be possible that he wasn't yet aware of. But the crotchety old elf had made the effort to be a 'proper' and good elf, at least one that Harry and Hermione could approve of, when Hermione had promised to destroy the locket. Whether it would stick or not was still in question.

"I'm really going to want to know where you're getting your information some time," Sirius said after a moment of observing his godson.

"And when I can tell you ... _if_ I can tell you, then I promise to," Harry assured, making another mental note to read and get a copy of that contract Lora had him sign. "But do you think there's a cure?"

"If Bella wanted to come back and finish the job, I'm sure she used one that did," Sirius said. "Only one doesn't have a cure, though, so let's hope."

"Good," Harry sighed, feeling somewhat relieved.

The moment of relief, however, was broken when an unsure Sirius decided to do the Godfather thing. "And you're _sure_ the girls aren't in the pudding club, right?"

xXxXxXx

"Can I assume there was something specific you wanted to talk about?" Hermione asked her mother when they were both outside and away from the others.

"What we're about to do today is a very big step," Emma began gently. "You're basically becoming engaged, legally, at fourteen. I understand that the contract is worded so this is basically more of an official statement of dating than anything, with some built-in protection, but it's still engaged. Are you okay with this? Really and truly okay with this?"

"And happy," Hermione said quietly, smiling warmly as her tail swished lazily behind her. "The idea of being Harry's wife is a wonderful feeling. I know we still have a while before it comes to that, and there's a remote possibility it won't work out. But, I like the idea, and I'm grateful to you and Dad for this. Thank you."

Emma turned just enough to look at her daughter and try to read her sincerity. Many girls enjoyed the idea of getting married, usually when they wanted to marry into money to enjoy the perks without as much work, but Hermione had always been a sensible girl with plans of a career and being successful. While being married factored into them, it was usually a factor she planned for _after_ her career. But, that smile on Hermione's face was one of contentment and a sort of giddy excitement that was somewhat well-hidden. "And you're sure you want this?" She asked her daughter, though sure of the answer.

"It's not permanent, Mum. There's a very simple and easy out clause for us if we change our minds, and it doesn't set a date for when we _have_ to get married as you well know. At least not one that isn't far enough out for us to make a decision without forcing one out of us. We've talked about whether or not I'm serious about this before. I know this is my first romance, and I'm young, but I've honestly never been so sure of something before. That's why I wanted to go forward with it, just like we discussed last weekend."

"I know, Honey," Emma said, feeling better about the whole thing the more Hermione spoke. "I just want to be sure you aren't doing this for the protection for me and your father..."

"I want this because I really do love him, Mum," Hermione said with a sigh. "I know it's strange, probably even unlikely, to think I could use that word so easily and mean it, but it's true."

"Yes. Your 'soul mate' idea," Emma said with a sigh. "Just promise me that you will be sure of your decisions and you don't take a path because you think you should or feel like you need to. Be safe and make the decision before you act, is all."

"Are you trying to tell me not to shag Harry?" Hermione asked lightly, very much amused.

"Language, young lady!" Emma scolded. "But essentially, yes."

"I thought you told me over the summer that it was okay to experiment and you'd be okay with my choices as long as I was safe," Hermione countered.

"Safe and sure of your choice without feeling pressured, just like joining this betrothal," Emma said with a sigh. "The simple version is your father and I were originally worried that you were falling into a romanticized viewpoint or, considering your lack of friends until Harry, were too worried or scared to reject what he was offering in fear it would mean losing him, too."

"Mum!" Hermione exclaimed, outraged. "How could you think that of me? I mean, don't get me wrong, I can understand the fear of that, but surely I've never appeared to be some brainless twit that would use her body to get what she wanted or just to keep a friend! I have more self-respect than that!"

"No, nothing like that," Emma explained, soothing Hermione's ruffled feathers. It was actually somewhat easy to see her as upset with her furry ears and bushy tail sticking up like that. "But, surely you can see how quickly things progressed between you and Harry? Not just between the two of you, but you were so adamant about including Luna even though you were worried about it and your whole purpose for bringing her in was something that you obviously weren't comfortable with, at least initially. I'm glad to see you've made up your mind about that, by the way. Plus, flirting was a new concept as far as I know for you, to say nothing of the fact that it was someone you already liked. It wasn't that I thought you would fall prey to peer pressure, but more that your father and I both worried you would like the interest enough to not really think clearly and basically get overwhelmed by your hormones without thinking about it. When you're feeling frisky, all sorts of things can sound like a good idea, after all."

"I ... suppose I can understand where you're coming from," Hermione sighed. "In truth, some parts of this relationship _are_ like that. At least, they _were_. This soul mate thing ... it's a real thing. And the bonding between us is something that we actually have to work at, just like any other relationship, but it boosts various things. It doesn't make us do things we don't want to do, but the things we _do_, indeed, want are amplified so long as our partner wants it and we're _willing_ to do them."

"Like?" Emma asked curiously. "You've never talked about this and usually avoid discussing it except in generalized terms."

"We're not really supposed to talk about it," Hermione admitted. "At least how I learned of it. But, the short version is right after we admitted our feelings to each other, we felt an extreme urge to bond, and still do sometimes."

"What exactly does that mean?" Emma asked worriedly.

"We had to climax with the help of the other as far as we can tell," Hermione admitted with a blush. "The original belief was that the bond was formalized with a kiss or with consummation. In truth, both are only partially correct, at least for us. The bond truly starts when you admit your feelings to one another, as far as we could tell, and it pushes you to finalize it by helping the other climax, or so we believe. It had always been believed, or at least romanticized in the stories, that it finalized with consummation which isn't true, thankfully. The bond itself 'connects' us to the other when we do finalize it, which just means that shared orgasm bit. When I connected to Harry, I was sitting in his lap, fully clothed, and we were snogging when it happened for me because I was moving about. After that, I was able to feel him, wherever he was. I could tell his emotional state and how he was feeling. Though, it wasn't perfect and the emotional aspect has only really been with very strong emotions so far. And that was me being bonded to him, but he wasn't bonded to me until it basically happened to him later on Christmas night when we got back to Hogwarts and we took our baths in the hot tub in our suits. We get more out of it the more we bond, so we spend an hour or two together each day just for working on the relationship, but we haven't done that again." Mentally, she couldn't help correcting herself. _'Except for a quick handy when he told me he loved me. I was planning on more, but he decided to be fair, the noble bugger. At least he doesn't stop me from grinding against him.'_

"You're being safe?" Emma asked, concerned, after a few moments of silence. Hermione's reminiscent smile and far away gaze all of a sudden didn't help too much. That Hermione was becoming sexually active, at least in some regards, wasn't exactly a comforting thought. Emma was comfortable with it if her daughter was safe and took proper precautions, but fearing she wasn't was the troublesome part, since Hermione was so far away and less able to communicate as easily if something came up. To say nothing of the fact that she had no idea what kind of prophylactics the magical world had and Emma seriously doubted she could go pick up some rubbers with the school nurse. She truly was happy her daughter was experiencing these things, but she knew how little safety was thought of in the heat of the moment. That was, after all, where Hermione originated.

"There hasn't been a need for safety procedures," Hermione assured amusedly. "But for what it means, yes, we're being safe. Luna and I have offered to basically do anything except sex since the beginning and Harry hasn't pushed as a single bit. We've actually been the driving force behind everything. We haven't even progressed to mutual masturbation yet," – _'save the once, though I hope that will change soon; and I promise not to lie about it once it becomes a standard practice, but making Harry skittish about it this early won't help,'_ – "and that is more Harry's speed than ours since we've both offered more." In point of fact, she had been waiting for the opportunity to do so for a while now. Not just because she enjoyed it all, but because she was the most sexually mature of the three of them and her body craved release more strongly. For Hermione, it had always helped her deal with the frustrations of daily life and loneliness she had felt since she discovered self play. That was why she did her best to get a daily orgasm from gyrating in Harry's lap and on his member. But ever since that daydream memory of his that she witnessed, she was curious about that parseltongue ability of his and was hoping to explore that.

"And you'll come to me if you have any questions?" Emma asked a little desperately.

Hermione suddenly realized what this was all about. In a moment of crystal clarity, Hermione turned to her mother and gave her a large, strong hug. "Mum, I am not leaving this family," she promised, squeezing harder as Emma hugged her daughter and began to cry softly, which began to set Hermione off. It was amazing how emotional the two were getting. Both almost felt like Hermione was getting married. "I'm still Hermione Granger and will be for years to come. This is just me, Harry and Luna acknowledging that we're serious about each other and won't be with anyone else until we make a final decision."

"I still feel like you're becoming Hermione Potter," Emma whispered, inhaling deeply and trying to memorize her daughter's scent and the feel of her in her arms. "And no longer being Hermione Granger. A part of me is terrified of the prospect while another is over the moon about it!"

"Mum..." Hermione pulled back and grinned at the older Granger woman. "Even if I was, I'm still your daughter. And I will always come to you when I need help. I discuss the normal and daily bits with Harry and Luna when we talk each week about our relationship, but any time I need help, just like before, I'll come to you. You'll always be my mother and you will always be important to me. And to be honest, Luna is likely to have questions soon that I may not be able to answer properly. So she will likely need you when I can't help either, so we'll both come to you at those times. Harry gave us several means to talk to and see each other more. I fully intend to make use of them!"

Emma smiled and kissed Hermione's forehead. "I have an incredible daughter," she said proudly.

"Wanna know what the next one is going to be?" Hermione asked, resting her hand on Emma's baby bump, which was now obvious depending on the shirt she chose to wear. It was only slight still, much to Emma's annoyance and gratitude both. Her vanity enjoyed the smaller baby bump than she had with Hermione at this point, and lack of added weight, but she was annoyed because she was proud of being a mother again.

"You can do that?" Emma asked, shocked.

"I started learning healing from the school medic. Under the circumstances, I asked about basic pregnancy health, spells and monitoring. Don't be surprised if she sends you a letter about that, by the way. I had to constantly assure Madam Pomfrey I wasn't pregnant and get checked each hour for a few days," Hermione grumbled with a roll of her eyes, "but she taught it to me. I'm still not totally sure she's convinced."

Emma chuckled before nodding rapidly. "Please. Just make sure to keep it from your father. He wants to be surprised on the day."

Hermione moved her wand in gentle circles before grinning and looking at her mother.

xXxXxXx

"And they call it a 'zoo', you say?" Xenophilius asked his bunny-daughter. He had been thankful for the message his daughter had given him, as he had been fighting an internal battle on whether or not he should accept Sarah's subtle offers of making their relationship an official thing between the two of them, physically that is. But other than a basic feeling of gratitude for the acceptance of his and Sarah's relationship by his previous wife, he wasn't sure what else to feel and it confused him. So he took it for what it was and ultimately decided the rest would have to come later, whatever that meant. It was strange trying to take it as more than what it was meant for, trying to find some hidden meaning that didn't exist. But, a part of him hoped there was some meaning outside of the obvious. At the same time, he was glad Celeste wasn't disappointed in how he handled raising Luna. There had been a few times he had almost lost her to a band of roving gypsies.

"Indeed," Luna stated with a nod as the two of them explored a greenhouse that Dobby had been renovating and getting rid of overgrowth. A family of kneazles had taken it over as their home and Harry had authorized creating an entirely new home for them attached to his own and they were investigating it, but still unsure of changing homes and Dobby was holding off on forcing them out at Harry's request.

Plus, Dobby had sort of taken a shining to them. He spent a curious amount of time making them toys and feeding them.

"Is it basically a preserve?" Xeno asked, wondering just what this 'zoo' was and if it could be invaded and taken over. _'Perhaps a non-hostile plan should be created, just in case... Who knows what they've trained the animals to do.'_

"Not at all. They are large plots of land similar to one, but the animals are taken care of for both food and medicine and are in controlled environments to protect from natural predators. They just lounge about lazily to be ogled by the muggles and get fed, much like cats. So, more like a permanent menagerie, I suppose, and on a grander scale. There are even areas with things like sheep and goats where children can pet and feed them. Hermione's promised to take me this summer!"

"Those muggles! Absolute geniuses!" Xeno exclaimed happily before he frowned in thought. "Wasn't there something important we were supposed to do today? Or that I needed to tell you?"

Luna put her index finger to her lips as she pouted in thought, ignoring the kneazle kittens rolling around in the catnip. "Well, I get the feeling Hermione's mother is ensuring Hermione knows what she is doing and is quite possibly talking about sex and Harry's penis with her. Were you planning on discussing Harry's penis and sex with it with me?" She asked innocently, displaying an impish smile to cover her amusement and curiousity.

"Er, not planning to, no," Xeno stated, looking a little squeamish. He wouldn't have minded so much if he knew how to talk about those things with his little girl. But to be honest, he only knew about the male side of things. While he understood the mechanics, he knew nothing about a girl going through puberty or what she would feel that wasn't shared between them like emotions. And even those he wasn't sure were the same for girls considering how quickly they went from one to another. Especially while pregnant.

"Perhaps how I should prepare for my eventual status as Harry's wife?" Luna asked again.

"Er, still not quite," Xeno said again, looking slightly green.

"Were you intending to ask if I was sure about going through with the betrothal?" Luna asked, wondering if her father was playing some kind of game with her.

"You've already said you were sure about this and happy, so no, that wasn't it," Xeno stated, happy that her suggestion didn't somehow involve thinking about his daughter as a sexually mature young woman. Or at least a burgeoning one. Of course, that was on top of the fact that she hadn't had reason to discuss what she and Harry had done as of yet. The moment the conversation had a reason to bring it up, he'd very much find himself in over his head.

"Well, if we aren't discussing the betrothal, Harry's penis or my eventual status as his wife, then I'm really not sure what it could have been. I am hungry," Luna suggested. "Are we still planning on our early dinner?"

"I'm hungry, too," Xeno mused. "I don't think that was it, either, but I suppose it's as good as anything else. Oh! And before I forget, a raccoon took up residence in your room last week and ate your pillow and made a nest out of your knickers."

"You did remember to offer him a drink, correct?" Luna chided.

"Of course!" Xeno looked rightfully offended. "I even gave her a snack! 'Course, she raided the chill chest as well," he continued slowly. Sarah had found the whole thing amusing when she came by and found the raccoon forcing him to clean the dishes in the kitchen. Well, Xeno had thought the raccoon was forcing him, but in actuality, it looked more like the wee little beastie was waiting for hand-outs to the slightly more sane naturalist.

"Well, we do always want our guests to feel at home," Luna grinned. "Now, let's go get me betrothed to the boy who will one day take my virginity and father your grandchildren!"

"Alrighty, Pumpkin," Xeno agreed.

xXxXxXx

"It looks like regular ink," Dan grumbled from the table where he rubbed his fingers in memory of the phantom pains from where the sadistic goblins had drained him like leeches. Evil leeches that chuckled sadistically when taking his blood. The only saving grace was that they didn't need as much as he thought they would since they were mixing all their blood samples together since the elder Grangers were muggle and had no magic of their own and blood magic was the only way to enforce the contract. Both of them, actually. Not only the betrothal contract, but the one that formalized Harry's patronage over the Granger family and added his protection to Luna's family. Sirius even offered his own family protection, albeit by backing Harry rather than direct protection since he held no other ties to them. Harry also formalized his acceptance of the Black title as Sirius' heir until the older man had an opportunity to visit the healers to fix his little problem if he could ever get his freedom.

"It's meant to look like it," Xenophilius said with a laugh. "So, are you happy with it? Everything you wanted?"

"The out clause is that they have to be checked for any sort of mind control, prove to be free of blackmail or coercion, right? No surprises for later?" Dan asked, wanting to confirm his little girl was as safe as possible and able to get out of this without any real troubles. While it read fairly clearly, he just wasn't familiar with a large amount of the magical aspects though they _sounded_ clear enough. "And to break the contract just means that we technically owe Harry the money from the dowry that he provided anyway by buying our dental practice?"

"Indeedy do," Luna chirruped.

"Short version," Sirius explained, feeling it would come across as more real through him rather than the one that even the escapee from Azkaban thought was a bit batty from the extravagantly dressed man. Considering he was wearing neon, lime-green robes with pink and yellow polka dots and even neon orange slippers with bells on the curled toes. "It's just like we discussed before. There can be no others while the contract is in effect since the magic within will bind them to that promise to each other. However, they can leave whenever they want and it is worked out so there is no real loss for any of you if it happens that way. But, if they try, it basically forces several magical checks that they aren't being manipulated which is the same protection that will keep them from being tricked or manipulated or even potioned up into a broom closet with something unfortunate happening."

"Definitely a good thing," Emma stated, smiling at her daughter who was grinning at Harry.

"On top of that, it sets no date for a wedding other than some time before their twenty-fifth birthday," Sirius finished. "Even then, they only have to set a date if they get to that point without doing so earlier. And that date can be any time, even another decade if they so chose."

"But, what about this bit of possible future wives in addition to Hermione and Luna?" Dan asked with a frown. "Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of those protections? I still find it hard to believe that polygamy is legal in the magical world."

"It's not really that hard, Dad," Hermione stated. "Polygamy really declined at about the same rate as Christianity's growth and was fairly normal before that. And considering they started massive wars in the name of God, demanded tithes, killed anyone even remotely suspected of being a witch and hunted us down, it makes sense that the magical world would have as little to do with religion as possible, or at least that religion. The magical world embraced some aspects that went against those teachings, probably as much out of spite as keeping family lines active."

"It is necessary to have that clause in case anything happens and because it literally can't be removed due to his family status," Sirius explained. "Blame the archaic laws that are focused on continuing family lines. These popped into being about the same time as our Statute of Secrecy, for basically exactly what your intelligent daughter said. Since they _can_ try to push him into gaining more wives, they won't want to remove that ability and they _will_ find a way to avoid submitting this using whatever measures they can get to shut it down, possibly by losing the contract, or just simply try to stone wall him in anything he attempts just to spite him. As long as they _think_ they can get their own daughters and grand daughters into his family, they won't cause as many problems. While they can't legally force more wives on him, they can try to manipulate him into it, or so they will think. But, it will require the unanimous decision of all those currently betrothed following these same guidelines. It's just not a common situation because the family in question needs to have the means to support not just two wives, but two families, or however many it is in a given situation. With enough money and a large enough estate, a man could have as many wives as he is willing to split up his estate by. But that means weakening the family power-base, so it isn't very likely. Laws were put into place to allow mistresses to inherit as long as they're official, so few people practice polygamy officially for that very reason. But at the same time, the larger and wealthier the family, the more power they have and try to keep, sometimes with pure numbers. That's one of the few reasons magic isn't used to increase family size without some actual reason for doing so, in case they become too large and their influence and money spread too thin."

"It _won't_ be happening," Harry said forcefully. "I'm perfectly happy with who and what I have."

"Good call, Potter," Hermione responded with a snort, cuddling a kitten Luna brought with her that appeared blitzed from the catnip and mewling happily at belly rubs. "And if you think we're letting you have more without deciding you need more kids than we're willing to have, you can think again."

"Though it's really only three each," Luna commented.

"But with the stupid laws, they would almost have to be male to inherit properly," Hermione grumbled, looking somewhat angry.

"Well, whatever we have, I'll be perfectly happy with," Harry said. "It would be easy enough to pass the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff names on to daughters if necessary or just to annoy those who are all about sons. And if we don't have a kid for each line, that isn't a big deal to me."

"But it is to the magical world in general," Sirius and Xenophilius said at the same time while Xeno continued. "But if it means that much to you, you could always pass a line on to someone that has a blood connection, such as the Blacks, if you feel you must. The same with my Lovegood name. We have some relatives, just not as many as we'd like and we're the primary line. And we're not a noble family, just an ancient one. Like the Potters from a thousand years ago, that's how we got our name." The Grangers and Harry tried not to think of what that meant, they really did. Sirius, of course, giggled like a schoolgirl. Luna simply smiled proudly at her soon-to-be fiancé and co-girlfriend, either missing what her father meant or knowing quite well. It was hard to tell.

"True," Sirius agreed. "The Longbottoms have a blood tie to us as well, but I can't legally pass the name on to Neville. Only my own son or godson, someone I've got a direct connection with, which is how I am giving it to you instead of letting that wanker Draco get it. Being a godparent is, for all intents and purposes, a magical form of adoption if the worst should happen to the parents of the child. If it didn't go to you, then it'd go to Draco by default."

"Well, I'm ready to sign if everyone else is," Hermione spoke up, looking as though she wouldn't be able to wait any longer. The calm a sleepy kitten provided could only go so far, after all.

With a few chuckles, Harry signed first, grimacing at the use of a blood quill. That was followed by Dan, Emma and Hermione, then Xenophilius and Luna, the latter of which allowed the kitten to place his paw onto it as though signing himself.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Dan said after it was all done and everyone was silent for a moment.

Luna hopped up from her seat and strode over to Harry before leaning forward and smooching him as thoroughly as she felt she could get away with in the presence of the adults. "That's for wanting me," she said as she pulled back with a smile, hugging him around the neck.

Hermione wasn't about to be outdone and followed, though she handed him the snoring kitten before following, making very sure she kept the kissing hidden from her parents' view with her body so she could slip her tongue into his mouth. "For wanting _both_ of us," she told him, leaning forward to kiss his forehead.

Harry grinned and pulled out two lacquer boxes that were colored the same as the jewelry boxes given to them over Christmas. "For wanting _me_," he told them. "Not the same as what I guess a regular proposal would be, but then, this wasn't one, either."

Luna opened hers first, showing a half-carat, yellow diamond in the shape of a heart with crushed emerald surrounding it in a simple platinum band designed to allow some rough handling without risking the gems coming out. None of the emerald pieces were more than chips, but they ringed the yellow stone.

Hermione opened hers at the same time Luna gasped. By the time Luna squealed in happiness, she had opened her own little box to see a red diamond in a Trillion cut with no other special gems. The platinum band on this one was the same as Luna's to allow for every day wear without fearing the stone will catch on something or get knocked off of anything. It would also keep them from scratching themselves or their partners in bed since the platinum on both bands went up in a fashion similar to a volcano to protect the gems themselves with charms to catch whatever light was outside to project it from within so they would still glitter properly for the wearer to appreciate.

Both girls launched themselves at Harry and kissed him on the mouth, along with each other, at the same time, hugging each other in shock and excitement.

"If they weren't basically just getting engaged, this would worry me," Dan quipped before the next five seconds of kissing continued, causing him to frown. "Ugh! I'm worried," he bitched lightly as he heard his daughter moan. Another five seconds later, he decided to clear his throat to stop the display in front of him. He was sure they did worse when there weren't adults present, but he didn't have to witness it or admit to it, which meant it was like it didn't happen in his little mental world where his daughter was all but a nun.

The truth would not have surprised him, but it would still have horrified him that she took so much after her mother.

"Even you have to admit that was deserved," Hermione grumbled in annoyance, deciding she would thank Harry for being such a thoughtful boyfriend later. After she told him exactly what he was being thanked for, so he didn't get the wrong idea, of course. He still needed a little work to ensure he didn't learn the wrong habits or that certain things, like saying 'I love you' and giving jewelry, didn't automatically mean physical rewards. She thought he understood, but didn't quite _know_, the difference between the two. Plus, her and Luna still had two days left for their menses cycles and had no intentions of allowing that to impede their personal time. But they did agree to keep things to simple snogging since they would feel more comfortable doing so.

"He didn't have a problem until we began to have a conversation in the time it took you three to kiss," Emma explained with a happy grin, exaggerating only a little to toy with her daughter. She was handling this _much_ better than she had earlier. Especially seeing Hermione and Luna have their rings put on them by Harry, who was explaining the auto-sizing charms and self-cleaning charms the rings had, which she silently had to approve of. Keeping her own ring clean was a bit of a chore, though her band was gold and much more easily scratched.

"I was considering giving them to you on Valentine's Day, but thought it would be more appropriate today," Harry explained while sporting a goofy grin.

"It was a good decision," Luna purred, admiring her ring. "That day has become one that some things are expected and have become trite. This was a much better occasion."

"We can wait to show anyone until that morning, if you'd like," Hermione offered, admiring her ring. "It'll keep people from talking as much tomorrow, anyway."

"Oh, that could be fun!" Luna cried out gleefully, clapping her hands and hopping in her seat and making her bunny ears flop.

"Agreed then," Hermione said with a smile as she moved the gem to cause it to glitter splendidly. She was unaware of her tail actually wagging behind her.

"So, when were you expecting to have your Auream Ball?" Sirius asked jovially.

"My what?" Harry asked, bewildered.

"The Auream Ball is a dance party that is usually give some minor theme and commemorates a lord's rise to power," Luna explained calmly, scratching the kitten behind the ear where it was hugged nestled between Hermione's breasts since neither girl wanted to get away from their new fiancé and Hermione never really passed up an opportunity to cuddle a cat. "It's basically the equivalent to a girl's debutante ball in the muggle world if I recall correctly."

"We don't actually do those any longer," Emma stated. "Well, not with meeting the Queen as well. She hasn't presided over it since the late thirties. It's still a fun thing to do for girls, though. But it's all about the party now."

"They always have been fairly regional in nature," Dan agreed with a shrug. "But it may be fun to have, all the same."

"It's usually where the previous lord passes the mantle on, but it could double as your wedding announcement celebration as well, though," Sirius said with a grin.

"What exactly does this thing entail?" Harry asked flatly.

"You basically invite anyone and everyone of importance and friends. Not inviting someone is seen as a snub," Sirius said with a shrug.

"He means Malfoy," Luna stated, from where she put her elbows on the table and munched on a piece of hard caramel that no one quite knew where she got it.

"Well, those like him, anyway," Sirius amended. "It's a fairly big snub not to invite someone that is another lord, but at the same time, it would make a statement."

"Yea, it states 'I hate Malfoy'," Harry snarked.

"Play nice," Hermione chided gently, not that she would be willing to argue in Draco's favor. That was also something they could all tell.

"So, it's basically a ball with dancing and such and probably food and posturing to impress people I don't know and probably don't like?" Harry asked.

"Exactly!" Xenophilius exclaimed merrily, raising his arms up to impress upon them the joyous nature of the event.

"It's an annoying aspect, but one that will have a lot of people upset at you if you don't when you have the means to make it work," Sirius explained. "It's expected of you and people will be upset if you don't have the party and think it's an intentional snub towards them all. It's basically expected of your station more than you, yourself."

"Why didn't Daphne mention this?" Harry grumbled. "She knows that I'm totally in the dark regarding these things."

"If it were just your lordships, then it could be excused for a few years," Sirius explained. "Until you're out of Hogwarts at any rate. Getting betrothed means you're actually taking on some of your lordship duties and should be acting the part. As a girlfriend, it isn't a big deal. With this," he said, tapping the contract, "you acknowledge your position and are working in its capacity. You can't really avoid this, now, without making enemies, even if they're only political."

"When should we do it?" Hermione asked. "And what would it entail?"

"It's basically just a ball like any other," Luna explained, slipping a hand under the table, only for Harry's face to blank as he found it made its way to his thigh. It just rested there, but while he would normally enjoy it, he definitely didn't in front of all the parents and sort-of-an-adult Sirius. "Everything is judged to determine how well it goes. The quality and amount of food, the amount of time the ball lasts for, the decorations, the music, the theme and most importantly, how drunk they get. The quality of the alcohol plays a very big part."

"Indeed," Xenophilius agreed. "What they remember is important, but the less they remember is more so. And if they have a good time, then all the better. It's a standard practice to judge how good the night went by both how little is remembered, how they wake up and how long the hangover lasts."

"It's fairly common to hire working women for the dancing to take any men who are important and ensure they remember you and the event fondly," Sirius explained, "but that is a tactic that is a double-edged sword. It's a despicable thing, but one that usually leads to a lot of good will and favors."

"I don't think I can be comfortable with that," Emma stated with a little disgust. "I assume you're referring to prostitutes?" She asked to be very sure, getting a nod from Sirius.

"Me either," Hermione and Luna agreed. Hermione, however, chose to continue her thoughts. "But, at the same time, while I could never respect the idea and would sooner see whoever accepted those girls' advances get diseased and publicly flogged, I admit that we will need all the good will we can get and a _lot_ of people won't like Harry as it is, especially if he's not taking extra wives. They may be willing to suck up until he denies them, but deny them he will. And very possibly a good many at this party."

"How about we come back to that at a future date and time to see what we need to do?" Harry attempted to answer diplomatically. "I mean, while there is no telling what else we can do, and it may help in many ways, I won't personally care about them. I'd rather talk about the theme."

"Oh!" Luna exclaimed, moving her hand higher on his thigh and squeezing in surprise. "Good idea! How about cuddly animals running around? Or drinking games? We could get _wassail_!"

"Not likely, Missy," Xeno said lowly, giving his daughter a stern look. He wondered sometimes if Luna was the reincarnation of his grandfather Ahab Lovegood. That man rather enjoyed his booze. But he was male and Luna was, as far as he knew, female. He hadn't needed to check in the last few years, so he couldn't be sure of that fact anymore, but he was fairly sure she would have told him if that had changed.

"Oh poo," Luna grumbled. Harry decided then and there to learn how to make it for his second and blondest girl. The snogging would be _incredible_.

"I was thinking costume ball," Harry said with a shrug. "Fun meets doing things without people knowing it's you."

"Ooh," Luna purred, her nails digging into Harry's thigh just shy of painfully. "I likey!"

"It could be fun," Hermione agreed.

"Well, it isn't normal, but then, it doesn't have to be," Sirius said with a chuckle.

"And trust us," Hermione smirked, "Harry is far from normal."

"So, when should you expect to be doing this?" Emma asked curiously.

"Well, the sooner the better," Sirius said in his thinking pose. "But if we wait too long, then it's only marginally better than not doing it at all. Historically, it's meant to be the same month as the young lord ascends to his new rank and position, but that's pretty much out at this point. So, next month at the latest, I'd say."

"Definitely a weekend," Hermione suggested. "How about the twenty-sixth of March? It's right after a Wizengamot meeting and we can use the weekend to rest at the manor while giving us a little more than a month to plan. Plus, Harry's got a ball room. We'd basically only need to work on food and music, really. At the same time, it gives people time to get costumes if we are going with a costume ball."

"There's a bit more than that," Luna countered. "But it still provides plenty of time and is as good as any other date."

"If that's what you want, I can take care of it," Sirius promised. "Masquerade ball is the theme and the rest is normal? Music, food, decoration and invites to those who matter? I'll need your friends, though, too."

"Works for me," Harry offered, looking at the girls for guidance and getting the same answers. "Do we have to invite Malfoy, though?" He asked.

"Unless you want to get any bad publicity out of it, I'd suggest inviting him. Doesn't mean he'll accept, of course. But, unless you want to make a strong statement with it, I'd do it. Two youngest lords taking their positions within months of each other and all that. The press would have a field day if you two appeared already at odds."

"Do you think you can get me some dance lessons?" Harry asked, having a curious sense of deja vu.

"I could go through the goblins for the stuff for the party, but not that, sorry," Sirius stated, looking as sorry as he felt.

"I don't know of any, but I can look," Xenophilius offered.

"Anyone we know would require classroom lessons," Dan offered. "But, like Xeno, we can look as well," he suggested.

"We could see if Neville knows anyone," Hermione considered aloud. "He was talking about how his gran made him learn everything a lord would need to know."

"Good idea," Luna said with a smile. "Neville said he would send a letter to his grandmother about the lessons Harry brought up before. We should see if he's already done so."

"What do you think about trying to get your name cleared about that same time and making this announcement two-fold?" Harry asked Sirius after a moment since he had forgotten he had asked Neville about that.

"What did you have in mind?" Sirius asked.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 12, Earlier in the day – Afternoon at Hogsmeade**

_'It's like an entirely different language,'_ Ron thought as he stared at his hot chocolate, with marshmallows of course, while the girls around him chattered on about ... well, he wasn't quite sure _what_ they were talking about. He considered asking Hermione to translate for him, but she wasn't really a girl in the sense of ... being girly. He wasn't even sure she was mentally all girl, to be honest. She got violent sometimes like his mother and Ginny, and she probably had the girl bits since she lived in the girl dormitories, but that was about where the similarities ended. And he doubted she was filling out like Lavender was, of course. His little bunny-girl, as she was all but his he was sure, couldn't stop bouncing in her seat and moving around as she flittered from place to place and seemed to enjoy his company. Granted, he could be mistaking a lot of her compulsive bouncing due to the bunny currently in her and his own interest for hers.

In truth, spending the day with Lavender was both wonderful and boring all at once, which was something Ron didn't think could happen. It was great because all of Lavender's attention was on him. Well, all the attention that wasn't on what other girls were wearing, the clothes, the make-up, the chocolate, greeting pretty much every girl they came across and talking about their shoes or accessories in a way that made Ron think everything they were saying was some nefarious code for something else since _no one_ put that kind of importance on bracelets or earrings. But other than that, her attention was all on him.

She also liked to smile at him throughout the day. A lot. And the touches on his arm and the occasional hug when he complimented whatever she asked his opinion on was _awesome_. Hugs meant closeness and kinda-sorta touching something he normally couldn't. It wasn't quite the same as being allowed to touch with his hand, but as far as Ron Weasley was concerned, touching was touching! He was kinda-sorta a man now! That was something to be proud of! And all the store shopkeepers found the entire prank situation hilarious and found it curious to see what people became what animals and which ones paired up. The cuter you were, the better your experience and likelihood of discounts popping up.

Of course, it could have also been the fact that the dementors were recently forced out of the village area and they were rejoicing in their lack of misery, too. But Ron wouldn't know anything about that.

But, it was boring, too, because they didn't really do much other than a whole lot of walking, sitting and talking, mostly with other girls. It wasn't that Ron didn't understand them, but he didn't understand their conversations. The words were mostly the same, but girls seemed to have another sort of language that was based loosely on English. _'Whatever a 'hottie' is, I don't think a bloke is supposed to be one... it sounds kinda flowery,'_ he mused. _'I also need to watch out... if Lavender starts talking about my arse being delicious again, I'll have to send a letter to Harry for safekeeping to make sure he knows who it was that did it if I disappear. I don't _think_ she would actually try to eat me, and that's certainly a strange place to start, but none of the other girls seemed to think she was kidding and Parvati was talkin' about browning me in the sun a bit like a bloody roast chicken!'_

Ron shuddered at the idea of 'tanning'. The only bright point was when Lavender and her friends were sniffing a bunch of perfume bottles. When Lavender found one she liked, she asked him to try it on. Apparently, it was for him under the agreement that he wear it when they did things together. Agreeing, and then getting her some chocolate, had earned him a kiss in the cheek!

_'This dating thing isn't so hard,'_ he thought to himself proudly. _'I bet Harry doesn't have it half as good! Lav may not be Hermione smart, but then again, neither Hermione or Luna are Lavender-sized where it matters, either,'_ he chuckled in his mind as he took a quick glance at the bright pink sweater his lady friend, as she made a point of telling him they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend '_yet_', was wearing and the two fleshy treasures hidden beneath before glancing away almost immediately. Harry had told him to either not look at all, or only look for as short a time as possible unless she was doing something to highlight them, and then to focus away from them and on whatever she was going on about, which seemed to be working out well for the giddy redhead. _'Easy for him to say, though ... Neither of Harry's girls are like Lav!'_

"Ready to go back to the castle? The next group of students are leaving in a few minutes and we don't want to go without being a part of the group because of the dementors." Lavender asked Ron as she saw him fight the urge to look at her assets once again. She dealt with enough perverts ogling her that she was really touched by his attempts at gallantry. Not only did he not stare, but he hadn't complained even once throughout the day. And she hadn't even tried on any new clothes to keep his interest! Though she had to talk about food and listen about the Chudley Cannons a few times ... Strange that. Still, the fact that a professional Quidditch team already offered him to participate in their training during the summer was nothing short of amazing! And the new broom Harry had gotten him for Christmas was likely to help him out tremendously. He was only thirteen and already had a real shot at professional Quidditch!

Lavender wasn't book smart like Hermione, but she was socially smart and very well educated regarding matters of the social strata by a woman who wanted her daughter to have the best in life, either that was from her education or selecting her man well. Her mother had been a poor pureblood that had married up, financially, but her husband was, while wealthy, a pureblood name with no confirmed lineage with the pureblood line itself, so his heritage was unconfirmed. It was enough for those who cared, since he had a moderate amount of wealth, though.

However, because of that, Lavender's mother ensured her daughter would know how to play the social game and find a proper spouse. While the Weasley family wasn't _nearly_ as wealthy as her mother would probably like, Lavender kind of liked the family. And she felt Ron was actually kind of cute in a bumbling sort of way. Plus, he had powerful connections in Harry Potter while she knew that gaining entry into _that_ family would be all but impossible through watching their dynamic and knowing Harry wasn't choosing girls without Hermione's permission. And while they were friendly towards one another, Lavender had no doubts about Hermione's thoughts on her mental abilities. Hermione didn't _hate_ Lavender, but she didn't think highly of her, either.

Besides, being able to train your boyfriend was worth a bit of work in making him better. She may have to work on his appearance a bit, but she actually felt it could be a bit of fun.

"Yea," Ron agreed. "It's better now that they are being forced to stay away from the village with the other Aurors keeping 'em back."

"Not as well as Harry, but you make a valid point," she stated, remembering him keeping them out of the town by himself. "Plus, you're capable of it, right?"

"Not yet," Ron said with a blush, feeling a little insecure. His face began to turn red.

"Well, maybe you just need to work on a newer, happier memory," Lavender said with a suggestive wink. It was too much for Ron. His face erupted into a blush, but now because he was thinking things that would probably get him slapped if Lavender was aware of them, but at least it wasn't from feeling inadequate as she had initially noticed. _'And Mum said boyfriends can't be trained,_' she thought happily.

xXxXxXx

Late that night, after both of his girls had fallen asleep after a two-hour long snogging session where they repeatedly passed him between them and leaving no less than three hickeys each and more than a few bite-marks over his chest and shoulders, Harry extracted himself from the girls' embrace. He took a long minute to admire his sleeping beauties. They wore their knickers and silk pajama bottoms, but they were still gorgeous in his eyes and looking more than content. Smiling warmly, he left Luna's bed to enter her small sitting room where the fire sprang to life in front of him as he sat on the floor with his back against the couch.

He slowed his breathing and began to meditate, entering his mindscape. It was beginning to require less mental preparation to do so, he noticed. Before, he could enter immediately but, much like earlier that day, he could do so without complete focus now.

After a moment, he opened his eyes to find himself in the Headmaster's office, sitting on the floor and his back resting against a couch that had replaced the simple chair it would normally have been.

"I was wondering when you would show up," his mental avatar of Hermione said in greeting. "It's been a while since you've actually popped in since you found out I take care of most things on my own for you," she finished, looking at him somewhat accusingly.

"Sorry," Harry mumbled. "I just don't really know what I can do to help and, to be honest, I've been focused on other things the last couple of months."

"Believe me, I know," Mental Hermione stated, rolling her eyes. "I have no problems with spending so much time with the girls, but you should know with Snape's intrusion not too long ago that you aren't nearly as well-defended as you need to be. He was getting through here with almost no trouble except for that last surprise with the acromantula."

"I know," Harry sighed. "I'm sorry."

"I know you are," Mental Hermione stated. "I'm you, remember? Which brings me to my next point. Can I _please_ look more like myself now? The Luna's keep trying to get in here and strip me down. And when you're sleeping, they'll sometimes try the same with the Hermione in their group."

"It's the same as before," Harry said with a shrug. "I feel more at ease with Hermione covering my back."

"I knew that was coming," Mental Hermione grumbled, falling into the chair behind the desk with a thump.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Harry asked, taking a chair that he materialized from nothing.

"Developments with the mindscape," she responded with a sigh. "Including an update on everything up to this point since you've decided to abandon your upkeep, which will need to change, especially now."

"'Especially now'?" Harry asked curiously.

"Updates first," Mental Hermione said. "First, the perks we've discovered. As you know, we can copy any documents you see out in the real world here, even if you only get a glance since you've got me, and whoever or whatever copies I make, to scan the memories. We're doing that with the letters from Skeeter and Slughorn and I'm keeping a mental calendar for you so you don't forget meeting them. We'll also be doing that with any books related to magic you've ever seen as memories are sorted."

"Right," Harry said with a nod. "And thanks for suggesting that, by the way. I'm curious about _how_ you suggested it, though."

"That is update number two," Mental Hermione pointed out. "With the strengthening of the mindscape, or to be more precise, with more of your memories being sorted and thus integrating with it, the more control over your mind you will find that you have. That basically means that you'll have better recall, just as Lora told you in her office. You've noticed that your recall greatly improved after changing from the power-limiting seal to the bracelets, right?"

"Yea," Harry mused thoughtfully. "At least, thinking was clearer and I could recall details of things much more easily from newer memories, but I thought that was the occlumency. Isn't that what it is supposed to do?"

"It is, as you know," Mental Hermione agreed. "But in your case, it's two-fold. Your mind is setting to where it should be on its own, with the occlumency on top of that. All your new experiences, even naughty time with Hermione and Luna, are recorded here in perfect detail. Once you learn how to access the new memories without having to enter the mindscape, then you will effectively have perfect recall. Different from most, however, is that you will even have recall for times you're unconscious insofar as you're able to sense. Sight may not be much except for that weird ability to sense people and magic you're developing. That's a benefit of having your subconscious mind, namely me, working on this place at all times."

"That's so cool," Harry breathed in amazement. "So, I'll be like Hermione in that regard?"

"Better, until she develops this more herself," Mental Hermione explained with a shrug. "That's why I was able to talk to you. I've been able to for a few days, but since I've wanted to explore what it means, I wanted to do that before bringing this up to you. But, you can't really access your memories yet on your own without entering the mindscape, so I'm basically your link to it. But, like today, you'll find that you sort of drift off mentally like you're daydreaming."

"When will I have better recall?" Harry asked, a little disappointed.

"You already do. It just gets better as more of your memories are ensconced within the confines of the mindscape," she explained. "Right now, we're probably at roughly fifteen or so percent finished sorting your memories. Even with me doing a lot of it, it seems it may take a few years like regular occlumency. But, since you can do it without being conscious of it, maybe one year, maybe eighteen months, to finish. In the last nine months, we've finished sorting all of your important memories and most of your time at Hogwarts from your last life and have three years left. As we go to older memories, it'll go much faster since a good amount of it can be lumped together."

"Okay. What else?"

"Upkeep," Mental Hermione said with a look that suggested she was unhappy with him. Odd that, since she was a part of him. "You need to start checking in at least every other day. Some weird things are starting to happen."

"Like what?" Harry asked, trying to reconcile the idea of what looked like Hermione saying 'weird things' without being annoyed at not understanding them.

"We're no longer alone in here," Mental Hermione explained with a shrug, pointing an elbow over her shoulder to the side where there was a new little hallway with a door on either side at the end. One was a wooden thing of beauty that was heavy oak and stained to a golden honey-colored perfection. The other was also a heavy door, but it looked like a rainbow threw up on it and then swirled all the colors around making several that shouldn't exist.

"Are the colors on that one moving?" Harry asked, pointing at the monstrosity on the right.

"I'm not sure," Mental Hermione frowned. "I've tried to avoid looking at it. It's painful to look at, but I can't seem to take my eyes off of it."

Harry nodded.

"They were originally, once they popped into existence anyway, empty rooms with just a simple wooden door that looked like it hadn't been treated. Well, the one for Luna was actually about a hundred strings with shiny beads on it before it turned into that. Now, they've changed to what you see. The rooms have also filled up a bit."

"What's in them?" Harry asked, tearing his eyes away from the strange door to look at Hermione's doppleganger.

"I think they're some sort of links to the girls," Mental Hermione explained. "I can hear them thinking sometimes out of the rooms. I've not tried talking back to them and I'm hesitant to send anything across in case it causes problems since I don't really exist. I'm just a part of you. I think it'd be better to send you instead."

"I guess we can try," Harry said. He got up and went to Hermione's door first, opening it up to see a rather curious study and office space. It was a large room with a lot of natural wood décor, something Harry approved of since he knew both Hermione and himself enjoyed natural environments with natural color schemes.

Half of the large room was devoted to book shelves, most of the contents of which seemed to be related to him and Luna, curiously enough. There were also some on anatomy, sex, relationships and things related to their relationships and working together. He decided to ignore the ones related to possible child abuse next to the section on him and her observations of him. He also ignored the coloring books in the section specifically for Luna.

A quarter of the room was office space with a very large, wooden desk that appeared to have been crafted from one piece of wood. There was a picture on the desk of him, her and Luna as they cuddled while sleeping in Luna's bed. Surrounding it were two other pictures of both himself and Luna, as well. It looked very much like what a librarian or one of the professors would do for their office, assuming they were willing to spend the ridiculous amount of money such a desk would cost.

The part of the room that held Harry's shocked attention, however, was the last quarter of the room, immediately to the right of the door that he hadn't noticed until he walked past the door and it became visible. It was filled with various pieces of furniture – a bed, a deep couch, a shaggy rug in front of a fireplace and a hot tub in the corner.

There was also a small little bookshelf that was filled with erotic books in the form of stories and guides, such as the Kama Sutra. There was also a large shelf that included various naughty toys, though only a few he recognized. There was the ball gag that he had accidentally conjured on Tonks during the duel, a spanking paddle, handcuffs (both fuzzy and not,) cherry edible underwear and a blindfold. But only the gag and paddle had substance. The others looked almost like ghostly versions of what they should have been.

However, it was the picture of a nude and bound Hermione, tied up in Harry's bed with him holding the paddle as he gazed down at her blindfolded form that rested above the fireplace that shocked him to his core.

"You should have asked for specifics when she talked about dominating her," Mental Hermione suggested, just as shocked as Harry.

"Yea, definitely," Harry breathed in shallow breaths as what he was seeing tried to register. "I know she likes having her bottom smacked, but ... _this_ is..."

"It's like everything that relates to the two of you," Mental Hermione said, looking around. "The setting is Hermione, but the books are things that relate to either you or Luna, or is shared between the two of you. The books are on relationships or your mental development. And as much as she's grown to enjoy your personal time, it makes sense that part of this would be devoted towards that aim. All of this is symbolic of your relationship with her, it seems."

"Yea, definitely," Harry said again, still staring at the portrait of naughtiness above the crackling fire.

"Oh, honestly!" Mental Hermione exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "You've seen her bits almost every day since Christmas!"

"Yea, but this is ... _kinky_!" Harry responded defensively. "I mean, I knew she was but, this ..." he gestured to the paddle and ball gag. "Just ... wow."

Mental Hermione rolled her eyes again. "This is what you're meant to see here," she said, getting his attention to focus on the wall next to the door where it looked like the air was being sucked into the wall. It looked like the stone shifted like Jell-O. "When they're sleeping, you won't hear anything. It seems like it's only conscious thought that comes through. This will also seem more active than this, too, like a tiny black hole, but where you can see the stone getting sucked in. It's actually kind of interesting."

"Agreed," Harry said, poking at the drain-like spot on the wall. He could feel the sucking sensation lightly on his fingers, like a gentle breeze going into the wall. "So, should I just step through, do you think?"

"You've already decided to do so," Mental Hermione said with a shrug.

"Good point," Harry said, walking into the small vortex.

_Harry found himself walk through a tree in the yard at rear Potter Manor that was next to the large lake. He looked down at his hand at the strange feeling of going through the tree and noticed he was rather ghost-like in transparency. Attempts to stick his own hand through his body failed, however. A glance back at the tree showed the same vortex as in his own mind._

_He looked back up and realized he was very much not alone. In fact, there were about a hundred people, looking like the living, in chairs all facing a raised dais. At that dais, he saw himself, dressed up and standing next to a druid much like the one from Bill and Fleur's wedding that he remembered going to. A quick glance around showed he was attending yet another one, this one was apparently his. _

_Harry's grin was extremely wide as he rushed up to the dais as the bridal hymn he was used to in the muggle world began playing from who knows where. He looked over before he made it to the dais where he saw Hermione and Luna swaying gently down the aisle, looking like angels. They both wore white dressed that glistened in the bright sunlight. _

_Luna's hair was braided in a long and thick rope behind her head with loose coils framing her face and with gems on little tinsel strands joining it all together. She had also apparently somehow gotten some tiny fairies to circle around her and Hermione, it seemed. The affable blonde's dress was also something that appeared more ancient in style than Hermione's dress. It covered more while appearing a little more Gothic in nature._

_Hermione's hair was also braided, but only slightly so that it formed a crown around her head, the remaining hair forming soft ringlets that cascaded down her back. She didn't have gems in her hair, but wore more jewelry on her body to accentuate her appearance. Hermione's dress seemed more traditionally muggle, missing the long train and veil. The skirt was also more modern than traditional with a simple draping design without being substantially poofy or with many layers._

"_Whoa," he mumbled as the girls joined his other self at the dais. He approached the Triad and smiled warmly before trying to put his hand on his other self's shoulder, only to suddenly find his perspective change to match his dream self's. Harry found himself unable to move of his own accord as the druid began to speak and wed them to one another. Attempts to force his body to move disconnected him to the version Hermione was dreaming, much to his consternation._

_After a few minutes, he left the dream body, noting that he experienced what the dream self did as well, and went back to the vortex. He wanted to watch them marry, but at the same time, he decided to leave to see what happened with Luna's vortex while it was still fairly early so he could get to sleep. He stepped through the vortex, finding himself back in Hermione's office._

"Well?" Mental Hermione asked curiously. Then she blinked. "Oh! That's interesting," she said as his knowledge filtered through. It seemed there was a slightly delay when coming from a different mind.

"I'm sort of worried about this one," Harry joked, opening the door that seemed less like wood and more like color taking physical form. He could tell there was wood in there, but it just seemed like the door glowed under its own power and intensity. He was having a difficult time trying to determine what some of the colors were since he had never seen them occur before.

"Don't be ridiculous," Mental Hermione grumbled.

Harry entered Luna's office and stopped short, blinking rapidly as if hoping things would change. The room was _possibly_ larger than Hermione's, but he couldn't be sure. There was a clearing that housed a tree stump for a desk with a giant toadstool as a chair. Instead of normal furniture, there were mounds and shapes in the ground that were covered in thick, lush grass that was an impossibly-rich shade of green that almost made him _want_ to lounge on it and more toadstool stems that housed what looked like half of gargantuan egg shells with moss to keep it soft as you sat.

Where Hermione had bookshelves to store some of her thoughts, ideas and basic information, Luna apparently had large flowers that simply sang their knowledge when prompted. Little sign posts were stuck into the ground beside each one that said what the flower knew, much like the ones muggles would use to state the flower type in their plastic trays. Until they were prompted, they seemed to simply sleep though a few were singing '_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine!'_

Behind the naturally created furniture and the tree stump desk with the toadstool seat, there was a crystal clear pond about a twenty feet wide with a tiny little waterfall that had a small cave about the size of a normal bedroom. The rest of the office space, however far it extended to, was lush forest with an actual wind.

"Somehow, this makes sense," Harry murmured, twitching slightly at the fact that he realized all of the trees, leaves, mushrooms and everything that he wouldn't walk on or sit on was actually edible candy of some sort. Whether it was tree leaves that were actually mint, tree bark that was various shades of chocolate, gumdrop berries in bushes or even chocolate bunnies hopping around, it was edible. He elected to pretend to not notice the small cage with gingerbread men huddled in the corner or the board on the desk which indicated she was still at odds with Santa and plotting another coup of the North Pole.

Much like Hermione's office, this one had something that signified the importance of the relationship to his second girlfriend. Opposite the small fifteen-foot waterfall was a large, marble statue of him, Hermione and Luna in what appeared to be Roman togas, or an approximation of them since they showed the girls' stomachs and a fair amount of leg on each of them, with gold clasps as to where the normal clasp would be if the clothing was real. Inscribed on the base of the statue in gold were the words 'Friends, Family, Lovers' in a fanciful, looping script. It reminded Harry of another time, when he had been in Luna's bedroom, seeing something very similar on a slightly larger scale painted on her bedroom walls with the word 'Friends' repeated over and over again to form a golden chain linking them all together.

"Reminds you of a darker time, doesn't it?" Mental Hermione asked softly, gazing fondly at the statue.

"Yea," Harry agreed.

"The vortex-portal thing is over there," Mental Hermione said, pointing at what looked like a large commode in the shape of another mushroom. She lifted the cap to reveal the portal.

"This doesn't surprise me," Harry sighed, hopping into the swirly tunnel. The flushing sound effect _did_ actually surprise him, though.

_Harry gasped as he fell onto a large pile of what felt like cotton batting. "What?" He asked, looking around frantically, only to stop and stare in shock. Not the kind of shock he had in seeing her office space, but the shock of something so outside his realm of experience that he could only splutter in disbelief._

_Away from the pile of stuffed animals in a giant hole that he was in, Harry saw another green clearing, encircled by numerous large trees of white oak, redwood and he didn't know what else. Thousands of flowers glittered like twinkling lights across the clearing while a shaft of pale moonlight shined down on Luna, Hermione and another of his dopplegangers. They were not exactly naked as they danced under the pale moon's light. Luna was covered in butterscotch pudding, Hermione in banana-cream and Harry in cheesecake. He was rather unsure of what the overgrown cherries on their heads and equally as large, being worn as hats were meant for._

_The three of them were dancing in circles around a fairy circle of mushrooms on the ground while occasionally pressing their bodies together in a shared kiss that seemed to release a burst of magic that caused the trees and flowers to swell with new life._

"_I _really_ shouldn't be this interested," Harry mumbled as he watched the three of them cavort in circles. "But I guess that lets me know what I need to." He looked over and around to find the vortex-portal in the mouth of a vastly larger stuffed bear. "Awkward," he muttered, crawling into the beast's mouth and back into his own office._

"That's about what I expected," Mental Hermione spoke after a moment wherein the memories of the dream came through.

"_That_ is what you expected?" Harry asked incredulously. "We were covered in pudding!"

"Yea," Mental Hermione purred, grinning awkwardly with a look found most commonly on Ron's face.

"I wonder...," Harry murmured, looking curiously at the vortex.

"Hm?" Mental Hermione asked, looking at Harry. "Wonder what?" She asked so that he could flesh the idea out in his head since she didn't have the whole idea. Without him forming it in full, she didn't understand it and she thought on a much more basic level than Harry's consciousness did. She could bounce ideas which equated to thinking to himself, but that was the extent of it other than ideas and thoughts he already had and an inability to lie.

"Everything in the mindscape is just a representation of its function, right?" He asked. "I mean, walls just keep someone from going a certain way, gravity is my attempt to control their movements, animals are my defenses? If that's the case, then these links that are basically telepathy are also representations in my mind, right? So, we could theoretically create our abilities in here, right?"

Mental Hermione pondered that, nodding slowly. "It makes sense in an abstract sort of way," she began. "I mean, with Hermione's interests in the physical relationship with a symbolic portion of her office here representing that, plus those vortexes and knowing you should get some sort of telepathic link, it does make sense. I don't know if you could artificially create any powers from those, but it would be worth discussing with the girls and seeing what they think. And certainly worth the attempt."

"Good enough for me," Harry said as he got up and walked to the normal office. "I think I'm heading back to finish getting my sleep."

"Sleep well, then," Mental Hermione said, fixing the goblin patrols on the walls of the castle.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – February 14, Morning**

Monday, February fourteenth. Valentine's Day. A day many women loved, most boys thought of as free chocolate day and couples occasionally did sappy things to express their varying degrees of love, lust or the desire to embarrass their partners in public ways to watch them squirm.

Harry woke up to the feeling of butterfly kisses over his face, neck and chest, only to find himself also being tickled by long hair. "Hm? H'mione? Luna? Whazzit?"

"I think he likes being awakened like this," Luna observed, prodding his morning visitor and causing Harry to groan in both pleasure and a dire need to use the facilities.

Hermione smirked evilly as she raised a leg to straddle Harry and stretch out over him to kiss him deeply, rolling her hips as she trailed her breasts over his chest. Several long seconds later, she withdrew and smiled down at him. "Happy Valentine's Day, Fiancé.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Harry mumbled back, his mind elsewhere as he watched her slip off of him and Luna take her place, kissing her way up his chest as she slowly took her position over him and then kissed him just as thoroughly without the teasing at the hips. Hermione had apparently ended her time early, but Luna could tell she still had a day or so to go.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Luna stated, leaning backwards to sit in his lap. "Traditions must start somewhere. I think this is a very good one to start here, don't you think?"

"I like traditions," Harry burbled, smiling at his girls.

"Since we decided we would keep today very simple and parent-approved in what we did that this would be the extent of our naughty time today," Hermione said, leaning over and nibbling on his neck.

"We decided we didn't want to be totally without the fun parts for the day," Luna re-explained. "With the rings, we had originally considered sucking your wand until you were drained dry, but Hermione felt that wouldn't be appropriate," she finished bluntly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Er," Hermione blushed as Harry looked at her with a stunned expression. "Well, that was my first thought after I got the ring but, like I told you when we got back, but I didn't want to suggest I was doing it just for that, so Luna and I wound up snogging your brains out instead."

"It's okay," Harry chuckled. "I'd have probably thought you felt like you had to, anyway. I still want you two to go at your own paces." Silently, he felt their own paces just may have been faster than they were going anyway. At least for Hermione. Luna likely just wanted to take a bath in pudding if their dreams and offices meant anything.

"Time to wear our rings!" Luna exclaimed happily, bouncing up and down for a moment, incidentally reminding Harry he hadn't gone to the bathroom yet, before bounding off of him and to the boxes from the bedside table, handing Hermione hers. Both girls opened them and held the contents out to Harry who sat up so he could put the rings onto the girls' hands.

Harry slid the rings on the fingers they belonged to and laughed as they squealed and hugged each other. By the time they turned back to the bed, he was gone. "What?" They questioned in unison. Half a second later, they heard water trickling from the loo. "Oh," they giggled.

xXxXxXx

Lavender hopped off the couch as she saw Hermione enter the common room from out of nowhere. Her and the rest of the Triad were heading for the exit for what she suspected was going to be breakfast and she rushed over to catch up to them. "Hermione! Hermione, wait!"

"Hm? What's up, Lavender?" Hermione asked, curious at the blonde's nervous expression. That was compounded by the knowledge that Parvati wasn't there, either.

"Can I speak with you a moment?"

"Sure," Hermione agreed, turning to the other two. "See you in the Great Hall, alright? What's wrong, Lav?" Hermione asked as Harry and Luna went on without her.

"I stayed up late last night to talk with you, but you never came to bed," Lavender began quietly, looking around suspiciously. Not so far around, of course, that she couldn't see Hermione's panicked eyes widen or a small blush erupt over her cheeks at being found out.

"Luna and I will sometimes have a sleepover together when the Ravenclaws get really bad," Hermione tried to partially explain.

"Well, no one else seemed to notice you've not actually been sleeping in bed. We mostly thought you've been coming in real late and leaving real early, but Parvati and I have both noticed that you've spent almost no time in bed," Lavender warned. "We've not talked about it because we're not about to piss off the guy who controls the castle and the land it's on and can _force_ us to keep our mouths shut, _or do other stuff with them_," she thought at the end, not allowing Hermione to hear. They believed Harry was a good guy, but anyone could be angered into doing very bad things. "But don't worry, we won't be saying anything and will run interference with you if needed," Lavender promised.

"Thank you. And the Ravenclaws have been pretty bad," Hermione muttered unconvincingly.

"Even recently?" Lavender asked with a quirk of a well-tweezed eyebrow. "Look, it isn't a big deal. But people are likely to catch on, soon even if we _do_ try to cover for you. You already spend almost every moment with them outside of classes."

_'You haven't noticed in over a month,'_ Hermione thought to herself. "Thanks for the warning Lavender. But, it's nothing so scandalous as you may think." Quietly, she couldn't help but giggle in her mind. _'It's actually probably even worse.'_

"Oh?" Lavender asked, her tone more predatory in nature and her eyes gleaming with excitement. "Then when did you get that rather gorgeous ring?" She asked, her hand darting out with lightning speed and grasping the older witch's hand to look at the sparkly ring that adorned a very important finger.

"Harry got me and Luna each one when we signed our betrothal contracts," Hermione explained happily, smiling brightly and showing off the blood-red gem. She was also thankful for the change of subject. Plus, with Lavender knowing about the ring, the news would spread even faster.

"That reminds me, thanks for telling Ron how to behave like a gentleman," Lavender said as the two began trekking to the ground floor to eat their breakfasts. "He still likes to look on occasion, but he tries not to stare at my breasts, at least not for long, anyway," she continued with a laugh. "But mostly, his general manners have gotten better. He didn't talk with food in his mouth once yesterday or the day before while we visited Hogsmeade."

"You're thinking of trying it with him, then?" Hermione asked, surprised despite herself. She honestly would have expected Lavender's standards to be a little higher than that from what she heard from Harry. Maybe Lavender hadn't been interested in Ron because he was the reason Gryffindor had won the Quidditch match Harry mentioned, but because it was just the excuse to do something she already wanted. Or maybe there was something else at work. She didn't really know.

"Thinking about it," Lavender admitted. "He's kind of cute, in a dopey kind of way that's sort of endearing-"

"-I suppose I can give you that," Hermione agreed a little unsure. She saw the dopey, but not so much the cute. Hermione felt she may have agreed over a little more time, but she dealt with a little too many of his faults to agree with it as more than a grudging agreement. She knew her feelings were also likely biased by the knowledge that he had abandoned her and Harry in their seventh year. While she had only seen the memories, and not experienced it, she still didn't like the knowledge of it.

"Yea," Lavender snorted softly. "But, he's making the effort. And not many guys can be said to do that this early in life."

By the time Hermione and Lavender entered the Great Hall, Harry was blinking stupidly at the gaggle of girls that were ooh'ing and ahh'ing over Luna's ring. And like rabid wolves sensing weakened prey, several female heads turned to her as she entered and a small wave, mostly those who had seen the younger girl's, moved to now look at Hermione's ring before she had even taken her seat while a few wondered if there would be juicy gossip in that she didn't get one at all.

"You're _betrothed_?" Parvati asked incredulously as Lavender rushed to be the first to break the news. "You work _fast_, Potter!"

"Squee!" Lavender's squeal of delight as she saw Luna's ring was almost painful. Still, the dreamy-eyed blonde was basking in the attention that wasn't geared towards harming her or being mean. Not that many would dare right now after what had happened before since many believed it was still Harry who had somehow brought Cho and her two cohorts to madness. That fear, along with the uncertainty of just what he could do, kept many from angering him outright.

Dumbledore watched from his throne-like chair where Harry's girls, which he knew was something he should accept instead of trying to work with his own plans, despite the remaining urge to do so, laughed and proudly displayed their connections to their new fiancé. He was more conflicted now than he had been for some time. Ideas which he wasn't even sure were his were being invalidated and plans destroyed. Part of him still wanted to continue those, but other parts of him wanted to do what now felt just as right as the plans that had been scrapped. And yet another part of him was scared to death to try any of those plans or do anything at all, really. He couldn't trust himself or his own mind. Were any ideas and thoughts he had now his own? Or were they perhaps failsafes in case he stopped receiving his doses of potions? Were they remaining orders that were made to look like his own ideas? That's what he would have done had it been him, so he couldn't discount that possibility.

He watched the girls intently, carefully calculating their beaming smiles, the constant hugs given to their fiancé and Harry's honest appreciation of those hugs. Albus could distinctly remember coming up with the idea that love was the power mentioned in the prophecy, assuming it was even real to begin with. He couldn't be completely sure of that since Snape was the one who had overheard things, but he could look into it to determine just how real it was. Dumbledore sipped his milk as he came to a new conclusion.

He was an old man. One that had been around for a long time and alienated or manipulated anyone who was close to him. His own brother wouldn't speak to him anymore, his lover Grindelwald was put in a prison designed specifically to hold him and left to rot. That, more than anything, showed how much he had changed since a man truly as pacifistic as himself would never have made the man suffer as horribly as he was at that one-inmate prison. Minerva, who had admitted to having fallen in love with him was kept at arm's length and had since ... about the time in the war when Snape joined his Order and she admitted her feelings for him.

_'Bugger all,'_ he grumbled mentally. _'I might prefer the company of wizards, but not exclusively. And I've been so lonely since Gellert went bad.'_ He quietly offered a moment to mourn what could have been, knowing Minerva was beyond him now. Not because of any relationship, but because he had faced off with her about several things that they didn't see eye-to-eye on. Most especially with regards to young Mister Potter. They were still quite close and strong friends, but he could remember no less than two dozen times he had been forced to augment her thoughts with magic to ensure that friendship remained to ensure no one looked too closely at Hogwarts. Another one of Snape's safety procedures to ensure no new staff would be a threat to him.

Albus was lost and felt adrift. He was scared to make any decisions and realized, in what he hoped was a moment of clarity, that there was really only one chance to make. He'd have to bet it all on his gamble since he had already thrown the dice.

xXxXxXx

Lady Regent Augusta Longbottom, along with Amelia Bones, entered the Great Hall with heads held high, shoulders back and a roll of parchment that spelled a whole lot of frustration for one very nervous Gryffindor while providing a great deal of amusement for the rest.

"Gran?" Neville asked, suddenly worried that he did something and someone told her without him knowing about it.

"Good morning, Neville," Augusta greeted stiffly as Amelia got Susan and Hannah. "I'll forgive your slight in decorum considering the surprise and unannounced visit, along with the date and what is happening."

"I'm sorry. Good morning, Grandmother," Neville quickly corrected himself, still looking highly confused. His confusion seemed to multiply as the Great Hall quieted, everyone unsure of what was happening and not willing to miss the show. Along with that, both Susan and Hannah appeared with Amelia. Hannah, with her customary blonde pigtails, was blushing darkly while Susan appeared slightly embarrassed, but more aware of things than Neville.

"Albus? What are they doing here?" Minerva asked the Headmaster quietly so she wouldn't be overheard in the now nearly silent room.

"I do not know," he admitted. "Madam Bones has been given free passage here by Harry from the floo in her office. I no longer require giving permission to her anymore," he explained, settling back to watch.

"Neville, Scion to the House of Longbottom and its future Lord, may I present to you your betrotheds?" Augusta introduced, indicating the two girls who were gaining darker red faces as more people realized exactly what was happening and as the two girls realized this was really happening in the middle of the Great Hall and not a private room somewhere.

"Heir Longbottom," Amelia began, pushing Susan and Hannah forward a little, even as silverware in the Great Hall dropped in shock at the Lady Regent's words. "I present to you Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones. Your future wife and mistress, respectively."

"Wha?" Neville mumbled, beginning to redden in both shock and embarrassment. "But, Harry's the one with two girls," he tried to explain, disbelievingly.

"For the same reasons as you, yourself, are getting two," Augusta stated, ushering the two girls to sit across from her to flank Neville. "Now girls, as you know, Neville is an accident prone lad. The sooner you get on giving me some grandchildren, the safer I'll feel," the old woman began, causing her two future granddaughters and several in the room to either giggle or chuckle while Neville swayed dangerously.

"Lord Potter, will I be able to ask of you to provide quarters for them? I'm already aware of the laws as having previously been on the Board of Governors for the school and can tell you it's been in the bylaws since the school was first founded that a betrothed person may request such housing for their partners. This is to foster better relations between the couple, or in this case, family, and give them a sample of married life so long as all relevant guardians agree, which all have."

"Er," Harry began, brought out of his shocked stupor by the question. "Well, I can tell you and Amelia agree, but I'll need to either speak to Missus Abbot or have a signed permission slip to allow it. I'll also need to know if they will want a House suite in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, or the quarters set aside for families elsewhere in the castle with at least a day's notice for the elves to clean up and air out a space."

"Harry?" Neville asked, looking at the slightly younger lord. "Were you in on this?"

"Didn't have any clue until you did," Harry responded with a shrug.

"Happy Betrothal Day!" Luna cried out gleefully, waving at the two Hufflepuff girls.

"I'll get what you request later today, Lord Potter," Augusta stated, enunciated quite clearly. "Madam Abbot was unable to come with us today due to her being out of the country, so had not provided that for us. Thank you. Now girls," she began, looking to the two Hufflepuffs. "As I am still currently Neville's guardian, I would like to know if you plan on giving me grandchildren sooner or later."

"I'd like to at least sit my OWL's," Hannah began. "Preferably my NEWT's. But nothing until after OWL's, I'm sorry."

"I'm afraid Susan will be sitting her NEWT's first, unless it happens naturally," Amelia answered for her beet-red niece. "And Susan, dear, naturally will come after NEWT's. Please keep me updated on any progress you make."

"What?" Neville squeaked out before his eyes rolled back and he fainted to a great deal of amusement by those in the Hall.

"Why wasn't this handled privately?" Hannah asked, shrinking in on herself and looking around in embarrassment.

"We wanted everyone to know Neville's off the market, so to speak," Amelia explained simply, keeping her voice down enough for only their group to hear. "With the knowledge that several girls will be after Lord Potter's estate, we feel it is less likely, but at the same time, it's more likely any attempts to get the lesser holdings of the Longbottoms would go unnoticed, no offense, Augusta."

"None taken," the Lady Regent allowed. "When compared to the new Potter estate, it really isn't but a fraction as much. Certainly nothing like the legal freedoms he shall have, along with any of his descendants who gain his land holdings."

"Plus, we wanted everyone to see both Augusta and myself authorize this," Amelia said shrewdly. "Since Susan will be the mistress, she will keep her own titles and her children will be Bones. That's still quite a bit as well and I wanted to remind them my girl is the niece of the Director of the DMLE. Neville may still choose to find another mistress for the Longbottom line, though."

"Not to mention it was something I feared I would never get a chance to do," Augusta, scowling at her grandson's unconscious form. _'The boy should be excited, not having a fainting spell.'_

"Girls, would you prefer something in Hufflepuff, Gryffindor or the regular married quarters?" Harry asked. "Ah, and congratulations, by the way."

"Thank," both responded. "I think we should wait until Neville is awake and see what he'd like to do before we make a decision," Susan offered, trying to act like this wasn't incredibly embarrassing.

"Lord Potter," Augusta spoke as the Great Hall erupted into furious murmurs as the majority of the event was completed and the students decided to begin chatting about what they all saw and the new Potter family to be. "That issue you owled me about yesterday had a response this morning. I'd like to have Neville join, along with his new betrotheds if they wish, and will meet here each day after dinner at eight starting Friday if that is agreeable?"

"It is, and thank you, Lady Regent," Harry responded, grinning at his girls who shared their gratitude for the dancing lessons as well. _'I'm going to need to start using the time-turner to get extra sleep at this rate. Or maybe I'll see if the girls just want to repeat each day once to spend at the Manor until after the Auream Ball when our lessons can be reduced in frequency. I really don't know how Hermione is keeping up with everything.'_

"Now, the betrothal contract is signed by all parties," Amelia stated, showing the document to the girls in question. "This is a copy you may keep to show Neville later. Augusta felt something like this would happen, so we came prepared."

"Does that really say 'Seduction Claus'?" Hannah squeaked out, the tips of her pigtails going bushy in her shock much as Hermione's hair poofed up when angry.

"Just a stipulation if little Neville tries to dig in his heels," Augusta stated with a wave of her hand dismissively. "I fear he may shy away from the attentions of two lovely girls for a little while, so if it becomes necessary, that will allow you to do what it takes to ensure progeny. You will be wed in June of your sixth year if nothing happens to expedite matters."

Hannah followed Neville to the floor in a dead faint.

"Where are you going?" Seamus asked Dean, who stood up quickly and began to stride from the hall in rapid steps.

"To owl my mother and ask if she'd be agreeable to a betrothal!" Dean snapped. "At this rate, all the available girls will be taken!"

"How could Neville be betrothed without signing like we did?" Hermione asked curiously, looking between Harry and Luna.

"Ours was one of mutual decision," Luna stated. "That was a business version for Susan and a set match for Hannah and Neville. We agreed and had a choice in ours. Neville, Susan and Hannah are to be wed before they are legally of age and the parents are allowed to make such decisions, still."

"So, she took away Neville's choice?" Hermione asked, scandalized, keeping her voice down from the much older woman who was discussing dates and numbers of grandchildren she would like to get out of the younger girls, though only one was left aware to listen, much to her dismay and her aunt's amusement. Not to mention an agreement from Director Bones, who wanted several of her own and the continuation of her family line and was simply glad her friend Augusta was willing to set this up between their children. Only knowing that Susan and Hannah liked the boy and, so they told her anyway, he liked them but was too shy to admit it in word rather than deed. "That's so horrible!"

"It's actually quite common, just as Daphne told you," Luna said with a shrug, dunking pancake into a small bowl of syrup and then doing her best to get a sugar high. "At least with the older families," she continued finally.

"Nev would have wound up with Hannah anyway, I think," Harry whispered into Hermione's ear, pretending to whisper something else into her ear like a doting boyfriend. "They were an item ... at least I remember it at some point, I think," he explained, trying not to frown. "And it sounds like both girls wanted this, instead, if I'm getting this right."

"But Neville should still have a choice," Hermione grumbled. "I guess we can talk to him later and see what he thinks."

"I thought Harry as an exception, but maybe _not_ all boys want multiple pairs of girly bits to play with," Luna mused thoughtfully, popping a cherry into her mouth and making Harry relive other memories as he decided to ensure they had pudding for dinner that night.

"Damn it, Weasley! Give me romance! _Or else!_" Alicia and Angelina roared at the same time, chasing down the apparently terrified twins who had provided homemade chocolates, non-pranked, and apparently witty banter rather than romantic poetry. Several males paled as their girlfriends looked at them with glints in their eyes.

xXxXxXx

Dobby sniffled as he put the last shovelful of dirt on the grave he had dug at the House Elf home. He had found someone who looked like the great Lily Potter in the basement of Nasty Bat-Wizard's home in Spinner's End where she had apparently been left to die in a cell where she passed from dehydration. He had brought her where he knew no others would be upset at an extra grave and she could get the proper respect owed to the dead. He also couldn't bring himself to make it a quick process by using magic and had dug the grave by hand instead, then filled it back up the same way.

"Dobby is not knowing who you is truly being," he told the fresh grave, at least willing to make a headstone marking it as the site owned now by "Lost Soul" and an Elven prayer for her soul etched into the stone. "But he is wishing you happiness in the next life. And he is being promising to loot Nasty Bat-Wizard's home to the bedrock and then is being setting it on fire and making boom boom on the ashes in your honor. Dobby is promising this." With a bow to the grave, he popped away to keep his promise, before he did the same to each cache of supplies Snape had left in the word, along with all of his bolt holes and hideouts for emergencies. Not just the ones in Britain, but in the four other countries he had made such provisions. It would be a treasure trove of personal research material, a good deal of it darker than Harry or his girls would willingly go, but with modifications and improvements, or completely new recipes, that numbered over seven hundred, a quarter of which would never see the light of day again except in archives so the knowledge wouldn't be lost, despite the dark nature of it.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – February 16, 09:20 – Hog's Head**

Albus walked into the Hog's Head slowly two days later on the sixteenth, sighing disappointedly as his brother once again turned his back on him. Other than a few curses on the day they buried their younger sister and breaking his nose, Aberforth had as little interaction with his older brother. Albus came to him each year on Arianna's funeral date and Aberforth's birthday in hopes of hearing some sort of acceptance, but it never happened. Instead, they mourned silently, but still together, for Arianna and Albus often asked, joking mostly, if Aberforth poisoned his mead.

The slightly younger man never seemed to respond with more than a dark look.

"Firewiskey, if you could, Abe," Albus spoke, his weariness coming through very clearly in his voice.

Aberforth hesitated only a moment, but was a business man and dropped one filthy glass in front of his brother and poured the liquid before the older man had a chance to clean it. It was a petty and spiteful thing, but it was still his own little bit of continuing grudge that he doubted he would ever give up.

"I need you, brother. More than at any time in my past, I need your help."

Aberforth put the bottle on the bar top and turned his back, using a filthy cloth to smear more grime on other cups. His job was never to sell drinks, though some of the harder people in Hogsmeade or those who didn't want to go around the Leaky Cauldron or where there were more people would sometimes show up, but his job was a safety net for the school, much like the Hog's Head had been used for in the past centuries.

"My decisions, thoughts and even many of my own actions for the past year have not been my own."

Aberforth stilled, but was not willing to look at his brother yet.

"It was a horror that was my place to learn that Severus Snape has been using potions to control my thoughts and actions for more than a decade," Albus explained slowly and quietly, knocking back a third shot.

"What happened?" Aberforth asked, breaking his promise not to speak to his brother that had been held for over a century. And Albus told him. About Harry coming to him in a fury, discovering the laced lemon drops, his own plans for Harry and the various girls and Snape's plans to alter them. He also explained Harry's anger, telling his younger brother what Snape did to the boy's parents and some of the basics that Harry provided him over his questioning of the apparently not so reformed Death Eater.

"And so, I am not even sure what thoughts are my own," Albus concluded. "Poppy has been unable to confirm the existence of any potions in my system, but was able to confirm potion ingredients that should not have been there that were also on the lemon drops. And Severus had always been good at creating potions that wouldn't show up in tests."

"So he left because he was found out?" Aberforth asked, knowing he had left unannounced at some point recently.

"He has been dealt with," Albus explained. "That's all I'm willing to say."

Abe looked at his brother approvingly. "I'm glad you aren't the same sentimental fool you were in the last war," he muttered.

"There is ... more," Albus said quietly. "The method in which Harry discovered the information over his parents' torment."

"I suppose it would be strange to think of the boy grave robbing his own parents," Abe commented curiously, causing Albus to smile slightly. "I suppose you're telling me for a reason?"

"Harry's parents visited him, as did Miss Lovegood's, when they went to visit the elder Potter's graves," Albus said, fidgeting with his glass. "It would appear he also spoke with ... Arianna."

"Can you be sure, after what he learned about you, that he wasn't trying to pull some sadistic prank?" Abe asked coolly. "I would certainly have done so had I learned you were attempting to destroy my life."

"He described her, spoke in her voice," Albus stated forcefully. "If he lied, he somehow learned of what happened! That you and I could have been responsible! He would have somehow learned of her face and voice! There is just too much!"

"What ..." Abe trailed off, unsure he wanted to ask the question.

"Please let Albie know that what happened wasn't his fault. It wasn't his _or_ Abe's fault! I'm waiting for us to meet again so we can spend a long time as a family again. But Albie may not be able to join for the bad things he's doing. Just give him my message and I hope we'll be a family again." Albus repeated, word for word what Harry had spoken.

"'_Albie'_," Aberforth repeated in a breathy whisper. "There's no way anyone living would know of that name," he gulped as decades of pain made its presence known in the depth of his chest.

"That was my thought as well," Albus admitted, gulping down his fifth shot.

"Take it easy, Albus," Aberforth warned. "It's been a long time since you've partaken of a stiff drink. And it's just past breakfast time. The last thing you need is to be seen drunk throughout the day."

"This will be my last," Albus promised. "I wanted enough to feel my head become woolly without becoming the village fool. I have come because I cannot trust my own judgement and was hoping I could beg you to assist me." Seeing his younger brother merely staring at him, Albus continued. "I am becoming old, Abe. I have years, perhaps, but certainly not decades."

"Time catches up to all of us eventually," Abe said in a wizened tone. "What did you need? I am fighting my better instincts in speaking with you, so please make it fast."

"I can only vaguely recall crafting a new will near the end of the last war wherein Severus became my sole beneficiary. Despite my thoughts and feelings, I feel it should be changed immediately. I am heading to Gringotts now to do so."

"Straight forward," Abe grumbled. "What do you need me for?"

"I have been deep in thought since I learned of all that has happened. Years ago, I made a gamble that is far too late to call back, now. I have no choice but to see it through or the world itself may very well be the one to pay the price. I intend to leave all my worldly possessions to Mister Potter. I had planned to leave much to Hogwarts, but it is now one and the same. Am I playing the part of the fool, once again?" He asked his younger brother desperately.

"What does the Potter boy have to say?" Abe asked after a few moments.

"I have not spoken to him since these revelations have come to light," the headmaster admitted after a short time. "I have felt the need to clear my mind, so to speak."

"I'm just as old, despite being younger," Abe sighed, sagging his shoulders. "I have no more time than you. If we are honest, neither of us have anyone to leave anything to."

"Aye." Albus agreed.

"If the boy hasn't suggested this course, and you can think of no better, then I see no reason not to follow through. I am your only family, and not much at that. But I won't be here any longer than you and am comfortable enough. But if you ask my opinion, then that is it."

"Thank you, Aberforth," Albus breathed at last. He got up and was nearly at the door before Abe's voice interrupted him.

"Do you believe him?" He asked. "The Potter boy?"

"Even while under Severus' influence, I fully trusted him," Albus admitted, stepping through the door and into the cold to the Three Broomsticks so he could floo to Diagon Alley and visit with Gringotts.

Left behind in the silent, dark and filthy pub, the younger Dumbledore brother began to weep at the knowledge of his and Albus' innocence altered the source of his century of hate and loathing.

xXxXxXx

_**New Heirs and Failed Contracts**_

_**By:** Rita Skeeter_

_As promised, dear readers, we have discovered what had the Ministry Inheritance department in such an uproar. Several family alliance contracts and betrothal agreements were never fulfilled amongst the Death Eater regime!_

_The most important, or perhaps better to say the most costly, was the marriage of Bellatrix Black to the LeStrange family. It cemented their alliance by betrothal, but demanded a child from the union. As everyone knows, Bellatrix had no children. Therefore, the entirety of her dowry, along with much that the LeStrange family owned, was forfeit to the Black family since the marriage was still valid. A failsafe to ensure a child was born before the worst should happen as it was a time of war. It never happened, so the House of LeStrange is not only now forfeit, but because there are no more LeStranges, and the forfeiture was only official with the confirmation of their deaths, the House of Black actually gained everything form the House of LeStrange because the marriage was only voided after the deaths were discovered, but Bellatrix had gained everything first._

_And it wasn't only the House of LeStrange and Black. Augustus Rookwood, who went to Azkaban mere weeks after the fall of You-Know-Who, had left a wife, Ellen Rookwood, who had died under mysterious circumstances as well. Much like the LeStranges, they were supposed to sire an heir, but it never came to be, meaning her family, the Warringtons, were meant to gain the Rookwood estate as well. However, the Warringtons got their dowry back after Ellen's death, so that estate will now be going to the closest living relatives. Until it is awarded, the Ministry is not stating who that will be as they must first run genealogy lines, much like they had for Lord Potter. However, using the same family trees from that list, while focused on the four Founders, it actually looks as though it may go to the Griffiths, the Weasleys or Carrigans, both the latter of which lost their family fortunes long ago while the remaining Griffiths are Glynnis and Wilda, the sisters playing for the Harpies._

"Wouldn't it be amazing if your family actually managed to get that?" Lavender asked Ron as the Great Hall filled slightly for lunch.

"Wicked," Ron smirked. "I wonder if we will."

"Not likely," Fred spoke as he took a seat near his brother, along with his twin.

"Mum's always been fairly proud that-"

"-We aren't closely related to any Death Eaters."

"Aren't you, though?" Lavender asked curiously. "I mean, as close as everyone in the wizarding world is to each other, at least those who have a magical background, aren't we all related to each other to some degree? I mean, you're even related to Harry as cousins!"

"Second cousins," Ginny snapped, looking like she was sucking on something sour. "We've not been closely related for a while." There was no way she was going to let people think they were as close to Harry as Lavender was making it sound. Then there may be even less chance of becoming one of Harry's girls!

"Well, still," Lavender dismissed with a wave of her hand. "The Blacks were related to almost everyone, weren't they? I know that my family is related to them if you go back a couple generations. Same with Harry and Malfoy. And I _thought_ you guys could, too."

"We can," George answered as his uglier twin stuffed his face. "Mum just likes to ignore that and pretend it isn't the case since it helps her deal with her brothers' murders."

Feeling a little insensitive, Lavender nodded and decided to change the subject. Looking to Parvati, she huddled close as the other girl began to talk about the known gossip and suspicions as to what they could mean, most of which related to Neville and his two new girls.

Speaking of which, the three were currently nowhere to be found, which is what was driving quite a bit of that gossip.

In a room where it was just the three of them, Neville, Susan and Hannah were staring at each other awkwardly as they ate their lunches, not actually tasting anything.

"So ... betrothed, huh?" Neville asked for the third time since learning of it.

"Is it really such a difficult concept?" Susan asked. "You knew something like this was coming eventually, didn't you? Or at least suspect? It's been a day and a half. I really think we should talk about this."

"M-Me too," Hannah agreed nervously.

"Suspect it? Yes," Neville said after a moment where he gathered his wits and his courage. "But ... to go through with it? No, not really."

"Are you unhappy with us?" Susan asked, feeling a little annoyed at the boy for digging his heels in so much. "Did you have someone else in mind?"

"Er, no," he muttered. "I just ... This is really weird," he finished lamely.

"Weren't you the one telling Harry and Hermione how this sort of thing wasn't uncommon in the magical world?" Susan asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Daphne was, too," he defended. "But ... Yes. It's just ... I really don't know how to feel about this. I didn't think it would matter for another few years."

"Well, congratulations. You're engaged twice over," Susan said. "So now what?"

"Uhm, may-maybe we should get to know one another?" Hannah suggested.

"We've been getting to know one another since Harry's meetings started," Susan stated. "But, I suppose we can always get to know each other a little better," she said, giving Neville a look at made him a little fidgety.

"What do the two of you want out of this?" He asked curiously. "I mean, I'm not much. Why me? Why this?"

"Babies for me," Susan stated bluntly. "I have a duty to revive my family and thought you could help out with that. But at the same time, I've really come to like you. That's why I stick around you during Harry's meetings and when we're free on the weekends."

"It's mostly the s-same for me," Hannah explained. "I like you, too, but there are other Abbots. I'm from one of the cadet lines, so I don't have the same responsibilities and can have all Longbottom children for you," she ended with a dark, near perpetual blush. "I'm not expecting to start on things any time soon, but unless we decide against this, or you find someone else you would prefer-"

"-Though you can still have another mistress for the Longbottom line," Susan interrupted helpfully, preferring not to risk losing out on what she felt was a great catch.

"-Er, yes, that t-too," Hannah blushed again. "Then I don't see much reason not to go along with this."

"I guess we've got a while before we have to make a decision or really go along with this in the ... er, m-more _f-f-final_ aspects," he stuttered, trying not to pass out again at the idea of a 'seduction clause'. "So, can you let me go so I can think about all this?" He asked, wriggling a little to show he would really like to be unbound from the chair.

"You haven't even eaten yet," Susan denied, rolling her eyes. "Now, open up. Here comes the broom." She held up a fork and made flying motions that muggle children around the world were familiar with as she proceeded to feed him his Shepard's Pie.

"This is really embarrassing," Neville grumbled lightly, silently enjoying the kiss he got on the cheek from his new redheaded paramour, whether he wanted her or not, apparently.

"Well, you _were_ avoiding us," Hannah explained what Susan did when they grabbed him like a professional kidnapping team in the hallway where Harry and his girls, Katie Bell, Dean and Seamus all stared in shock. "We needed to talk about it and you couldn't keep running." Hesitantly, and nearly pulling back twice, she followed Susan's lead and kissed his other cheek, feeling her head swoon as blood rushed to her face at being so forward.

"Now, Harry wanted to know. Do we want our new rooms to be in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or the married quarters?" Susan asked, smiling beautifully at the nervous boy who gurgled in response as he fainted again. "That's really going to make kissing awkward if he keeps doing that," she grumbled.

"Isn't this a bit much?" Hannah asked Susan, beginning to feel better without Neville aware.

"Tell me you don't see Harry, Hermione and Luna and want the same kind of relationship," Susan demanded gently. "Plus, as nervous as he is, even his Gran agrees, we really need to get him comfortable with this if he's going to accept it in the next three years. Augusta told us it took him five years to get used to that toad of his before he stopped thinking he was going to get eaten."

"Wherever did he get _that_ idea?" Hannah wondered suddenly. She had been unconscious while Augusta, as the older woman demanded they call her as soon-to-be granddaughters-in-law, had told this story.

"Dunno," Susan shrugged. "But, I think we need to push him. I mean, he's been running from us just when we wanted to talk. Don't you agree?"

"Well, yes," Hannah said, nodding, "but I think we shouldn't quite do things like this, though. At least, not as often," she blushed again. "I mean, the tying him up part isn't quite so bad, but feeding him like a child should be toned down, I think."

"Then how do we push him?" Susan mused to herself before smiling widely and evilly. "Well, we _are_ trying to get him used to the idea of being in a relationship," she explained more to herself, validating what her plans were.

"That expression worries me," Hannah said simply, staring at her best friend.

"Goal one," Susan began, holding up one finger and facing her friend. "Get Neville comfortable with us as signified by kisses. Once he begins kissing back, we can assume that's done."

"I can agree with that," Hannah offered. "But how, exactly? At this rate, it could take months."

Susan's answering grin was something even the Weasley Twins would have been proud of.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – Below is a review I very much enjoyed getting because it was something that put SO MUCH BETTER a matter that I planned to only touch upon, but decided to expand on just a little (in the next chapter.) In this, I will just say there are, indeed, differences between men and women in the utilization of magic that was brought up in this chapter (number 2 of my notes, below.) This will also touch on what is explained in the next chapter.

**REVIEW:**

_Stories with a 'Daphne's rant' of their own or just similar settings just strike me as fundamentally wrong and it feels no different in this fic._

I consider it a paradox, impossibility and logical fallacy to have women as the 'lesser' gender when they got access to equal education, equal magic and the same potion books.

It is one thing for women to have been treated like that in the non-magical world where men have had the fundamental power over women through muscle, being the provider, religion, education or just through trapping said women through pregnancy, childbirth and childcare.

The wand and literate women would have almost forcibly torn down all those pillars of male supremacy except pregnancy. Thou a hormonal witch with a wand doesn't sound very safe...

Still, looking forward to how you will shape Pansy's and Draco's relationship. Hope you avoid extremes since I honestly don't think they would make sense thanks to Pansy having access to potions and a wand. I mean, unless Draco orders her to never feed him or try to get someone else to feed him anything ever then she could just either buy or brew something appropriate to deal with her situation if it is horrible. Not to mention, even if he orders what I wrote before, she could just coat the tableware and have him feed the potion to himself :P - Also explain why Muggleborns stay in wizarding world

**END REVIEW**

(1) **Dumbledore's Order** – This WAS effective in the fight against Voldemort in the beginning. That all would have changed, though, when Snape became the spy/mole in both their ranks. Can you think of a valid reason as to Albus accepting Snape into is Order other than as a spy? Letting EVERYONE know about him being a spy (it seemed fairly open the second time around and many seemed to know he did it the first time around, after all.) No, it began to flub/fail missions and its members dying when Snape joined and began potioning Albus up.

(2) **Men/Women Magical Ability** – Basically, they have the same access to the power, but as a GENERAL rule, women are going to be more precise and use less magic (ie: a soft wind) to do the same thing a male would do (ie: strong gust of wind.) Similarly, if a story is going to state that physical fitness plays a role in the health of the magical core as well (such as my own general thoughts and as is the case here,) then it stands to reason that a stronger body (strength, general health, endurance, etc) is going to equate to a stronger core (or perhaps more dense magic.) In other words, men, by and large, will last longer magically (shields would be a perfect example.)


	23. Timekeeping

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter22** – Timekeeping

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Suggestive Language, Nudity, Adult Situations, Adult Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

Does anyone else ever think Hermione/Emma from the first movie reminds them of Lady from "Lady and the Tramp"? Her hair in that reminds me of Lady's ears. o.O

I continuously get flak for long chapters and, while this chapter is quite a bit longer than what I'm currently posting, I'll post this comfortable 10K words because I'm wanting to do enough of Draco Malfoy's political actions in the Wizengamot before I actually post them (over the course of about four or six chapters which I'm nearing completion) to ensure I don't screw it up and have to correct chapters. I have a few very specific things I want to get done with him. But, what I am posting is the foundation of everything that comes. Please forgive the long absences. I am focusing on real life duties and a lot of things are sort of snowballing.

At a request, I'll try date-stamping various scenes that the date matters with while, some, will not be stamped since they don't matter so much. Things like Babbling's scene later in this chapter – The date doesn't matter, but between the acknowledged dates.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Lost Marbles" by Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta (Harry/Hermione/Luna – Crack Comedy or over the top comedy, depending on your view)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_The Triad learns they will have to host a ball; Dumbledore speaks with his brother for the first time in over a century, the Triad's betrothals are signed along with Neville discovering he now has one with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot; Draco begins making plans to be a nuisance and training to become the next Dark Lord._

**xXx STORY xXx**

Peter quaked in a clay jug where he was hiding from his most recent brush with death, ignoring the yellow puddle his fear had generated. While out and trying to get some food, he discovered that the owls were patrolling the grounds with those cat things on their backs and it was only the fact that owls weren't meant to carry passengers that allowed him to escape since they weren't quite nimble enough to catch him with added weight on their backs rather than in their claws.

The little rat had discovered the wards on the castle had changed. Digging a path in an attempt to have a quick escape route proved futile since there was apparently an active barrier the wards put up to stop unauthorized access, which was anything other than the secret tunnels and the gate onto the castle grounds, and anyone with ill intent to pass them, regardless of the direction. And attempts to dig into the tunnels proved a failure as well, since there were apparently barriers around those as well, which hadn't been the case when he was a student. In fact, that hadn't even been the case the previous year. Someone, as far as Peter could tell, had upgraded the wards around and within the school. He could dig a hole, but no more than a foot down. Then it was like gnawing or digging through cold iron with his human fingers.

What was worse, the secret tunnels didn't seem to open for hardly anyone any longer. Thus far, the Weasleys twins were the only ones he was aware of that could open them, though the traitorous rat also believed Harry Potter could do so, and possibly anyone aligned with him. The school seemed to bend to Potter's will these days, almost with a sense of mischief he somewhat remembered from his own school days. The stairs even moved to accommodate him and his friends and seemed to delight in making those who were vocal against Harry end up barely making it to classes on time. A new favorite trick seemed to involve getting just close enough to the next floor of the traveler's destination before going back the other way as if taunting them.

The last few months for Peter had been filled with futile attempts at creating escape routes, and future infiltration points, to discover that the wards were too strong and what he believed to be a few dozen new additions in place to stop such attempts had been added, though in truth, they were ones that laid dormant due to a lack of ability to control and activate them. In summation, he knew he was screwed if he couldn't find a way out.

So, while the rat was too scared to enter the castle from the large number of Thundercats roaming the halls, he decided that he wouldn't leave the comfort of his little nest under Hagrid's hut any more than necessary, and that meant his food would either come from the half-giant's own kitchen, which he discovered most was inedible even to his rat form, or he could raid the man's garden, which is what led to his current situation.

_'I just wanted some of the rhubarb,'_ he whined to himself as he gnawed as quickly as he could at the pottery he was ensconced in so he could run through the bush and into the wooden hut without being seen.

Above, Twinkle sighed as he saw the owl and Thundercat that had been close to nabbing their prey rage in the sky. Not at each other, as both species were smart enough to know there was no fault to be had, but at the situation. "This won't work as well as we had hoped," he mumbled to Hedwig from the side of the owlry.

"Not without some additional training," Hedwig agreed. "We are fierce hunters, but lose much speed and our agility in flight with added weight atop of us. It's harder to arrest our fall or make quick turns compared to what we are used to."

"Practicing on non-moving targets isn't going to be enough," Twinkle agreed. "We need the practice of live prey. Unfortunately, your talons are sharp enough that nothing intelligent enough to make a decision is willing to play the part of the target since there's too much of a chance to accidental death."

"We will not allow our talons to be blunted or covered," Hedwig hissed, images of baby booties and bonnets that some cats had been forced to wear thanks to some horrific firsties flickered in her mind's eye.

"Master is attempting to make rechargeable wands," Twinkle suggested, thinking quickly. "Perhaps he could craft something similar for us such as nets."

"We have been training for some time," Hedwig stated after a moment, looking as regal as an owl was able. Quite surprising how well she pulled it off, too. "Perhaps we should allow a few days' rest to both sides while you talk it over with my Human. Maybe send a few of your people down to the hut and flush the traitorous, fat, juicy morsel out of hiding," she suggested, somehow managing to lick her beak.

"Meow _that_ is a good idea," Crookshanks suggested from behind the duo, pouting lightly when neither of the two jumped in surprise. _'So much for the ninja kneazle idea,'_ he sighed mentally. _'It's ridiculous that a kneazle is a fan of Jackie Chan.'_

"What do you want?" Hedwig asked imperiously. "You know I do not like you in my domain." _'It's like dealing with the Cheshire cat from that cartoon my Human saw in his elder mate's mind. All that's missing is the grin.'_

"Oh, come meow," Crookshanks sauntered up beside Twinkle and sat his fuzzy bottom on the stone floor, grimacing a little at how cold it was. "We're practically already family! Our Humans have proclaimed their desire to take each other as mates and I don't know about yours, but mine has no intentions of leaving him."

"No human is as loyal as mine," Hedwig barked in indignation. "How often does _yours_ provide you with delicacies?"

"You mean 'treats'?" Crookshanks asked confusedly, letting out a purr before he could stop himself and feigning a hairball.

"Treats?" Hedwig asked curiously, tilting her head slightly. "My Human provides me with Owl Delicacies. They even come in a variety of flavors such as mouse, fish, squirrel and cat," she hissed the last, hoping he would understand her threat. "And bacon," she stated with authority, looking out over the grounds and puffing up her chest. "There is always room for bacon."

Crookshanks' tail dipped and his ears sagged to the sides of his head. _'I hope birdbrain here doesn't ever read the box,'_ he thought to himself. In truth, the treats were generally small portions or the tiny forms of the actual animals. Magicals didn't care to make artificial food for an animal when they could just put it under stasis and sell as-is. After all, why would a magical want to work for the comfort of an animal, or lesser being, when they could just magic up the critter to be devoured and then use magic to package it? However, Crookshanks didn't know that since Hermione always got his own treats from the muggle world since it was so much easier, cost less and she was more comfortable with it in her desire to do something normal for the pet she was so happy to have. She also preferred to know exactly what her pet was eating, even if some of it was artificial with a name that most adults couldn't pronounce. _'And there's something to be said for catnip,'_ the squash-faced furball mused with a feline grin that Sirius would have been proud of.

"Do you believe the other cats would be willing to hunt for the rat?" Twinkle asked Crookshanks.

"They will if they know what's good for them," Crookshanks rowred. Until that moment, the Thundercats weren't aware cats could do that. "It is all of our Humans who are at risk with him running around." The fluffy orange menace looked at his smaller counterpart appraisingly. "Perhaps it's time your lot were taught how to use your claws."

"Our what?" Twinkle asked. The little fur person knew cats had them, and they were cat-like, but they just had slightly paw-like hands.

Rolling his eyes, Crookshanks batted the Thundercat leader's hand up and pressed on his paw, causing sharp instruments of doom to pop out, much to Twinkle's shock as his nails extended, thickened and sharpened instantly.

"Where did those come from!"

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 05:00 AM**

"Do you know why you are here?" Gripaxe asked of the female that had been brought to his office in the bowels of Gringotts. Gripaxe was Griphook's liaison to the goblin curse breaker teams as they were from the same clan, their mothers being sisters, and Griphook's instant rise in power and authority had trickled down amongst some of their members where they could better help their very wealthy and powerful client, which is why they went out of their way to find this particular woman. Specifically since she looked so much like his mother, just in case the rumors of the human staring at her image in pictures were true, despite his not growing up in pureblood circles to learn some of their more awkward preferences. It was hoped the woman would make Lord Potter feel more at ease and trusting, if nothing else, though more was certainly hoped for as a seduced male was a pliable male. Griphook was standing beside his uncle to ensure everything went smoothly and to answer questions as needed while trying to judge how well she matched the memories he had viewed of Lily Potter. In appearance, it was almost uncanny, despite being a smaller woman in all respects save for a larger bust. In personality, however, Griphook felt she would be more comfortable seducing clients at Belinda's.

"I do not," Cordelia Ward stated immediately. She was a slip of a girl at only five feet and four inches tall, skinnier than even Luna and red hair that hung to the small of her back with a fullness of form that women in general would kill for. She had wide hips, powerful legs and larger C-cup breasts that usually kept people from noticing her jade-green eyes until she called them on their staring, though she rarely bothered. It was her belief that she was more apt to get what she wanted if they were enthralled with her appearance. And it had taken quite a bit of gold to a Transfiguration Mistress to permanently change her hair and eye color to what they were now.

"You are needed for a very specific and delicate job," Gripaxe began. "Your talents and experience are near ideal for this situation in regards to Lord Potter."

"What talents are those?" Cordelia asked curiously. She was usually the 'eye-candy' that was sent in when men in positions to help or hinder the goblins were waffling on a decision and bribery wasn't enough. Her job was to flirt and entice, making the men want to please her, which pleased her bosses. She was an adequate ward master, which meant she was better than average for human standards and pathetically below by goblin standards for their humans, but not up to snuff for legitimate and dangerous field work. There was too much risk at killing the entire team, particularly since her power levels were about on par with the average fifth year. It was a degrading job, and one that occasionally meant she would take her job a little too far if the man was appealing enough so she could have some fun. Plus, those men generally provided additional income and expensive gifts, which amused the goblins.

But that didn't explain what she could do to help with the Potter account. Not unless the youngest lord in a two and a half centuries was already playing vice to strong prey and weak warriors, as the goblins liked to say, or fast women and slow horses, in their more common tongue.

"Lord Potter wishes to learn ward creation and breaking and is willing to pay for it. However, he has been made aware of the limitations a lack of education would bring him," Gripaxe began. "This is where you come in."

Cordelia got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. _'Babysitting duty! Damn the goblins hit hard! How did the buggers find out I made that last target satisfy a camel and memory-charmed him?'_ It was really the man's own fault. There was no way she would join his harem to be one girl for each day of the month. Not when he weighed as much as her refrigerator and was shorter than her and probably bathed about as often as the Chudley Cannons won a match.

"Your job is to find out why he wanted to learn this skill, attempt to influence him into contracting Gringotts for it instead if at all possible, and be a direct liaison between Lord Potter and the bank for all of his business needs, which is a not-so-subtle way of saying we want you to observe him as much as possible to let us better know what is happening with him and how we may profit from it," Griphook explained. Goblins weren't the sort to just sugarcoat something. Time was money and being blunt meant less chance of misunderstanding. Plus, if the young lord died, that was a drastic drop in income from his accounts as they were all currently set to be transferred to Hermione Granger, along with all properties and holdings. There was no telling what that girl would do with it, but she was far too comfortable in the muggle world to risk that kind of gold.

"Doesn't he have you, Accounts Manager Griphook, for this?" Cordelia asked.

"As you know, Lord Potter is substantially wealthy in every way that matters: gold, land, political clout and even raw magical power that our last scan shows to be at frightening levels. Our reasons for your new role aren't so you can do my job, but so that you can see that which I do not and that which our informants can not. You are also, again, meant to do what you can to gain additional contracts through Lord Potter and learn what you can of him and his needs, including teaching and augmenting his lessons for his original request in ward crafting and breaking, of which the Potters were once quite famous for, as an honest cover at the same time. Do this, and you shall learn more of our reasons for why we selected you," Griphook explained. He wasn't about to say more without an agreement, even if she was an employee under very strict oath and allegiance clauses.

Cordelia was silent a moment as she looked at her superior and the goblin that was in charge of her potential target's vaults. "You realize my 'talents' tend to focus on sex and manipulation? Are you really asking me to pull that out on a thirteen-year old whose balls may not have even dropped yet? I admit I rarely actually have sex with a target, but my entire duty is sexual exploitation."

"No," Griphook explained. "If he is agreeable and you have no qualms, we have no issue with your coupling. But I do not believe it to be likely he will take a second look at you. He is quite endeared to his current two interests without interest in another that we can tell and our focus is in gaining additional contracts and assisting with what you will learn soon. Risking the client's continued patronage is not our aims."

_'Challenge accepted. The little Lord Potter will be led around by his little head like a bloody pet by the time I'm done with him,'_ Cordelia mused in her mind. _No one_ was beyond her thrall. Cordelia had never once failed to ensnare a mark and prided herself in capturing their hearts precisely when she desired to. She may bide her time and only bother if she really found herself interested, but screw the goblins and, eventually, screw Harry freaking Potter! "Okay, I accept. So what am I doing, exactly?"

"As stated, the Potters were once the premier ward-crafting family around until a few generations ago. They still have wards that greatly surpass ours around their family manor that have never been provided elsewhere. While still susceptible to a concentrated attack, these wards are invisible to the normal methods of observation, meaning they cannot be examined or taken down without forcing your way through them. And their absorption properties are completely foreign to us. If you can somehow get those without theft, there will be a massive bonus for you. Do not push for this. It is to be treated like the usual gifts your targets give you," Gripaxe explained. Only the fact that the previous dark lord had the numbers needed to take down those wards kept the Potter family from staying in their ancestral manor instead of Godric's Hollow. And the knowledge that Voldemort would have been nigh on unstoppable with the resources in that home, though not many were aware those resources were there. The library at Hogwarts was world-renowned for a reason and contributed to why the dark lord wanted to teach there. The Potter library, like many older pureblood homes like the Longbottoms, Blacks and Rookwood families, was much the same, but in specific fields rather than over such a broad spectrum and without the numerous copies of so many books like at a school where the library was in place for hundreds of students.

"Steal them, and we will allow Lord Potter to determine your fate," Griphook growled. "We will brand your backside like a common beast and gift you to him as a collared slave if it would appease him. Be warned!"

"Other than that," Gripaxe stated with a nod as his cousin ensured the female knew the risks of betraying the client, and Gringotts, "your goal is to teach him what you can of warding with the knowledge he has, or to bring him up to speed if he wishes it. But most importantly, you are to find out what he wishes to learn the craft for. Determine if he discovered his family legacy and wishes to take on the mantle, or if he has a job or jobs that we can contract from him. If Lord Potter intends to take up ward crafting, we will find a drastic drop in that side of our business and will either need to acquire him for ourselves, or do our best to come to an agreeable compromise for us all. If he has a job he wants done, then we want the gold."

xXxXxXx

Hogwarts sighed as she cupped her chin, sitting on the toilet and finding herself bored out of her mind. Well, _within_ her mind, really, but it was the boredom that truly mattered. She had been practicing her twirling, finding the sensation of dizziness to be quite exhilarating, when she felt the need to tinkle. After getting lost a few times in her attempt to make it the ten feet to the toilet, as she had become _good_ at twirling and the room spun around crazily, _and_ remembering to pull down her pants and panties this time, she found herself sitting without actually going.

"Being human has some really fun parts, but it also has some really ... _not_ so fun ones, too," she grumbled, before suddenly, she was going! "Yes!" She yelled, pumping a fist into the air. At least she wasn't hopping up and down in triumph any more. It didn't take more than twice to learn that was a bad idea until she had finished going. "Yes! Success! If I can do this for a week without an accident, then it'll be time!" It had already been two days, including nights, without any incidents.

It was almost ridiculous to the castle-turned-girl how much effort being human was, but it was taking less and less effort to pay attention to all the small things to control her body. As much attention as she had to provide the castle such that she could listen in on any conversation in the castle almost, along with the school defenses and active protections, she had almost none to spare after becoming a little girl. And she had never paid attention to humans when they went about their biological needs, so it had always come across as something that just simply happened and seemed like something she had no interest or care in learning.

And now she knew that she was always right, even if that meant she had to learn things now. Even if that meant learning through trial and error.

Her daddy would be _so_ proud when she told him how she learned in excruciating detail!

xXxXxXx

Bathsheba unfurled the scroll she got from one of her contacts in the Unspeakables department. Harry had, as promised, given her a copy of the book he referenced in their first few classes and as he had said, there were symbols in that book that had been hinted of in the past, or told as legend, but had been lost to the annals of history. At least if the descriptions and names of the runes were correct. But, there had been two dozen that she could not account for, but held far too much promise to ignore. Thus, in accordance with an agreement with Harry, she sent out the runes to her contacts, in natural ink of course, to ask if they could identify them with a focus to look at more rare and mythical relationships for them.

Like the seven other letters, this one came back with negatives on all accounts. But differently, it was the same on all save one.

_Batty,_

_I'm not sure what you got your hands on, but I can tell you this much. Whatever those Runes are, I am aware of only one of them. I know what it does, but I have no idea how, when it was invented, the name of it or even its origin or language. In fact, I've destroyed the copy you sent me, destroyed your letters to me, and will be obliviating the knowledge of this rune once I've sent this letter. Do not ask me about it again. Please note that this is not a request. If anyone learns of this inquiry, you need to run, far and fast. Do you understand me? I've also taken the liberty of visiting those you've told me you contacted previously about this and a few I suspected you may have sent it to or that they said they told of it. They will not have any letters from you, nor will they remember talking to you or this rune. Do not contact them again about this. I have taken measures to ensure they will tell me if you do and they will be killed._

_The only reason I'm not destroying all knowledge of this with you, as well, is because you knowing will not be dangerous as long as you do not tell anyone. _

_Please, don't, Batty. You know I love you and you know I would go to the ends of the earth to protect you, but that is pretty much what it would take if you go public with it and the wrong people find out you know of it._

_The next-to-last rune. If you notice, it's a flowing stylized 'Z' without any points, correct? And the curious symbol in the center of it? The figure eight that nearly connects the ends of the 'Z' and looks something like an hourglass? That is something I have seen in one location, which is a room in my department that no one has been able to open since the Ministry's creation. Those who have tried, die. I think. Their bodies burst into a glowing mist and get absorbed by that rune, which will glow such a deep red it almost appears black. With a pulse, it does ... something to the clusters around it and the entire series of protections on the door reset, more powerful than they were before. The clusters actually change with each victim into something newer and greater, more complex. It isn't that it absorbs their bodies, but their lives. It actually absorbs the soul. Or at least the same thing that the dementors devour, which we believe to be the soul, if nothing else._

_All known research on this is not only forbidden, but under lock and key for what was originally done in the past, if not destroyed outright. I know, because the Head Unspeakable gave me hell for getting curious when I examined that room and began trying to figure it out. For an entire day, I suffered threats of my life, body and soul. The Head Unspeakable explained that whatever was behind that door was worth the lives of every person that would try to open the door. I don't mean valuable. I mean worth the lives taken and destroyed to keep it there._

_Batty, whatever you're in to, stop it. I don't know what that rune does, nor do I want to know. I only know it's a part of a cluster that has taken more than a thousand lives, all said and done. And whatever it is, it seems to be the key to that room's defenses. The bloody rune clusters are amorphous. Each life changes the whole thing and it rewrites itself._

_I can't tell you more than this without violating my own oaths. I'm sorry. Remember I love you and if you ever need my help, for anything except this, I'm here for you. _

_I'll woo you eventually,_

_T_

Bathsheba shuddered. If what was written in that book of Potter's was correct, and she had little reason to doubt it now, then most of those runes weren't actually runes at all, but an ancient script and actual alphabet that was the precursor and origin of the Elven language. Not house elves, as they were, but Elves as they were in legend, which even the magical world doubted was true any longer. The Elves themselves built their language on it and it was also the basis for their magic, at least according to the book. A written expression of magic itself. Even wand-based magic was a derivative of this script. Well, as much of one as English was a derivative of telepathy, anyway. Related, but not nearly similar.

And it wasn't just the one rune, which wasn't supposed to actually kill anyone. It was actually a rune used for transcendence to another plane. One beyond the physical. It was, in theory, meant to bridge the gap between life and magic. Something the muggles called the Akashic field and clairvoyants sometimes were able to hear whispers from.

If the other runes followed the same suit, and did what they said, then they could be used for almost anything. The Potter boy was already using one of them to bridge the connection of the mind and one's will for the desired results on his wands.

"This is why students shouldn't be reading ahead," Bathsheba sighed, destroying her notes with a fire spell and making the smoke go outside until even the ash itself had burnt away. Then she banished the smolder on the floor out of the window and composed a quick letter to her troublesome student, burned the copy of the book she had, and began the long process of using her own occlumency to bury all the knowledge of the runes themselves away while leaving the warnings clear and vivid. She just couldn't bring herself to truly destroy the knowledge that those in her field of study would sell their souls for.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 06:15**

"Harder," Luna purred, arching her back in delicious rapture as Hermione massaged her shoulders and neck. The blonde's front was pressing against the wall of the hot tub and the air bubbles while the brunette's front was against Luna's backside where she had collapsed when Harry's hands had begun massaging her own back, shoulders and neck. Hermione was groaning even more than the lithe blonde as she received far more sensory input.

"Yes," Hermione breathed out with a gasp as she agreed with her co-girlfriend. "_Harder_!"

"That's fifteen minutes," Harry grumbled through a yawn, pulling his hands away. His own back and shoulders hurt like hell, as did the rest of him, and he just couldn't exert more energy, despite how much he liked hearing the girls enjoy their massages. "Today's going to be a very long day, isn't it?" He asked rhetorically.

"Mm, yes," the girls agreed as one as they sidled up to his sides and cuddled tightly, half dozing on their accommodating boyfriend. "The days are getting really long in general," Hermione continued.

"What do you two think of repeating each day twice?" Harry asked, relishing in the complete lack of exertion just sitting there with his girls allowed in the gentle heat of the hot tub. "I don't know about the two of you, but getting up early, putting so many extra hours in each day, since we have a minimum of four, six for me since I repeat each two-hour '_quality session_' twice with you girls, and adding in any extra time for our researching is becoming ridiculous in a single day."

"Actually, we give ourselves four hours a day for homework and research when you spin time for anything else when we don't turn time with you to stay on a relatively similar schedule," Luna murmured, rubbing her body against his in an attempt to become more comfortable which, to her, meant more physical contact and trying to fit together like puzzle pieces. Not to mention the delicious tingles that she was growing more fond of. Still, finding the right cuddle position was worth the effort. The water was warm, but her boyfriend was warmer. And cuddled back. She very much liked the cuddling back.

"And we aren't really giving ourselves any more time to sleep even though you suggested the Room of Requirement for it," Hermione sighed, stroking Harry's chest absently as variables of wants and needs computed rapidly in her mind. "I've actually been thinking about this recently, too, though I was just thinking of repeating a whole night to sleep for the extra time. Especially since we'll have dancing lessons, DA meetings, etiquette lessons with Daphne and all sorts of things as well considering our need for researching the missing horcruxes you told us about. Turning time for naps during the day just seems to be pushing it too far considering how much we use the turners as it is in various amounts. I think we're all averaging almost an extra six hours each day without the added workloads of other things just for the extra stuff we want to do and not that we need to do."

"We'll age two days to everyone else's one," Luna commented sleepily, finding just the right place on Harry's shoulder to rest her cheek. "I certainly look forward to more quality time and can't wait to have a heaving bosom that I can play with like in Harry's mind, to say nothing of the lovely knickers I can get, but do we want to really do so just for such mundane things as school, dancing and exercise?"

"It isn't as simple as that," Hermione said simply as she worried her bottom lip, doing her best to avoid the thoughts of lacy underthings and the dress-up games her and Luna played in Harry's mind with their older counterparts. She consoled herself with the knowledge it had been Luna's idea, despite her own enthusiasm. "School is important, but by doing our work as we are, we can work to learning things for the war Harry said is coming. The exercise is needed so we'll be in better shape and can fight better and hopefully survive and being tired all the time only makes the exercise work less efficiently and makes us tired and almost useless if we actually end up in a fight, to say nothing of not being able to study as thoroughly due to tired minds. The lessons with Daphne help with forming alliances and interacting with people who can help and not alienating those we otherwise would. The two-hour bonding sessions are all but needed for our soul bonds, though I admit that decision was made as much out of desire as the belief it was necessary. And we've been falling behind on our mental defense practice because we're so tired. The dancing is just because I'd like to do so, I'll admit."

"I'm not discounting that," Luna agreed gently, lifting a hand to stroke Hermione's cheek with her knuckles in a soft gesture of affection and trying to soothe the older girl without moving her cheek from its comfortable spot. "I just want to make sure it's been said. I don't really care, so long as our first time through each day is for school so we can do our homework on the second pass and to respond to anything we learn. I mean, we get a quarter to half a day right now, anyway."

"I agree with you both," Harry said slowly, smiling gently as he squeezed both girls to him. Despite the conversation, he still couldn't believe just how well the two girls got along with each other and loved seeing their brief moments of affection for each other since it made him believe everything was possible. That _winning_ was possible. "I've gone round and round with those same considerations, but can't decide if it's worth it. I mean, I know we live longer than non-magicals, and it's not even a year total if you count the remaining four or so months of school and the same after turning time. But that extended life is an average of about forty years unless you're substantially more powerful than the norm. So one year in full doesn't seem so bad in comparison."

"But we may end up doing this for the next four years at Hogwarts, too," Hermione countered with a sigh. "Admittedly, not everything needs to continue to be doubled, and I think I'm going to take your advice and drop Divination like the other me did, so that'll help a little for me, and we could always try to just fit more into our normal hours."

"I would very much like to continue our private time," Luna rushed to let them know, making the older two chuckle and agree. "You know, if we _did_ repeat each day, we could have much more private time where we could spend time like this. Research and planning, too, of course. But bath time is fun."

Harry snorted in amusement before leaning down and kissing the blonde girl gently, getting a sigh of contentment as it ended. "I was wondering when you would take the hint," Luna grinned as she watched him turn his lips to Hermione. "In the end, I think repeating each day would be better than not."

"What about you?" Harry asked his First. "Do you agree with our cuddly little Luna?"

"It certainly has its merits," Hermione grinned, leaning forward and nibbling on his neck for a brief moment. "I think I do, though," she mumbled before slumping in exhaustion and going back to cuddling and trying not to fall asleep and simply kissing the exposed neck and shoulder where it didn't require much movement.

"What about you?" Luna asked, ignoring the neck nuzzling her co-girlfriend was doing. She was more interested in his hand stroking her hair and how it made her sleepier with each stroke. _'Cats definitely have the world view thing worked out properly,'_ the cuddly blonde mused, wishing she could purr.

"I've been trying to think of a reason against it, which is why I had thought it was probably a bad idea," Harry joked. "But it would help us get _so much_ done that it just seems crazy not to do it. So I figured I was probably off base somehow."

"What's on the agenda for today?" Hermione asked, laying her head down on his shoulder and deciding to just let the hot water soothe the aches in her tired body. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was tired and achy. _'Thank God I'm not on my monthly anymore,'_ she thought to herself. _'I still feel guilty every time I look at Snarf. I shouldn't have threatened to stomp him flat for looking at Crooks' catnip toy. Maybe I should get him and the others one.'_ She tried not to think of a group of a hundred hyper Thundercats, but couldn't stop a tiny grin at the thought.

"Well, I've got the Wizengamot meeting starting at ten and want to hit the Forbidden Forest before I leave. Since it's not mandatory, Misses Bones and Longbottom are pretty sure the meeting will be over by one for a slightly late lunch. And Madam Bones said she wanted to talk about something or other, so I don't know what that's about. I'll also be speaking with a few of the professors here to get a better idea of the overhaul I want to do on a couple classes, Muggle Studies being the most important. I'd really like to know what the point of the class is and just exactly how out of date everything is since you've mentioned it's pretty bad, but I'd like Professor Burbage's point of view before I do much. Then I am hoping to meet the goblins while I'm out, too, about a project I think many would like. I've also got a meeting with Skeeter tonight at five to basically try and buy her off to control what she writes, so I'll either be late for the family dinner or have to turn time for an hour or two to make it. I'm just glad I canceled the DA meeting for today."

"Let's turn back to get extra time and go to bed early tonight at the Manor," Luna suggested, moving over her warm boyfriend, a fact she rather enjoyed, to sit in Hermione's lap and let her legs lay over Harry's own so that she could hug both of them to her chest in a joyful embrace. Or at least one that got a lot of contact that she rather enjoyed while mushing their faces into her burgeoning breasts because they turned funny shades of red. "If we go to sleep early, we get more cuddle time and then we get to sleep in late. Maybe we can even have brekkie in bed!" She bounced up and down happily as plots of pancakes in bed swam through her mind's eye. No syrup, though. Even with magic, that was a pain to get out of sheets. She would never try to store them away for winter again, that was for sure.

"That sounds really good, actually," Hermione agreed with a tired smile, wrapping her arms around Luna and kissing the younger girl's cheek, causing Luna to smile brilliantly. Hermione was fully willing to stroke Luna's hair or cheek, hug or cuddle, but rarely offered kisses that weren't during or immediately surrounding naughty time since she was still coming to terms with her own feelings and what was considered appropriate for their relationship and what should be considered a line she didn't want to cross. It didn't help that Luna was willing to do just as much with Hermione as she would with Harry without a second thought while believing kissing was something to enjoy rather than shy away from. Much like nudity, cuddling and playing with sensitive fleshy bits to show you cared.

"I'll speak with Professor Burbage, though, so I can just give you an overview later," Hermione offered. "That should save you a bit of breathing room and I'm rather curious to find out if she has actually _been_ in the muggle world or not."

"I guess that settles it, yea?" Harry asked through a grin. He had been blocking the slight empathic ability he had because it was confusing and he couldn't tell if a feeling was his own or not, but he opened himself to that power now and tried to tell how the two girls felt. There was heavy weariness since they were all tired from so much extra time, even worse than he remembered Hermione being by this point in his past time line with so many extra hours and about the same amount of sleep, but both were feeling somewhat frisky and playful and were simply too tired to act on their impulses. The idea was appealing to both and they were excited by it and looked forward to the private studying and relaxation they could do. Or to breakfast. He wasn't really totally sure, but there was also hunger there and he was almost positive Luna was thinking about pancakes. "We start off our new schedule with a bit of flair and live through our tomorrow the first time at the Manor? Trying it out for a little while won't hurt and we can see if it's worth it. Today is today, then tomorrow is today the second time around, sound good?"

"Are we hiding it from everyone, still?" Hermione asked curiously, wondering if they should tell their families. "I mean, they know we leave the school, obviously, but they still don't know we turn time. Do we stay at the Manor, or our trunks, or do we just stay at one of the cottages? Or even one of your other homes?" Hermione looked up to Harry and stifled a yawn.

"I think we probably shouldn't," Harry said after a brief moment of thought. "Your parents are getting the Prophet, Sirius and Remus are a bit more aware of what's going on and may connect the dots. But the less people that know, the better," he said with a sigh. "If we tell them, then they could either disagree and cause problems, or just do nothing and still end up accomplices. That means we can't really go into the Manor, but one of the cottages would be fine so we still have access to the library. We would just need a way to avoid Sirius detecting us like blocking the light from the windows and letting him know we may randomly show up for a book or something so he doesn't get suspicious of it. At least until I can ease him into it since I doubt we can keep it hidden for long."

"Isn't Sirius aware of what you've been doing?" Luna asked, her head resting on Hermione's shoulder with eyes closed, just resting her eyes. Hermione didn't generate as much body heat, but she was a little softer.

"Part of it," Harry confirmed. "But he doesn't know about the Azkaban hit, or about the Malfoys, Umbridge or what I did with Greyback and his pack mates. He only knows about Snape and the stuff associated with him. He has no idea about us turning time and the like. He may think it's the greatest prank to turn time and all, but I just want to make sure his mind is defensible enough to avoid having it read. He trusts Dumbledore and that's just too dangerous right now."

"Then we do it alone for now?" Luna asked, deciding she would remind them to turn time so they relived the current day a second time to start their new schedule that night. She would rather have the extra day to do any homework than not, and she was sure Hermione would too, if she thought about it. She'd already mentioned it, but knew it wouldn't hurt to remind them. Especially since tonight could be the night they slept there if they elected not to come back after dinner. _'All the better to get pancakes!'_

"For now," Harry confirmed, pulling Hermione close to kiss her hard, only to move his attentions to Luna to kiss her just as thoroughly, but more gently. He then turned back to his First with Luna's giggles as a background _'Hermione wanted dominance. It'll take getting used to, but here's to doing my best!'_ He thought gleefully. _'There's still two hours before the Wizengamot meeting. It's definitely time to make the girls as happy as they make me.'_ With that in mind, he began switching his attentions between both girls and showering them with kisses and caresses that were less perverse and more comforting and loving in nature. Though, Hermione's kisses were taken rather than shared, which seemed to make her smile broaden noticeably. He even coaxed a squeal of delight when he found himself growling into her as he got into the role she read and fantasized about. He'd step by Madam Pomfrey to get a few doses of pepper-up potion for the day.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 06:50**

Ginny Weasley slowly leaned her head to the left, hidden in the shadows of a small alcove behind a tapestry that hung on the wall. It appeared there had once been a passage there, since the stone was different than what surrounded it in color and apparent composition, but it was now large enough for five men to stand shoulder to shoulder with a rough half circle and the girl had decided to set it up as a nest of sorts to observe her prey. Silently, she continued her morning vigil and stood there, gazing intently at the blank wall down the hall about twenty feet away from her. In that spot, a door sometimes appeared, though never for her, it seemed.

_He_ was in there. With _them_. Her Harry was in there, doing _something_ that made Hermione and Luna smile every time they left that room. Or at least in the last six days that she had been watching now that she was caught up to the other second-years. They went in at five in the morning and left at seven, give or take, and were always both exhausted and smiling happily, their skin glowing radiantly from an inner light and glistening with sparkles that only a truly hot shower or bath could really provide.

_'Unless it's something that caused them to perspire,'_ Ginny thought to herself curiously as her thoughts turned to the frighteningly satisfied expressions on both girls each morning.

The petite little redhead had once thought she would be furious with anyone who deigned to be with Harry. And originally, she had, being angry and rarely with a good thought about Hermione Granger's closeness with him that she read about in letters home from her brothers. But in truth, she now was thankful to the two older girls who were his constant companions. The littlest Weasley was glad for their love that Harry received while she, herself, had yet to be accepted by him. She was sure he would accept her, of course. There was no real way any other path could exist before them. They had been destined to be together. She may not have been the first, but she was sure to be his.

Eventually.

He just had to be made aware of that fact, as well. With whatever it took. He was a boy, and the woman that gave birth to her told her all about how they were incredibly dense. He saved her from a sixty-seven foot basilisk, braved an entire nest of acromantula, obliterated the mind of a mind-wiping professor who stole others' lives and even took measures to make sure she was looked after following her possession. If that didn't mean he loved her, then it could only mean he was dark, evil and wanted to finish destroying her as far as the girl was concerned. She actually wouldn't mind that, if it were the case. She would do anything to make him happy, even if he wanted to kill her slowly. She was his, and he'd figure it out sooner or later. She'd make sure of it.

Ginny tilted her head to the right this time, looking away from the door and instead now to the package she had received that morning from her mother. It had been delivered into her trunk by house elf delivery, or perhaps some sort of magic that Ginny honestly didn't care about. She knew you could summon items to you and send them to a recipient, but it was beyond her knowledge and she didn't care about the how, merely the what.

The Weasleys had always had food on the table and clothes on their backs. Magic had been a deciding factor in living at least comfortably by their third child, however, and was the answer to their every prayer in simply surviving after that. Their home was a patchwork amalgam built as needs required and was generally always a do-it-yourself job, which meant the home was actually less stable than it looked. Something few thought could be possible.

Harry Potter's friendship to Ron Weasley was actually a blessing in many ways for the Weasleys, much like Arthur and Molly's friendship and alliance with Albus Dumbledore. The latter allowed a rather silent agreement of some sort that Ginny never got the details to, but meant that scholarships to Hogwarts were heavily discounted. Albus paid a portion of their tuition for their assistance when needed, which was mostly part of the agreement for their joining his Order that helped with the children later on, which Albus hadn't expected to come along any more than the parents themselves.

The former, of course, meant that the Weasleys were very important with their association to Harry. For various reasons, Albus knew both that he couldn't leave Harry with the Dursleys an entire summer since the boy was far too likely to do a runner or get ideas he shouldn't have like looking for a different school or worse, as well as letting such a great opportunity to control Harry's growth pass him by, despite the attempts by Snape to the otherwise. It helped that the Weasleys played into his goals with Harry, though they weren't aware of them. Molly Weasley just rather enjoyed children, especially if she got to stuff them silly. The younger, the better, as far as she was concerned.

Still, they planned for every knut. The inclusion of another child was hard. To that end, Albus provided the stipend portions that were meant to always go to the Dursleys, or whoever his guardian would be, to them to help them out, though only while he was staying with them since the old man was taking the rest for his school tuition since his parents had never actually paid before their untimely demise and Harry not showing up just wouldn't do. In truth, that little bit of monthly stipend had been the only reason they managed to get all of the school supplies for Ginny's first year. Lockhart's books alone would have bankrupted them.

Ginny was aware of all of this in an abstract way. But it was all meaningless to her. Save for her current situation.

The package was back to its usual size on the ground in front of her, stuffed with new clothes, much to her delight. There were several skirts and blouses, ones that were shorter and more revealing than her mother would normally ever even consider, but still highly respectable. There were also a couple dresses and pajamas along with what she had always been told were knickers that only a scarlet woman would wear, which were still more conservative than the pretty things Ginny found in Hermione's underwear drawer. Still, Ginny felt what was in that drawer were 'woman' panties rather than 'little girl' panties. The sort of thing to look forward to, as far as Ginny was concerned.

Anything Mother Weasley was against was something to consider, as far as her only daughter was concerned. At least if it meant there was a better chance to snag Harry. Nothing was too much for her goals of getting him, save for anything that belonged to her future husband.

That was part of why she was thankful for the woman who gave birth to her. She had thought of everything to help out.

_Hello, Gin-Gin!_

_I know this comes from the out of the blue, but I thought I would make good my promise from over the last two summers. Enclosed are some of those pretty outfits we had been talking about and some new underthings to make you feel pretty without anyone needing to be aware._

_I'm your mother, dear. I promised you I would do everything in my power to help you catch Harry's heart. Your father, of course, is against me helping you since he feels that all things will come in their own time. He's a good man, but rather simple. And he certainly believes the best in everyone. But he means well. Still, this means I can't be overt. But that isn't a bad thing. You certainly don't want to try too hard. You won't be the primary wife, it would seem, but you can still be his wife._

_I've put a letter to Harry and his girls in here that you should find. Be a dear and give that to him if you would, please. The goal is to wear one of these new outfits and let him see what a lovely girl you are. Harry knows he can have multiple girls, obviously. Your job is just to make sure he knows you're available and that you're beginning to develop a bit more. Don't let anyone know, but I've enclosed a few vials of growth potions to give you a little burst of help in that regard, but it's only enough for a month. Try to spend time with him, some innocent comments and maybe very light flirting. You could possibly get better odds if you get Hermione or Luna to accept you, first. Luna's been your friend since you were toddlers. I know you haven't spent much time together in the last few years, but you could always revitalize that friendship. _

_Other than that, try to be helpful and you'll likely catch his eye. You're a beautiful girl and I'm sure it's only a matter of time. After all, he's the one who pushed so hard into paying for your mind healer. Despite what he said about there being a debt between the healer's family and his own, I'm sure he is paying for it out of his own pocket._

_I love you, Ginny,_

_Mom_

_PS: Remember to eat your vegetables and don't forget to do your best with Healer Smythe! He's set up a meeting with your father and I to be at your treatment toward the end of the month at home. And remember to always wear clean underthings! If you get into an accident, you don't want to be caught out in a pair of dirty knickers!_

The littlest redhead of the Weasley family was excited to have the package. When she opened it in that alcove, as she hadn't the time to look through it _and_ follow the trio of lovers at the same time, she had immediately stripped off her pants and underwear to put on the best pair of 'womanly' knickers she could find in the box.

Her initial thought had been to change into an entirely new outfit and deliver the letter as soon as they left the disappearing room, but she didn't want them to know that she knew where they went or that she waited for them. That'd just be creepy if they knew. As long as they didn't, then there wasn't anything creepy about it.

The redhead's eyes shot upwards to watch and memorize as the door appeared on the wall and the Triad stepped out, once again looking satisfied, happy and glistening in what may or may not have been hot bath water. She watched silently as they seemed to use each other as crutches to walk to where Ginny knew they had a private room, though she wasn't firm on the details of exactly where the door was or how to get in, or even what was _in_ the room. She always seemed to look away just before they disappeared, despite how much she focused.

Ginny felt a rare brief burst of emotion as she watched her master kissing his two lovers, for she was sure that they were since it didn't make sense to not give themselves fully to him in her eyes. It was a mix of jealousy, pride and longing. She wanted to be in their position on his arm and have him hold her. But, it wasn't to be. Not for now, anyway. The littlest Weasley contented herself with her fantasies as Harry stopped to look around.

_'It's like he knows I'm here...,'_ Ginny thought with a grin. _'We're so connected, he can sense me. More proof we're meant to be together! You know I'm your future, Husband! All you need to do now is realize it and claim me as your future wife like them!'_

"What is it?" Hermione asked, looking down the hall and seeing nothing out of the ordinary. She still readied her wand, though, while Luna tried to blow a strand of her wet hair out of her face. The blonde was much less worried.

"Just thought I felt something," Harry said, looking through narrowed eye. For an instant, there had been a glimmer of emotion, but now the hall felt empty once again, aside from him and his girls. _'I _know_ I felt ... something...'_


	24. Draco's Political Savvy

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter23** – Draco's Political Savvy

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Adult Situations, Adult Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

This chapter only has a few scenes, but a lot happens to set ground work for future chapters and plots. The game is afoot!

**Two Borrowed Concepts**: Dwarves and their status, nature and abilities from Perfect Lionheart. The second concept, to be honest, is more a theme, and I can't recall what it is. It had something to do with Harry's plans and is a concept that I THINK has similarities to Robst's "In This World and the Next" with upgrading Hogwarts? Maybe? o.O

I'll be updating previous chapters as I beta through them, along with updating scenes and adding a little content (like when Neville is trying his wand, due to requests,) so if you back up stories like I do, you may wanna update the past ones, too. They are all time-stamped by the time school starts already, also due to request. Summer is not as it isn't really needed.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Harry Crow" by Robst (H/Hr – I generally don't recommend something so obvious as Robst quickly became a prominent name in the Harmonian fandom virtually as soon as he came into the authoring field and I've recommended him once before. But this deserves its honoured mentions.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_The Triad decided to start repeating each day twice, total. Draco enters the political arena. Ginny gets a box of clothes from her mother and the goblins get sneaky on just how to get Harry's gold without incurring his wrath._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Friday – February 18, 09:45 - Ministry for Magic**

"Hello, Lord Potter," the cultured voice of Draco Malfoy drawled from where he was watching the passersby in the Atrium of the Ministry. The boy had his hands clasped one over the other in front of him as he allowed the peasants to be graced by his presence. His robes showed the Malfoy crest in prominent glory and he appeared to have spent even more time on his hair than normal.

Harry turned tired eyes to the other boy and barely refrained from rolling them in contempt. "Malfoy," he stated dully, purposefully ignoring the blond's title. Harry was just a little too tired to really pay the prat the attention he deserved.

"That's _'Lord_' Malfoy, in case you've forgotten the niceties of society," the blond boy growled. "Though I suppose you never would have learned them living with that muggle filth. Little better than farm beasts, really. Thankfully, you only seem to spend time with one such creature in the form of the beasts' spawn," he sniffed dismissively.

"But you aren't really a lord, are you, Malfoy," Harry stated more than asked with a superior smirk, amusement giving him the energy to trade insults with that snipe at Hermione. "Your multi-great grandfather bought the title with a hundred galleons and his youngest daughter when you came over from France, didn't he?" Harry taunted, mentally thanking Griphook for the information on his enemies' families. "If I remember correctly, your line was disinherited from that family. Cast out for being cowards during the war with the Colonies, right? Stole the gold from the remaining family and brought it here to buy a new life when you refused to march for France and came where sympathetic loyalties laid, right?"

Draco seethed in impotent rage. The only thing saving the more famous boy in front of him from a messy death was the fact that there were far too many witnesses and he knew that aurors were everywhere. "I am _still_ a lord, Potter. You would do well to remember that fact. Unlike the swine you grew up with, I was trained for the political arena. Deception and intrigue were my bread and butter growing up, rather than mud and the leavings of my betters, like yourself!" He bit out.

"If what I've seen at Hogwarts is anything to go by," Harry grunted, "then I've got nothing to worry about." Indeed, the blond boy was heavy-handed and seemed incapable of subtlety with his ploys at the castle. Other than a narcissistic and prideful arrogance, Harry wouldn't have put Draco in Slytherin save for the realization that he wouldn't fit elsewhere. He wasn't brave or willing to go into danger if it could be helped, shown when he'd run from the Forbidden Forest in first year to leave Harry alone to an unknown enemy.

He wasn't loyal to anyone but himself. His grades were a bit above average in potions and charms, but he didn't seem to study for anything. In truth, other than a few general areas, most muggleborn surpassed magically-raised children due to a distinct lack of basic education in maths beyond addition, subtraction and multiplication in the magical world. Only the more well-to-do families had taken the effort to either hire tutors or were intelligent enough to do the teaching themselves. And that was readily apparent in the essays turned in. Draco's ambition was the defining characteristic that allowed him a House at Hogwarts.

Draco glared before his face turned to indifference and sending a shrug towards the Boy-Who-Lived and calming down to an almost civil appearance. "We'll see soon enough."

Harry narrowed his eyes as the Malfoy patriarch did something he had never done before: back down on his own. The boy had never backed down unless a teacher showed up. And after insults, he should have been making his usual threats. _'Maybe it's because he can't go to Daddy anymore? Or is he aware of something I'm not?'_ Harry wondered.

"Lord Potter! Hello again," Amelia greeted the younger male with a smile as he greeted her back, noting as he did so that the Director of the DMLE had not been in Draco's line of sight, so wasn't the reason for Draco's out-of-character actions. She noticed the newest Lord amongst them and put on her working face. "Lord Malfoy. I wish to offer my condolences regarding your parents. No one wishes to gain their titles in such a fashion and I'm sorry it happened to you and at such a young age."

"It's no bother, Lady Bones," Draco spoke imperiously, puffing out his chest slightly and standing straighter as he turned up his nose slightly more than necessary to look at the taller woman. "My father was a great man, but he taught me well and I expect to surpass his brilliance. I'm ready to take my place among society's elite and help bring our world into a new age. I also expect a list to find out why I returned home to an empty house at Christmas after aurors raided it."

Amelia's cheek and eyebrow squeezed her monocle as she narrowed her eyes at the boy's impudence, but still she smiled thinly and ignored the arrogance. Regardless of anything else, the boy just lost his parents and was thrown into a world he wasn't likely ready for yet. "We all hope to see you rise to greatness," she offered, knowing it wouldn't happen and ignoring the less-than-veiled accusation. _'This boy is more dangerous than his father if he thinks he can play the game even a fraction as well as his old man. He's going to do something stupid.'_

"I will, I assure you," Draco drawled in an attempt to imitate his father's cultured voice. He took just long enough to smirk imperiously at Harry before turning and nodding to someone behind the other young lord. "Mister Macnair, it's a pleasure to see you so soon."

"The pleasure is mine, Young Lord," Walden Macnair offered kindly, ignoring the Potter boy to avoid showing his dislike of the little brat. He instead turned to Amelia. "Lady Bones. It's good to see you again. How's the niece?" He asked kindly, getting a warm smile from the younger woman.

"She's doing well, Walden. And you know I don't mind you using my given name outside of official situations. It's Amelia for you."

Harry's look of horror at the two older individuals flirting was matched by Draco's own. However, where Draco was disgusted at the idea of these two people basically being ancient and doing disgusting things, Harry was more disgusted by the idea that Amelia actually had fond thoughts of the disposal agent. Apparently, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was unaware that the axe user was a Death Eater. It took Harry a few moments to realize that few at this point in time actually knew of several Death Eaters that were right in their midst. Macnair, Yaxley and even some of those with children like Nott, Crabbe and Goyle were still running amok without any real suspicion in many cases. He had totally forgotten about trying to handle Death Eaters who weren't at Azkaban save those he had a direct reason to think about.

Walden scratched the back of his head as he smiled in apparent shyness. He was no stranger to the tender affections of women, but he usually paid for them and knew they'd do whatever he wanted from the deal as long as he paid. Having a woman as high-class and lovely as Amelia, far different from his usual fare, was enough of a change that it wasn't a complete act. He was disgusted by the woman's loyalties, but would readily admit she was attractive. "You know I can't be doing that, Little Lady," the executioner said gruffly, using a tone of voice he would use when he was talking to a little girl he wasn't wanting to scare. The giant teddy bear act seemed to work especially well against the woman who was seen by her position in the Ministry first and as a woman second or third most of the time. "You'll always be Lady Bones."

"Ugh," Draco quietly scoffed at what he was seeing, feeling dirty. The expression on his face wouldn't be much worse had he found that his robes were covered in dragon dung.

"Lord Malfoy," Walden began, turning back to the boy and thinking his expression was due to the woman he had been talking to rather than their ages. "Did I hear your wards had fallen around your home? I do hope you've had them repaired?" _'And if not, I hope you've not secured the valuables.'_

"They did, yes," Draco said, raising his nose imperiously once again. "I returned home over the winter holidays and found all wards shattered and since learned the DMLE had done so in search of my late father after the death of Madam Umbridge. New wards have been put up already, of course. The best I could find. They will naturally assault anyone attempting to break through them. The goblins advised they are close to war-time wards, but due to specifics in the wording of the law, don't currently hold that classification since they are reactionary. But being the last Malfoy, and with Sirius Black still evading the aurors so ... _efficiently_," he sneered lightly, "I don't want him to have an easy time of getting everything my family has worked to obtain should he think of it. With no other Malfoys in Britain and no ties to anyone else, all my family's hard-earned wealth would go to him if he manages it. And Father always told me that they were always at odds, so the motive is certainly there."

"It may interest you to know that Sirius Black never had a trial," Harry interrupted, needing to defend his godfather. "There's actually no acknowledged evidence to suggest he betrayed my family."

"Whether he did or not," Draco stated harshly, "I'm still at risk against a man who hated my father and would like to see our line end and possibly gain all our holdings." Turning away from his nemesis, Draco acknowledged Amelia once again as she spoke up.

"We find it interesting, as well, that Severus Snape has disappeared after getting what your father offered him, as well," Amelia mentioned, trying to judge Malfoy's reactions. He appeared to be rather confused, as though he didn't get what she was suggesting.

"Regardless, we need to get inside," Amelia continued. "The meeting is about to start."

"Excellent," Draco said with a grin. "I've obtained the notes of the previous meetings and feel I can contribute much to our society's needs."

Harry knew there was something about the look Draco gave him that spelled trouble. He just couldn't figure out what it was.

It took Harry only a moment to go to the Potter seat where he sat and observed Draco, feeling unsettled. The boy had always appeared arrogant and incapable while showing almost nothing but a self-assuredness that he could and would get away with just about anything. The Potter lord was confident it was a weak front of bravado, but at the same time, he had been ignoring the other boy because Draco had taken to the shadows, changing his entire method of playing his little games. However, this appearance of self-importance was much the same as what Harry remembered seeing in his sixth year when the Malfoy scion had been given his first orders from Voldemort. And that worried him.

According to his Thundercats, although he was unsure of which had discovered the information but, according to his design, they were more loyal to him than Dobby could ever hope to be as part of their ingrained programming, the boy was hoping to fill the Dark Lord shoes currently being ignored. Draco was overheard to be contemplating some training at some point. They just hadn't been able to hear the nature it would take.

While Harry's most recent memories showed a boy that was all bark and no bite who had found himself unable to kill Dumbledore when the time and opportunity came, he was honest enough to say that all the changes to the time line could easily have pushed Draco from talk to action. Losing his parents, having his manor robbed of all valuables and then marrying Pansy were all things that could easily change him. Then, taking away his safety net in the form of Snape and publicly humiliating him in the Great Hall when essentially calling him a child who couldn't do anything on his own without running to Daddy had certainly begun a change that Harry had noted, but ignored in favor of more important things.

Currently, Harry was noting who Malfoy was greeting like an old friend and who was cozying up to him while comparing that to those who treated him more like Amelia or himself. Sadly, there were a large number of the former and only a few of the latter, counting him and the Bones' current Matriarch. Quite a few people were apparently hoping to manipulate him or perhaps somehow gain his favor or an alliance, if the apparent offer of a youngest daughter as a mistress was anything to go by from someone Harry couldn't remember the name to.

"Attention if you please," Dumbledore called out. "If you will all find your seats, we shall begin immediately." Albus nodded as soon as everyone was situated.. "Let it be recorded that this meeting of the Wizengamot on February eighteenth of nineteen hundred and ninety-four on our calendar is called to order. Presiding is Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore."

Albus turned to the scribe. "Are all parties present and accounted for?"

"No sir," the scribe acknowledged. "Outside of those present in person or proxy save for those who are now dead and inheritances are still being sorted out, in prison or in one case with Lord Black, on the run, twenty-three members have chosen not to appear."

"Very well," Albus acknowledged, turning to the group and quickly checking who was missing against those who were present, knowing the majority were actually here to see Lord Malfoy ascend to his place of honor amongst them. Though they were most likely hoping to see him fail, as well. This was nearly double the average head count for a non-mandatory meeting. They actually had a majority attendance, allowing laws to be enacted at this meeting if they so chose. This situation was fairly rare, but not unheard of. Some laws were put through that simply offended enough people to make them want to come and stop them, even if it meant actually getting up and doing work at ten in the morning.

"Today," Albus began, "we are honored to see the rise of another member into our ranks. May I present to you, Lord Draco Scorpius Malfoy," Dumbledore swept his arm widely to end on the smirking blond as he rose to bow slightly to his peers.

Harry wondered if Umbridge's outburst during his outing had stopped him from being announced or if there was just something different with Draco's situation. He didn't particularly care for the attention or the posturing, but it _did_ appear to be a big deal, in the end. And he was hoping to use his fame and power for something meaningful this time and hoped a lack of introduction didn't cause him problems later. Though, at the same time, a power play right at the start and putting down both Lucius and Umbridge was probably better for him, now that he thought about it.

"Thank you, Lords and Ladies of this august body," Draco offered, trying to imitate his late father's ability to speak a whole sentence as if it were one long, silky word. He didn't quite have it correct, though. "_I_ come into my position of honor aware of my duties and responsibilities to our government, our society and our culture," he stated, staring at Harry and emphasizing what he believed his nemesis lacked in a proper upbringing, causing several of the more observant members to note the animosity between the two young lords, "and look forward to bringing our world into a new era; one that our forefathers envisioned and dreamed of." With a bow of his head, the newest lord amongst them sat and looked around as if trying to tell them all through just his gaze that he belonged and they should recognize him.

"It is a pleasure to have you among us, Lord Malfoy," Albus stated, finding himself not actually meaning it. A month ago, he would have not only meant it, but been proud of the boy. Today, the Chief Warlock was disgusted by the boy's presence and realized there was no hope for him to turn to the Light. Now that his parents were dead and he was abusing his wife, according to the wards and Madam Pomfrey, there was no way off the path he was on. Albus pondered silently on whether or not Harry knew what he created by publicly humiliating the boy in the Great Hall, which was certainly a driving force in the newest lord's temperament.

"As we have nothing from our previous meeting to continue with, we shall instead move on to new today's items on our agenda. We have only two articles to go over. First, from Arthur Weasley, submitted via proxy through Madam Bones, is the Muggle Protection Act. Madam Bones, you have the floor."

"Thank you," Amelia offered as she stood. "The contents of the Muggle Protection Act are little more than what is already enforced, but simply offers guidelines on said enforcement. In the meeting notes you all should have received about two and a half weeks ago, the act is simply a guide for allowing nothing overtly magical into the muggle world outside the control of a home or person with knowledge of our world with a clear line of consequences depending on the severity of the item in question. For example, we've had a recent rise in fertility charms being released to the muggle public. While not illegal and not noticeably the result of an item, it would be a small fine without permission from the Ministry whereas foe glasses, and other obviously magical items, could result in a list of other punishments depending on the item and severity of the breach. Similarly, this act will also make illegal using any active magic on a non-magical persons that isn't used for the reason of hiding our world and maintaining the Statute of Secrecy."

Amelia noted the faces carefully and withheld a sigh. It looked like she would have to try to shame some of them into agreement. "As I said, this takes what is already in place in how we respond, but actually adds degrees of severity to the punishments. Anyone found guilty of using magic against muggles, or releasing magical items into their world, is easily found guilty of breaking the Statute of Secrecy and risking our entire world. And those using magic against muggles, while not illegal in and of itself without this bill, it will still stop the penalty from being automatically considered as breaking that same Statute, something that carries a fine and then imprisonment penalty for first and second occurrences, respectively, with prison time each instance thereafter. This will break down the crime or crimes into smaller punishments from fines to imprisonment depending depending on what it was that happened."

_'Now that the fear is in their eyes,'_ Amelia thought amused. "It's also considered that only muggleborn and halfblood magicals go into that world, so it's believed that it should only affect them or those who go out muggle hunting." That wasn't true, of course. Many purebloods enjoyed things from the muggle world, especially of the alcoholic and erotic kind despite their prejudices, but this was something that Lord Montgomery had suggested to make it appear this bill wouldn't affect them when Arthur had asked his advice for his bill.

"Thank you for your time," Amelia bowed her head and sat.

"I open the floor to discussion," Albus stated, looking around to see how this bill was being accepted. Amusingly, the majority of those present didn't wish to be associated with a lower blood status or muggle hunting. And by saying it essentially allowed for lesser sentencing when they _did _get caught, they were all happy to let the bill pass. Had Lucius Malfoy been around, he would have offered a counter-argument, as he had been against it from the beginning which was a big part of why he selected Ginny to receive the cursed diary. But, those who supported him chose to now follow Draco's lead, as the boy seemed to pay even more than his father while some were still under magical alliance contracts or oaths. So, the majority chose not to say anything to find out what Draco's desire was. "Very well. It seems everyone learned what they needed with the agenda notes. Does anyone wish to second this motion?"

"The House of Longbottom supports this bill," Augusta said almost immediately, doing as was the norm and working as a team.

"Very good," Albus stated, making a quick note. "As we have a majority attendance, please light your wands to see if we will vote on this issue now."

Harry watched with a slightly bewildered expression on his face as everyone seemed to have a wand but himself. Shrugging, and knowing that this bill had passed before even though it did nothing to protect the muggleborn from Umbridge, he raised his hand and concentrated on lighting the tip of his finger. He would have to ask about the security desk taking his wand and consider something similar to this bill for the muggleborn, though he expected that to be a harder fight. Muggles could be ignored. The muggleborn couldn't.

"Very well. Please let the record reflect that we have obtained just the number of votes needed were we in full attendance to vote on the Muggle Protection Act, thus allowing us to continue despite having members absent and having this item brought up today. Please vote now to enact this bill," Albus demanded, raising his own wand to be seen as the first to agree. Several who did not wish to allow the vote seemed to decide it was worth putting their decision in with the vote, and some of them looking almost giddy as they were expected to vote and now could do so with impunity for whoever they were sitting proxy for.

"And those against?" Albus asked. There weren't enough dissenters to fight against the obvious majority. And the one person who would have been willing to fight it just because his nemesis voted for it had a more important reason to stay unnoticed for the moment, leading those who would fight to not do so and abstain.

"Let the record show the bill passes unanimously," Albus said while Harry still found it difficult to believe no opposition still meant a 'unanimous' ruling.

Amelia smiled warmly and wrote a quick letter to give to Arthur to let him know the good news. She quite happily noted that she would await one of Molly Weasley's wonderful apple pies that he had promised.

"The next item on our agenda is a proposal by the new Lord Malfoy," Albus stated. "The proposal was submitted only a week ago, so it wasn't something you would have received via owl, so I will, as usual, allow the author of the bill to speak and explain."

Draco rose almost too slowly, relishing at being the center of attention and actually creating something that would become law. Something that could and _would_ control the actions of the people of their entire world. "Thank you, Grand Sorcerer," Draco intoned. He took a single second to try and look many of those listening to him in the eye. He had learned from an early age that avoiding eye contact was a sign of submissiveness. One of weakness.

"My proposal is a simple one. This idea was the result of the Ministry's attempts to increase taxes on the exchange rate for additional funding that was denied. The basics of my proposal is the buying and selling of debts and using such debts as a bartering tool. As you are aware, there are many forms of debts such as debts of honor, life debts and the usual financial, among others. The idea is that one could use a debt in place of fines to the Ministry, which could then be sold for additional funding if necessary. One can also buy these from anyone with such a debt owed to them. And debts that are gained can also be purchased through the Ministry to then be sold at a later time if they should become forfeited."

"You are essentially calling for us to consider any form of debt an item to be traded away?" Lord Montgomery asked through narrowed eyes, wondering what the game was. "This has been done on occasion, of course but, rather than an agreement between individuals, you ask that it also be something the government can purchase and barter with? Specifically with the idea of selling them to gain funding?"

"Indeed," Draco agreed. "It also explains honor debts have a three-year period before they forfeit to the Ministry, to allow them to be sold or claimed as necessary by order of the Wizengamot, unless whoever is the claimant of that debt prefers to sell it to someone, at which point whoever, or whatever department, buys the debt has control over it. The same for life debts, unless an agreement was put in place before hand on how to handle said debt. And financial debts that break the terms of an agreement can be sold to the Ministry, or an individual, to basically pass along the problem to someone willing to deal with it, perhaps to form a betrothal agreement to square the deal, or make an equitable trade of goods between businesses and the like."

"The basics of this bill are what we already do, but in a more formal and legalized, thus standardized, form?" Amelia asked to clarify, actually finding the idea had merit. Even if the young lord _did_ explain it in a somewhat convoluted fashion. "Basically, any form of debt can be traded based on its perceived value? You also propose to add a three-year period in which the debt must be either paid off, or an agreement reached?"

"Again, yes," Draco stated, keeping his tone as friendly as possible. "Should the Ministry, for example, purchase a financial debt from a potions supply company in which a shipping company is in debt to for ten thousand galleons, the Ministry could purchase the debt the shipping company owes for eight thousand, instead, so the person who originally owned the debt, the potions supplier, can get something out of it, but no longer deal with the hassle of obtaining it. Then, the shipping company is in debt instead to the Ministry, which can get what is owed over time with discounted shipping bills, or using their boats to make a delivery for free, or even levying fines or the like. So, in this example, the Ministry pays eight thousand galleons, but will earn ten thousand in discounts. Or get a ship for official Ministry use. Or, should someone like Madam Bones buy the debt itself, and not the Ministry or in her position as Department Head, then she can make a deal with the shipping company. This would be worth more to a merchant, but you get the example, of course," Draco explained, subtly suggesting that anyone who didn't understand was too simple-minded to follow his explanation, thus hoping no one would ask more clarifying questions.

"That ... sounds reasonable," muttered an older man that Harry couldn't remember the name of. He only knew the man because he was the one wearing fuzzy slippers during his first Wizengamot meeting and offered his nine-year old great granddaughter for a betrothal agreement. Similarly, there were many people who agreed with him judging from their nodding heads and the mutters Harry could understand. "Those of us who are owed money would have to settle for less, or something other than gold, but it would certainly be faster for us while providing a more secure way of getting payment and could help save the Ministry money in situations like that. It may not work in all situations, but where the Ministry doesn't want the debt, a private citizen may have a way to make it work out."

"Who would get the money, though?" Asked another man who reminded Harry of the principal of his school before Hogwarts. He looked like he had been sucking on lemons since his birth. Along with a really bad comb over and ears that would make Dumbo the elephant proud.

"My proposal states that whichever department offers up the funds for the deal, which is selected in an auction format should the Ministry become involved and to get the best possible offers, will get the funds after obtaining that debt. Since business could be had with this and not just financial gain, it seems prudent to allow a department that could use the help the ability to purchase the debt, even if they pay more than is truly owed."

Harry considered mentioning that the muggle world had debt collection agencies that pretty much did the same thing Draco was suggesting, but since he didn't know much of anything about them, he elected not to. Plus, it would be amusing to see his face after the bill went through or failed to tell him his great idea was thought of first by muggles.

What Draco was suggesting, however, was not the same thing, exactly, as what Harry thought it was. Draco was suggesting any form of debt could be sold by whoever was owed something, so long as someone was willing to purchase it from them. And, it explained there was a three-year forfeiture period otherwise.

Similarly, those within the Wizengamot were not looking at the debts in their musings, so much at the concept of buying something and then getting more back from it, or possibly more than gold in some cases, particularly those who were looking forward to getting a new, young wife from someone with a daughter that owed more than they could pay. Maybe not for themselves, but their own sons and grandsons or, in some cases, a husband for their daughters and granddaughters.

"Thank you for your time," Draco stated, bowing and sitting with as much dignity as he could.

"I will now open the floor to discussion," Albus stated.

"It has much promise," Lady Longbottom offered. "I would like to look at the bill itself to see the details, particularly in the vernacular," she continued.

"I agree, it has substantial promise," Minister Fudge stated, delighted with the notion of more money. He was also a fan of people owing the Ministry and, by association, him, any form of debt.

Draco didn't expect to get his bill pushed through, but he was truly hoping to after the previous submission. He had purposefully left the wording a little open, just in hopes of it not getting caught. For example, private citizens, with lords first in line, get first-crack at those debts.

"The House of Burke seconds the bill," Johnathan Bell stated calmly. He was sitting as proxy for the Head of the Department of Records, which meant nothing more than Head File Clerk. But, Lord Malfoy promised him five thousand galleons to second his motion, which was ten times as much as his father ever suggested, much less offered. And since he was a proxy, he rarely was allowed to vote in matters, but this was something he was sure his own Lord would be able to utilize. "Since I do not wish such wonderful potential to go to waste, I feel it most prudent to get the ball rolling, so to speak, and make any amendments necessary for next month's meeting."

"I agree that it holds promise," Harry spoke up, looking at those who chose to look at the Potter lord in surprise that he was agreeing with what was known to be his schoolyard nemesis, "I would like to strongly suggest we make this bill all that it can be _before_ it is legalized, just like Lady Longbottom. This ensures we don't require as many amendments later which could conflict in ways we can't foresee at this time. Especially since several have admitted to not knowing what is on the actual bill that we are looking to legalize."

Many of the magicals around him looked at Harry in confusion before looking back and forth between the two young lords, more than a little confused. Harry and Draco loathed each other. But the fact that Harry was agreeing while simultaneously stating to wait seemed to be sending mixed signals to the large group. Harry actually felt disgusted as he realized these people, who led the government of Britain's magical society, didn't all seem to possess some basic common sense, just as Hermione had told him in his first year. Logic, just like Snape's riddle, confounded them.

"If we have to do the work anyway," Jeremiah Rutland began curiously, "then why not get this bit out of the way so we don't have to deal with it later?" He asked. The portly man with substantially bushy sideburns looked around, seeing others agreeing with him. "An amendment would be easy enough to add in, after all, and easier than changing the entire bill Lord Malfoy has submitted."

"We know you haven't submitted a bill yourself, Lord Potter," Isaiah Castleberry began warmly, trying to explain to the boy what he didn't know yet. "But this is easier to correct with an amendment than to change the entirety of the bill and then have to come back to it all over again."

"And if it has something in it poorly worded that results in legalizing something that isn't wanted?" Harry asked, not really hiding his disgust at the inherent laziness of those surrounding him. Every adult magical he knew had problems listening to sense whenever him or Hermione had tried in the past, so he knew there was little reason to argue the point, but felt he had to try.

"That's what amendments are _for_, Lord Potter," Isaiah laughed as though Harry had told a joke.

Harry looked around and saw most around him agreed with the jolly Wizengamot member and decided to remain quiet as several turned to Albus.

"As we still have a majority with us today, we will, of course, see now if we shall pass this into law since we have enough people to vote, as is custom," Dumbledore began. "As a reminder, should it fail today, it will be brought up under normal circumstances in our next month's meeting. All those in favor of voting today, please light your wands."

Harry frowned as he actually saw people agreeing to vote to make Draco's bill a law even though they didn't know what it said. What annoyed him, however, was that too many were voting. Thankfully, Lord Montgomery, Lady Bones and Lady Longbottom were not amongst them.

"Very well. Please let the record reflect that we have obtained quorum with just the number of votes needed were we in full attendance to vote on Lord Malfoy's bill, the Debt Barter Bill, thus allowing us to continue even without absent members. Please vote now to enact this bill," Albus demanded, making a point to cover one hand with the other on his desk and not voting, hoping others would take it as a hint.

_'You have got to be kidding me!'_ Harry screamed in his head. From the looks of things, it was a little more than even. But it was those families that held more than one vote that would be problematic. And Harry didn't know who controlled how many. The Potters had seventeen votes on their own. And the Founders' seats had about that, each, but he couldn't vote for them without a wife or heir, and he was sitting as a Potter, which meant it didn't matter. All that did matter was how many votes the others had. _'There is something seriously wrong with this government when they make something a law without actually knowing what it says!'_ Harry raged in his head.

"And all those against?" Albus asked, hoping the rest voted as he lighted his own wand. Harry, Amelia, Augusta and Lord Montgomery each voted against, as did four others, but it wasn't enough. "Let the record show the bill passes sixty-five votes for, and fifty-eight against with seventy-seven votes marked neutral. Please also make a record to go over this bill in our next meeting to iron out the details," Albus stated sadly.

Draco was looking extraordinarily pleased with himself and neither Albus or Harry could figure out why.

xXxXxXx

As the meeting broke up, Harry was approached by Amelia and Augusta who nodded in greeting. "How can _anyone_ be stupid enough to ratify something that they haven't even read?" He asked, allowing his voice to show just how disgusted he was.

"The Wizengamot rules based on quorum, Lord Potter," Augusta explained. "It is foolish, and disappointing, but it is also possible Lord Malfoy has paid some members off or had pre-existing agreements in place through his father's work. As loath as I am to say it, the bill _can_ be a truly remarkable thing if it is carefully worded."

"And if it isn't," Amelia sighed, "then it can cause a lot of hardship. And it won't actually be anything that can be acted upon until the next meeting after amendments have a chance to be made under these unique circumstances. But I agree. This is a little too impressive for Draco to lay claim to it. But you can rest assured that Augusta and I will endeavor to scrutinize the bill and we shall do what we can to limit the damage."

"And we shall help," Lord Montgomery stated firmly, coming up to Harry's group with Albus by his side and Elphias Doge behind them, the man wearing his cowl already to hide his light green skin. "I agree with you. This has great potential, but for good and ill both." The elder lord turned to Harry, bowing his head ever so slightly as he was off put by the boy's age. Only the head on his shoulders allowed his own pride to give even that much. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Lord Potter. I thank you for speaking up on my bill in the previous meeting, despite it not passing."

"The pleasure is mine, sir. It's Lord Montgomery, right?" He asked, barely remembering the name from his introduction at that time the older man tried submitted his bill.

"It is."

"I'm afraid I don't know how to submit bills, amendments or the like and, to be honest, I've not received a single document from the very beginning about anything related to the Wizengamot. I'd have missed the mandatory meeting in November if a scribe hadn't sent me a personal letter letting me know some people were attempting to claim the Potter seat in proxy," Harry explained, staring Dumbledore down throughout the latter half of his speech. "Including my inexperience, I'm glad those here are like-minded enough that it can be done."

"I would be happy to show you the methods, Lord Potter," Albus offered. "And I believe your lack of documentation is my fault, as well. While you were growing up, I set up redirection wards for owl post and, to be honest, have since only altered them to allow post from your friends to ensure your protection. It hadn't occurred to me to remove them since your emancipation. I will disable them tonight. As you have chosen to put your safety in your own hands, it only makes sense to remove my protections still active."

"Thank you," Harry stated. "Out of curiousity, what about anything sent to me previously?"

"A vault at Gringotts," Albus explained. "Everything except the reward for Voldemort's eradication was sent there. That reward, however, was used to pay for your Hogwarts tuition since your parents hadn't paid yet and the remainder was placed into your family vault to earn interest since your trust fund would be adequate to suit your needs until out of school."

"I see. Again, thank you. And I'll be happy to accept your offer." Harry looked around, noticing Fudge was looking towards the door as he shook someone's hand. "Not to sound ungrateful, but I need to speak with Minister Fudge for a moment. Please excuse me."

"Before you go, Lord Potter," Amelia spoke quickly, as she had wanted to talk with him.

"Yes?" He asked, turning around.

"I've cleared having you in our Auror Training classes. I'll send you an owl with the schedule and you may show up as you will. Just send me an owl at least a day in advance, please."

"Yes Ma'am," Harry said with a grin before he left them.

As he left, Lord Montgomery watched him carefully. "I cannot get a read on the boy," he said after a moment. "He seems earnest and driven by something, but he seems to be inherently against many of our traditions and the way our government works. I see the potential of a great politician in him, but I also see someone who would change our entire government if possible."

"I agree with the former, but not so much the latter," Augusta stated diplomatically. "After all, I can see where his views would be skewed of our legal system, but it has served us well in roughly a thousand years. He is young. He sees something as it is based on one situation and feels it is wrong. He will learn as he gains experience. I agree this bill should have been viewed first, but as Lord Rutland stated, that is what amendments are for. I am more worried about what the Malfoy boy would try before those amendments are made."

"If he told the truth, and he had better have if he doesn't want life in Azkaban and the bill stricken from the books, then I don't see what he could do. Not unless any debts he knows of are already in forfeiture, at any rate. And even then, I don't see how he could benefit."

"The boy, Lord Potter that is, seemed not to be against the bill, but something within it," Lord Montgomery stated after a brief pause. "I am curious as to what he believes he saw that all of us with years, decades in many cases, of experience did not, in a bill that was crafted by someone with less experience in law than even Lord Potter himself."

"Lord Potter," Albus began somewhat ominously, "perhaps saw little to nothing. Harry Potter, however, sees far more than I have ever given him credit for. He seems to know things that are not even whispers in this world. _He_, perhaps, saw something."

"Or it could be a schoolyard squabble spilling over into the Wizengamot," Amelia said with a shrug. "Regardless, we should get copies of that bill as soon as possible."

"Agreed," the others said, turning their conversations to random life talk and what they were doing with their days. It didn't occur to them that Harry's issue with the whole thing was that it only took a rare occurrence like this to make a large problem and the idea was to stop that from happening and making additional amendments that ended up making laws convoluted.

xXxXxXx

As Harry left those he considered allies in the Wizengamot, he took a deep breath to ready himself for the next bit. He really hated Cornelius Fudge, but was about to have to play starstruck toady.

"Ah! Lord Potter! How can I help you today?" Cornelius asked as the person he was just speaking with finally left him. _'Why do people think they can ask me for handouts for their pet projects? It isn't like they give me gold unless they want something! But do they ever offer me anything? Hmph!'_ The older man whined petulantly in his head. _'At least Potter has saved my life from that lunatic, Lucius.'_

"Hello Minister Fudge. I thought you'd like to know I caught Sirius Black," Harry said simply, causing the Minister to gape and attempt to splutter something with his mouth hanging open that came out more like a choking sound.

"What?" Fudge asked, aghast. "He attacked you?"

"Not at all," Harry immediately defended, going into an explanation of the choreographed 'first' meeting. While it wasn't their first meeting, Hermione had coached them through a fake meeting so Harry could be as honest as possible. "He actually approached me with his hands up and let me put him in a body bind. He then explained his situation and made an oath of honesty that he was telling the truth with his life as the penalty. He's still alive, so he was telling the truth. Snape, the potions professor that escaped had some veritaserum in his potions cabinet and, since it's legal for me to use on my own land, I went ahead and confirmed it all through that. He wasn't my parents' secret keeper and he wasn't responsible for the deaths of all those muggles. It was Peter Pettigrew, who it turns out had been hiding as my friend Ron's pet rat Scabbers since he's an illegal animagus. He'd just cut off a finger when he escaped to leave evidence of his fake death before Sirius was put in prison without a trial and without ever being found guilty, even. When you visited him over the summer, you gave him the newspaper that had a picture of the Weasleys on it which had Peter in rat form that he recognized. He left to keep me safe since he knew Peter was in the same dorm as me. But, unfortunately, my first girlfriend got a Kneazle and attacked him for being untrustworthy and he ran off, so we're looking for him."

"I see," Fudge stuttered. His face had paled dramatically as he realized he still had a kiss-on-sight order for the wizard. At the same time, some small part of him was jealous of the fact that the boy could have up to ten girls while he was only allowed the one. And Fudge didn't even like his wife all that much. "This could prove to be disastrous, Harry," Fudge began, trying to get his new friend to see reason and not go public with this information. "If the people find out Black's innocent and the real guilty party is on the loose, they'll lose trust in the Ministry. Especially if they find out Black was put in Azkaban without a trial!"

"Actually, I convinced Sirius to make a deal," Harry said, smiling as widely as possible to try and play the part of a child who wanted to be praised of what he did.

"D-deal?" Cornelius asked warily.

"Well, we already know he's innocent. I also know you became Minister just a few years ago, right before I came back into the wizarding world. I explained this wasn't _your_ fault, but the fault of the previous administration."

"Of course it is!" Fudge said happily, seeing a way out for himself.

"But Sirius said people likely wouldn't care since the Ministry is still the Ministry," Harry continued, silently doing his best to keep a straight face as the Minister kept going from white to green and back again. "But, when I pushed the issue, he agreed to speak out against the previous administration so long as you did a few small things as a sign of good faith and to prove you, as the current administration, are sorry while also allowing you to prove to the public that the Ministry will try and make amends when something like this happens."

"Wh-what 'small things' does he want?" Fudge almost whined.

"First, a public apology and a legal document proving his innocence, just because he wants it after all this time," Harry began.

"That's simple enough," Fudge hedged, hoping that was all but knowing better. Black had him by the short and curlies and he knew it.

"Next, instead of suing for wrongful imprisonment, mental torture for more than a decade, physical torture for more than a decade, for holding him for more than a decade without trial and slandering him for more than a decade, he will forgo monetary compensation that could potentially ruin the Ministry if you agree to greatly ramp up the Auror budgets to help make sure things like this don't happen and instigate bi-annually, mandatory checks via veritaserum that each Auror must go through to prove they are not former Death Eaters and haven't subverted the government."

"That ... that is a lot to ask," Fudge blustered, hoping to try and see if Harry, his good friend Lord Potter, could keep convincing Black to see things Fudge's way.

"Well, he's also offering not to blame the Ministry for attempted murder and successfully ending the Black line," Harry said casually, rather surprised someone could pale so thoroughly when they were already quite white.

"H-how does he think we did that!" Fudge asked in a high-pitched voice, wanting to scream the question but not wanting to be loud enough to be overheard.

"Well, twelve years of exposure to dementors does some pretty bad things to a person," Harry explained. "He checked with a healer and they said he is sterile, and that's the fault of the Ministry according to Sirius." Harry decided not to mention that the 'healer' was a muggle doctor, who seemed appalled at the idea of Sirius being in a twelve-year long bout of depression where he weighed the pro's and con's every day of suicide, along with a story of being kept prisoner in a third-world country prison. Describing the guards, apparently, was some of the mutt's best work according to the man himself. The emaciated body and horrific general health supported that story, along with a godson who claimed to be from decent wealth who couldn't provide a real name for security purposes.

It helped that Dan and Emma knew the person and vouched for him as their daughter's boyfriend and a Lord when asked who Harry was.

Fudge, of course, heard 'healer' and assumed magical, which was more than enough for the man's sense of self-preservation. "T-true," he stuttered, feeling ill.

"Sirius knows that not asking for money for himself, but the aurors, is basically the same thing, but I explained to him that this will protect the people, which will also prove that you care and are protecting them, and with Peter on the loose, you can take credit for getting Sirius to look for justice instead of personal gain. And after '_discovering_'," Harry used his fingers to quote the word to guide the Minister in the right direction of thought, "that there was little to prove his guilt, you ran an investigation and managed to bring in Sirius yourself, getting to the bottom of things and vindicating him. You'd be the hero of the people," Harry finished with a deliberate shrug.

That was something Fudge could get behind! Plus, it made him seem like the one to fix everything with all blame going to Minister Bagnold! "Yes," Fudge said, sounding more confident with each word. "Yes. As a matter of fact, I am sure I can pull this off for you and Mister Black. I am afraid, of course, I'll have to have him questioned under veritaserum, just to be safe, you understand," the Minister stated.

"Of course, Minister!" Harry exclaimed, sounding happy as he just simply couldn't hide his glee. "Sirius agreed to put this whole thing behind us if he can get what he asked for, which we both agreed wasn't overly much compared to what he originally wanted on top of what the public may have done to you." Mental Harry was smirking almost evilly at the expression of horror on the Minister's face. It looked like the man just messed his underwear.

"What did he originally want?" Fudge asked, not sure he really wanted to know.

"He planned on trying to lead a lynch mob to get rid of you and several of your support staff after going public after sending out copies of his memories and a sworn statement, an obscene amount of gold and various rights that I didn't really understand that he said were supposed to be for whoever continued as Lord Black after him since the Ministry effectively ended his family line, which he said could be seen as line theft depending on who was in charge of what positions in the Ministry that he could pin it on. He also said something about blood feuds."

Cornelius Fudge felt the room spin for a brief moment before he managed to get himself back together. That was a 'could have been'. Not what now was. It did, however, provide him the drive to make Sirius Black's rather trivial requests happen. "I'll need time to get things ready. I'll also want to keep this quiet until I can get it all sorted," he explained. "I'll see what I can do and send you an owl."

"That's fine. Thank you, Minister," Harry said gratefully. He still felt the man was incompetent and more than a little spineless, but he was almost pleasant to talk to when you were scaring him half to death. "By the way, I was wondering if I could ask a favor of a similar nature," he began.

"What's that?" Fudge asked, wondering just why he was working so hard all of a sudden. Potter was political gold, but he provided so much for him to do!

"Do you remember when I gave you the magical oath that admitted Lucius was responsible for the Chamber opening last year?" He asked. Getting a nod, he continued. "The item responsible was a relic of You-Know-Who that possessed that first-year girl. I was hoping we could, at the same time we question Sirius, question Groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid to verify his guilt or innocence since he was found guilty with a trial also? I know he's innocent, but losing his magic hit him hard and he was the one who brought me back to the magical world. I'd like to return the favor and bring his magic back to him, so to speak."

"I'm afraid that wouldn't work," Fudge stated a little nervously. "He's half giant. The potion is just too weak to work on him with his resistance."

"What about a magical oath that he wasn't responsible?" Harry asked. "If he swears it on his magic, then the worst that will happen is he totally loses his magic and you know he's guilty. Otherwise, he's innocent and you have a second form of proof that you've been working on events of previous administrations and are continuing to do so diligently."

Cornelius thought hard for a moment before nodding. "If you consider my debt to you for saving my life with that ring you gave me from when Lucius tried to assassinate me paid, I'll do it."

"Throw in a new wand for Hagrid, preferably a custom wand, and it's a deal," Harry agreed, smiling. Not just because it was working, but because there truly was no debt since it had been him to begin with, not Lucius.

"I think I can do that," Fudge agreed with a matching grin.

"Excellent! By the way, I forgot to ask, but how was your wife after that? I heard she wasn't grabbed by the portkey and only the aurors you had defending you saved her life."

Fudge turned a little red. His wife had been absolutely furious when she learned he had left her there to die. Especially when she accused him of hoping for it to happen to clear the way for his secretary, Angelica Kravitz, to become his new wife. Every ounce of his political savvy had been drawn upon to bullshit his way out of that one. Well, that and being more affectionate. "She was shaken up, but is faring much better now, thank you. Now, I really must go to get on top of things. If you'll excuse me," Fudge said, leaving quickly as he was already late with his scheduled meeting with Angelica in his office.

"You were lying," a low, friendly voice and next to Harry and right behind him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Shade," Harry said without turning around as he watched the Minister leave in a hurry, feeling very happy with his ability to free Sirius this time around. And bonus was getting Hagrid exonerated of crimes he had been charged with, albeit without a trial as well. He remembered the voice, as it wasn't being masked, and recognized her from ... _something_ else. Her mind felt familiar, though he didn't catch on to that familiarity.

"Sirius Black may be innocent, that much you seemed to be telling the truth over, but the rest appeared rehearsed," the curious Unspeakable stated.

Harry turned with a grin, only to have his eyes widen. There was a very curious and puzzled expression on the woman's face, which Harry was able to see as she wasn't wearing her robes meant to hide her identity. The woman had brown hair that was stringy, much like Luna's, with streaks of lighter brown that appeared almost like natural highlights and wide, hazel eyes with more brown than green. She was really quite slender, owing to a near daily training regimen much like Harry's own, but far more physically active and no actual daily exercises other than running. However, she had wider hips and her face appeared to have never lost her baby fat, all in all, allowing for a very friendly appearance that Harry would swear up and down would allow the pleasant-looking woman to pass off as a Granger cousin. She wasn't anything remarkable regarding her attractiveness, but her body and demeanor suggested she was someone you felt like you _had_ to befriend.

Shade turned her curious eyes to Harry before cocking her head to the side. "What?" She asked, wondering why his mouth had dropped open and he was staring.

"I ... er, thought we weren't supposed to know who you are," Harry spluttered, shaking his head to stop from staring and appearing rude. She was wearing a moderately tight, long-sleeved shirt that was a dark brown, showing she truly was all woman, and a long skirt that almost brushed the floor and he didn't want to be accused of being a pervert.

"I was hoping to speak with you over lunch and people get highly uncomfortable with a cloaked Unspeakable around them. As it would be impossible for you to get into the restricted areas of the Ministry without proper clearance, I found it most logical to come in normal attire and allow you to determine where we should speak since it is only half an hour to noon. And while no one is supposed to know who we are, that is during our work. And no one really knows who I am as I have no friends or acquaintances, so you are the first person other than Mister Croaker to see my appearance in years."

The matter of fact way she said those things threw Harry for a moment. She sounded something like Luna in her loneliness. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Your ability to use wandless magic to the degree you do since you're capable of using a wand as well, your bracelets and the power-limiting seal on them as I do something similar, Sirius Black and Rubeus Hagrid, since I'm now intrigued by their stories and mutual training techniques in wandless magics that we could possibly share. Other topics, if we think of any, would be permissible. I've never found anyone who could use wandless magic to a level of proficiency nearing my own. Albus Dumbledore has made strides, but even he is capable of only small things that equate to parlor tricks."

Harry thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I'd love to, but I'm sorry. I've got a meeting to get to with Gringotts. But if you're amenable, I'd be happy to invite you to dinner tonight. We spend dinners on the weekends with their parents. I think I'm going to invite Hagrid today and tell him the good news, as well." Harry also hoped it might make her feel less awkward if she wasn't the only one visiting.

It was really a baseless fear. Shade wasn't a woman who did uncomfortable or self-conscious.

"I would appreciate that. Thank you," Shade stated with a simple nod. "Where should we meet?"

"Leaky Cauldron at six?" Harry asked. "I may be up to a half hour late, though, since I've got a meeting at five there. But I'll wait for you if you want to show up late so you don't have to wait as long. I really doubt I will be, though."

"That will be fine." With her bit said, the woman turned on her heel and marched away.

"I think I missed something," Harry mumbled to himself, wondering if he had somehow offended her. Deciding it didn't matter so much right then, he turned and left the Wizengamot chamber to head to Gringotts.

Left behind, unnoticed and befuddled, was Algernon Croaker, who was absolutely mystified that the one person under his command who wholly despised human interaction sounded like she was asking a boy half her age on a date. Oh sure. She _said_ she wanted to talk about various things, and her reasons were sound. But he didn't believe it.

Algernon thought of that girl as something of a daughter. He had raised her from an early age. He knew when he first met the girl when she was five and her parents gave her to the Ministry to get rid of her due to her bouts of wild magic that her hormones would kick in eventually. It wasn't something he was looking forward to. Especially due to a lack of trust in damn near everyone. She had been independent and preferred to be alone from day one.

_'Damn hormones and bloody puberty,'_ he thought to himself. _'Had to kick in at some point. And I'll be damned that it didn't happen to the one person that actually scares me.'_ Croaker had intended to antagonize the Potter-Boy a bit to try and get a better read on him and how he'd respond, but found himself too shocked. Instead, he turned and made his way to his dark office where he could mutter about young people and throw back a whiskey or two whilst doing so before deciding to help along the boy's demands of Fudge. Despite everything, he wouldn't let a man be blamed for something he didn't do if he could help it.

xXxXxXx

"Dobby," Harry called out as he shifted to one of the cottages at Potter Manor that weren't used for anything.

"How can Dobby be helping Master Harry Potter Sir?" Dobby asked as he popped in.

"I'm planning on inviting Hagrid for dinner tonight along with another person. Will it be a hassle for you to make enough for them, as well? I'd also like you to let everyone who was going to be there know while inviting Hagrid for me and letting him know it'll be at six and I've got good news for him, if you could." Harry asked, blinking at the little elf's newest uniform. He had taken a shine to military uniforms, but didn't seem to grasp the concept of modern uniforms and ancient. However, Harry admired the guy's craftsmanship on the Spartan helmet to match his toga, both of which were in Potter House colors.

"Dobby would be happy to and was making roast beastie tonight, so there is being enough time to start another one for Mister Hagrid joining us, Master Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby explained with a fist to his chest in salute.

"Thank you, Dobby. By the way, I've been meaning to ask, but to be honest, I'd forgotten. How are the house elves we rescued from Malfoy Manor doing? Have they been able to wake up without going into hysterics?"

"No, Master Harry," Dobby said solemnly. "We is being doing all we can for them, but when they be waking up, they is becoming most distraught. Old bad master did force the binding on them and then ... tried to make elf babies without the babies and that be hurting them. Their magics is being broken now and it be painful."

Harry furrowed his brow. Most of that, he knew, but the broken magic bit was new. "What do you mean their magic is broken?"

"As you be knowing, elves is needing to bond with other magic users to stay healthy and alive. We is being made that way. They is feeling bound to old bad master and feeling the loss like they would be any other elf mate and is wanting to die," Dobby said sadly, sniffling a little. "They be ashamed of what happened and angry at being mated to old bad master and no longer being able to find a man elf for themselves. They is not letting us fix their magic. So we is keeping them asleep until they are gone."

"That ... is sad," Harry said. "Is there anything we can do?"

"No, Master Harry Potter Sir," Dobby explained. "They is not wanting help. They was wanting this while bound to bad master and now they can have it. It is what will make them happy. For elves, we is taking pride in our passing. We is happy to know we die in service to our families. But sometimes, we is happy not to," he ended with a whisper.

Harry didn't really know how to react to that. "Did you ever find the Potter elves?" Harry asked, deciding to change the subject. "I know you've been looking for them when you had the opportunity." Harry didn't realize just how much time that was.

"Yes, Master Harry Potter Sir," Dobby said sadly again. "Great Master Harry Potter's ancestors did be giving us elves a house for us to call ours own during the war with mean old Grindywalled so we is having a safe place. Master Harry's elves was ordered to go there by Master Harry's father and, because they is not having a master in time, they be dying and being buried there."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Harry said softly. "Hermione told me house elves are very communal and like to spend time with each other and be close."

"It be okay, Master Harry Potter Sir," Dobby said with a watery grin. "Dobby is very happy with his new family!" With another salute, Dobby popped away to begin making the extra dinner, pretty much doubling the amount for Hagrid to enjoy as well.

xXxXxXx

Hermione hid a yawn behind her hand as she walked into the Muggle Studies classroom where Professor Charity Burbage was using her free period to read a wizarding version of a bodice ripper, much to Hermione's amusement. The bushy-haired brunette held back a smile as the older woman, who was only in her late thirties, blushed and hid the book as discretely as she possibly could. "Hello Professor Burbage."

"How can I help you today, Miss Granger?" Charity asked in light confusion. "Have you come to discuss dropping my class?"

"I'm telling you, none of my answers were wrong," Hermione scowled. "While I admit to considering dropping the class, it has nothing to do with my grades."

"Miss Granger," Charity sighed, "you've failed almost everything you've turned in to me."

"It isn't my fault your information is wrong," Hermione said, trying not to get angry. As tired as she was, she didn't want to waste the energy while, at the same time, this wasn't why she showed up to begin with. "Do you honestly think I wouldn't know the _proper_ words and spellings for every day concepts in the muggle world? You're using a book that is at least a hundred and fifty years out of date for crying out loud!"

"Miss Granger, the point is to answer as the material is taught and-"

"That's why I'm here today," Hermione interrupted, shaking her head. "I don't care about my grade in this class right now. The fact is, Harry wanted to have a conversation with you, but I offered to do it instead since I actually take the class and because he already has a full day of business to attend to."

"And what did Mister Potter want to talk about?" Charity asked, rather confused. Harry Potter wasn't one of her students, after all.

"I've got a few questions, if you don't mind," Hermione began, conjuring a chair and sitting across the desk from her teacher. "First, when was the last time you were in the muggle world?"

"I've not visited since I was a child," Charity explained. "May I ask what this is about again?"

"Harry is considering getting a new Muggle Studies professor who is more aware of the non-magical world in general," Hermione said simply, ignoring the professor's rapidly paling face. Harry's First was rather fond of the woman as a person, but held something of a vindictive streak for a near-constant line of 'Troll' grades given because she would use the proper words and spellings, or even correct the book they studied from, while being told it didn't matter that she knew differently as the book was where the information was meant to come from. "However, he's got a few ideas that may keep you in your position unless he feels you just can't teach the subject properly, at which point, he is considering whether or not you'd like to take over for Professor Binns or teach one of the other subjects he's thinking of adding for next year."

Charity felt a burst of annoyance at the audacity of the girl in front of her, and her meddling boyfriend, but to be honest, she didn't know exactly what kind of power Harry Potter had over her and didn't want to risk finding out the hard way. Plus, she was relieved to learn they were thinking of keeping her on even if she had to begin teaching something new. "Is this because you're upset that you're failing this class?" She asked, currently more annoyed than relieved.

"No," Hermione denied. "It's because you truly appreciate muggles and their society, but don't know a thing about them. Harry had an offer he was thinking of providing you, though I don't know the details. This is more of a quick fact-finding mission than anything to see what you'd like to do. What I know of for sure is that he will give you an opportunity to visit the muggle world and make notes of the things that should be getting taught to children so they can survive in that world long enough to get back to where they need to be and to not draw untoward attention to themselves. You would then teach those lessons and write your own book on the subject. For example, muggle autos do _not_ have tiny horses under the hood of the vehicle," Hermione explained with an eye roll.

"It's easier to believe than a block of metal that controls explosions," Charity defended.

"That's why it's call an 'internal combustion' engine," Hermione explained to her teacher for the second time. "Look, the point is, you've got time to make a decision, but this class _will_ be changing. What I want to know is if you will be visiting the muggle world and making the effort to better your class, or do you want a different assignment, which at the moment, could be just about anything. Harry's already got a new potions professor in line for us, he intends to replace Binns if possible, he wants to add a few new classes that may need new faculty and he'll give you first choice of anything you're qualified for. But he can't promise to just give you something if you can't do it."

"And he has the ability to sack me then?" Charity asked, not sure if she should believe that.

"He could sack Dumbledore if he wanted," Hermione snorted. "He's already disbanded the Hogwarts' Board of Governors for now."

"So my choices are basically resign, get sacked, restructure the class which will cause all the students taking any Muggle Studies OWL's to fail, or take a new job?" Charity asked.

"Basically correct, save for the OWL comment. Harry is going to speak with the Department of Education in the Ministry to get it revamped at the same time the changes happen. And if they refuse, then he intends to provide the course for first years as an elective without future OWL scores."

"How does he intend to fit it into the schedule?" Charity asked.

"I actually looked into that at the beginning of the year for ... my own reasons," Hermione explained carefully. "Classes have been scheduled the way they are for almost six hundred years when Hogwarts had hundreds more students than we do now. Even a decade ago, there were three times as many students as we have now, and six times as many about a century ago. That means we can update the schedule and add more staff as needed. Harry hadn't considered that, or the issue with OWL's, but he'll also be having a staff meeting about this in a few months to get ideas and opinions from everyone. But, your class in particular will need to be updated for some plans he's got, though he didn't say what they were. He wants to surprise some of us with it," Hermione said, partly amused and partly happy that he was thinking of something obviously big to gift her and Luna with. While she didn't need or expect such things, she couldn't help but admit to herself that she felt a little thrill that he did so anyway.

"Harry doesn't really know you, Professor, but I do. And despite a difference of opinion, I truly like you. So he doesn't want to get rid of you or anything. He just wants to make sure what is taught works in today's society. Nothing I've put in my homework for you was wrong, and yet it is so different than what is taught that I have failed every paper I've turned in. I'm not saying I can't be wrong, but I am saying quite a bit is pathetically out of date or wrong in the books. Harry's looked at the book as well and is disgusted with it. My parents thought it was a prank book from the Weasley twins."

"I suppose we'll see what happens," Charity said with a sigh, feeling trapped in a corner. The woman didn't really have anything else to fall back on. While she was a pureblood, she was just as ostracized as Arthur Weasley for her love of muggles, though hers was more of a belief that they were too dangerous to antagonize while their ability to innovate was simply astounding to her. She felt herself to be a fairly intelligent woman and their inventions baffled her. Perhaps it was a bit of arrogance, but she believed it meant something if they could understand how their inventions worked and she couldn't. Still, she had scored one of the highest-ever marks in Muggle Studies and this truly hurt her pride.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 12:20 – Gringotts**

After grabbing two quick bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, with extra bacon and tomatoes of course, at the Leaky Cauldron, Harry walked into Gringotts and was quickly shown to Griphook's office since humans weren't allowed beyond the lobby without a goblin to guide them, which really meant eavesdrop, guard and ensure no trickery was done.

"Greetings, Account Manager Griphook," Harry stated once the door was closed.

Griphook rose and returned the greeting. "Welcome, Lord Potter. I am glad you could come so early. I had not expected you to be done with your duties for nearly another hour."

"I didn't, either, but there wasn't as much to be done with today," Harry responded.

"Very well. To business, then," Griphook began as he took his seat, subtly pressing a clawed finger against a rune to alert his cousin that Lord Potter had arrived. "What did you wish to discuss today?"

"Several things," Harry began. "First and foremost, I'm hoping to build onto Hogsmeade and would like the new structures to be heavily warded and designed for safety. I'm going to need construction crews, warders and staff for these new places and would like to find out how much Gringotts is capable of doing or, anything you can't or simply don't, if you know of anyone who does that you would recommend."

"The the latter, first," Griphook stated carefully, "it depends on what you want built. Stone is certainly some of the best material for construction, much like Hogwarts itself. Dwarves would be the best for such a thing and due to the decline of their race, they work for less than others. However, they are also the hardest to work with as they do not take well to any slights on their abilities and hold a grudge even better than a goblin. Once you make an agreement, you won't want to change it, and you would be foolish to try and renege on the deal. Their structures also accept wards more thoroughly than human structures."

Harry tried to consider that, but since he had no plans on cheating whoever he hired, he didn't see many problems. He nodded, to show he understood.

"Next, there are house elves who can do the work, but they learn human methods, which can be spotty and as strange as the humans they learn from and the elves themselves. It is cheapest, but usually the less desired option for quality," Griphook explained. "The structures will be sound built, but usually with magic holding it all together. Should attention not be paid, they will usually fall quickly into disrepair without their magics reinforcing the structures themselves. And while they usually build rather grand buildings, they rely heavily on the use of spacial expansion charms and the like."

Harry nodded, not willing to use elves for the construction work. If they were anything like Dobby or Winky, then it would certainly be grand, but would also likely be embarrassing.

"Then, you have your human construction crews. They tend to be the easiest to work with, about average in cost with low and high end companies, allow the greatest leeway for altering designs and usually end up more favorably spoken of amongst humans due to similar tastes. Like the Dwarves, you will pay for any changes, but usually far less and their work tends to be capable of accepting wards better than an elven building, but not as well as Dwarven."

"I would also mention that goblins will build for you, but humans rarely enjoy our utilitarian designs and we do not build anything but," Griphook explained with a shrug. "Ours would be the most heavily defended, but our designs are more compartmentalized and prefabricated. It is more like resizing a block and putting it where you decide and then doing whatever you wish on the inside. If you wish to enjoy what you see, then ours is not the best option. Our rates would be roughly on par with the Dwarves, but closer to the human costs, before warding. While it would be more money for Gringotts, I suggest looking elsewhere if you wish to be happy," Griphook finished, knowing the truth that no human had ever looked fondly upon a goblin building. It truly looked like a large block of stone when they were finished. The square designs allowed the best ward schemes, after all.

"Do you know how I could get in touch with any Dwarves?" Harry asked. "I'm wanting to build several buildings and several houses. Here's a list if it would be easier," Harry said, handing the curious goblin a roll of parchment.

_Small barracks for aurors to be stationed, specifically on Hogsmeade weekends,_

_A small Gringotts branch for kids to keep their money safe – Ask Goblins how much vaults cost to start up and see about using it as a part of muggle introduction to wizarding world to give each new magical family a starting account. Also ask if parents can make deposits into London branch for kids to use in Hogsmeade? Maybe better exchange rates in Hogsmeade where kids will want to buy things, but higher tax rate for Goblins to keep a higher percentage to make it more profitable?_

_Restaurant building with a chef or elves that can prepare dishes from different parts of the world to try new cuisines?_

_Pizza parlor (requires stone ovens as detailed below,)_

_Movie theater (specifications below,)_

_Community center (bowling alley, skating rink, magical arcade (see if such a thing exists, may need muggleborn design staff,) indoor football field, muggle library, paint ball arena, go-cart race track, beauty salon and boutique, basketball court,)_

_Research lab for technomancy,_

_Ten empty stores for future growth with four-room flats above,_

_Forty homes (five two-room, ten three-room, twenty-five four-bedroom homes)_

"I am not sure what several of these things are, but I am pleased you thought of us in your plans for growth. With this, and thanks to your descriptions of all of this at the bottom, I think I can safely make first contact with the Dwarves. We can also go out into the muggle world to visit some of these places to get a better idea of what they are and share the memories with the Dwarves if needed."

"Thank you," Harry said with a grin, careful to ensure he bared his teeth a bit. It still surprised him that goblins were truly offended by the idea of working for anyone, or any thing, that was toothless or an herbivore. If it didn't eat meat, they saw it as food. Harry also wondered what they would think about vegetarians. "I'm also wondering if Gringotts can help me hire people for many of these jobs I'm opening up and for other things I need."

"We can look to hire people for you," Griphook said, "but we will charge a fee for finding them. I would also suggest putting out an advert in the wizarding publications to best your odds. If this ... 'beauty salon and boutique' is what you describe, we would be hard-pressed to find someone suitable for you, as we do not care for such things, but Witch Weekly could certainly be a great asset to you."

"I'll do that, thank you. And if Gringotts could still look, I'd appreciate it."

"What do you require of us?" Griphook asked, grabbing a gnarled root and dipping it into ink to make notes.

"I need enchanters and rune masters who either are muggleborn or very comfortable in the muggle world and arithmancers who are looking for a backer to marry magic and technology together, I'll do as you suggested and put an advert out for beauticians so you don't have to worry about that, I would like squibs or muggleborn who are familiar with various cultures to cook in the restaurant. I am also looking for squibs to test out an invention of mine that will be available soon."

"You are aware technomancy is highly frowned upon by the Ministry, correct?" Griphook asked as he finished his notes.

"No," Harry answered honestly, "but I can believe it. Still, they can't stop me from researching it or paying people to research it. And it isn't like they haven't already done it with the Wizarding Wireless and the Ministry's magical cars."

"So long as you know you may find opposition in your path," Griphook said slyly. "If you would like, I can also make a list of solicitors that are well established in the magical and muggle worlds."

Harry was about to accept before he remembered something. "Theodore Tonks is a good solicitor, right?" He was also muggleborn, meaning he would know the world well enough to pass along in it, if he remembered correctly.

"Not the best, but I think he is rated third, just behind Hansel & Gretel, which is behind Dewey, Screwum & Howe(1). But both practice purely in the magical world, which makes Mister Tonks' close ranking more impressive. If I may, why are you focusing so much on muggleborn? I ask because the Ministry could take offense to that."

"Two important reasons and a few small ones," Harry said with a shrug. "First, the Ministry admits to putting purebloods first because muggleborn can always see about getting a job in the muggle world, which isn't true. We stop our education far too early and then have to catch up in a way that looks bad for us. Not only do we have to get an equivalent document that says we completed our educations, but we are missing from that world for at least seven years. So, this is a way for me to not only give them a job, but doing something that they most recently were educated for."

"Second," Harry continued, "is that many of the things I'm wanting to do are at least based heavily on the same things from the muggle world. I'm friends with the Weasley family, whose head is also the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department, but he doesn't understand the function of a simple bath toy or concepts that even toddlers grasp with no real issues. Ron Weasley is one of my best friends and he can't seem to grasp the concept of a non-magical toilet that can't flush itself. So, it would be difficult to explain concepts that are more difficult than those."

"As for the small reasons, they are numerous and ultimately meaningless, from a muggle background providing a better common sense and, usually, a better education in basics like mathematics and a general drive to move forward and the like." It was also, he would admit privately, for all the Hermiones out there who gave up on some of their dreams and ideas because of the negative attitude of the ruling society.

"Very well. So long as you have a reason in place should they ask it of you, which I find quite possible," Griphook explained, not wanting his ticket to wealth and prestige to fail. The bank was about to make large sums of money from this venture and none of the goblins wanted to risk losing out on it. "Is this also why you wished to learn ward crafting and breaking?" He asked, knowing that was a large interest of his superiors.

"No," Harry denied. "As I told you a while ago, Voldemort is not fully dead. This is something I feel I need to learn so I can finish the bastard off for good and continue on with my life."

_'Not anything more than what he told us before,'_ Griphook thought angrily. "If you feel something is hidden behind a ward, you can always hire Gringotts to obtain this item for you. While our services are not cheap, you are not hurting for funds and it is also the safest route for your continued health. Many wards are lethal when not taken down properly, at least those which are anchored, as will most certainly be the case with anything Voldemort would have risen."

Harry felt an odd urge to move forward with that suggestion, much like when he originally told the goblins about Voldemort's continued survival. But he also felt the greed from the creature in front of him. He had no desire to feed into that greed. "I will consider it. I can only think of a couple of times I will need your services if I choose to go that route."

Harry was interrupted by a knocking at the door from saying anything more. Those listening in had applauded Griphook's ability to draw in the young lord to get more information about his need for curse breakers, but unfortunately, he didn't provide more information. Thus, they had no need to continue listening and they elected to come in.

When Harry turned to look at the newcomers, he completely missed the goblin in the lead and focused on the redheaded beauty behind him. She had long, silky red hair that was an almost hotrod red hanging to her rear end, a very lithe and slender frame with almost too much bust, but not quite, and dark green eyes. All of that was wrapped in tight black leather used to accent her shapely form and show a fair amount of pale cleavage. Harry's first thought was to call this vision of beauty 'Mother' before he remembered what his own mother looked like from less than two months ago. Then his second was that something about this woman just didn't feel right.

"Lord Potter, may I introduce Cordelia Ward," Griphook said as the woman sashayed into the room, paying extra attention to rock her hips back and forth with each step of her high heels.

The woman smiled as pleasantly as she could, reaching out a hand for Harry to shake while bending slightly to make it easier to look him in the eye, which would hopefully drop to her bosom, except that he rose to greet her. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Potter," she stated with a throaty purr just barely coming through. She could tell the boy felt something was going on. He didn't look at her cleavage and his brow was furrowed in thought.

"Likewise, Miss Ward," Harry greeted back.

Griphook motioned for the new human to take a seat next to the younger one. "Miss Ward is one of our curse breakers," he explained. "While she, herself, will not be taking down any ward schemes for you, she will be our liaison for the project you are requesting and, potentially, for any future contracts you require of us. Her skills in human standards are quite adept, but by Goblin standards, she is average. However, her understanding of the basics is very well-grounded. She will also be among those who will visit the muggle world for us to get an understanding of what you are asking of us."

Cordelia turned a wary glance to the goblin from her perusal of the young lord, wondering how long he would hold out on her. "What exactly is being asked of us?" She asked, not having heard Harry's requests since they were written down. She accepted the parchment with a raised eyebrow. "A beauty salon, eh? I bet the witches at Hogwarts will be _grateful_ for something like that," she said with a chuckle, subtly alluding to just how grateful she thought they would be.

"Two of one of my girlfriend's roommates are fond of something called a 'style party' where they do other girls' hair and make-up. I thought it would be something they would enjoy and, considering the amount of time some pureblood men I've seen go through on their own, women may not be the only ones who enjoy it," Harry explained. "I intend to take Griphook's advice and put an advert out in Teen Witch Weekly and Witch Weekly, though I admit I may look for muggleborns for this, too. Muggles have schools you go to in order to learn techniques for this sort of thing, but anyone with decent experience should do."

"I notice a lot of your ideas are muggle concepts that you seem to want to adapt to the wizarding world," Cordelia said as she read his notes for each project at the bottom. "Are you trying to convert pureblood culture into accepting muggle culture?" She asked playfully, touching a rune on her fingernail that made her eyes sparkle in apparent amusement as she looked at him.

"In a word, yes," Harry stated simply, finding the woman pleasant company, despite his wariness. "They already do it where it is convenient. The Ministry has cars, and muggles invented the radio before a muggleborn created the Wizarding Wireless Network. One of my girls has a lot of ideas that I think have a lot of potential. So I'll put everything I've got behind her, while the other is considering starting a zoo."

"Ah, yes," Cordelia said sagely. "That pesky need for multiple girls for multiple lines. I've heard no less than thirty wizards in the bank alone who have begun to deify you with another two dozen outside the bank, easy," she said, chuckling, causing Harry to blush.

"It just worked out this way," Harry defended, careful not to show much that would equate to weakness from the goblins. He hadn't read as much of that book as he would have liked, but he read the preface that went quite heavily into the dos and don'ts. Apologizing and acknowledging yourself in the debt of a goblin were both on the don't list that could see you getting taken advantage of as they pushed.

Harry was really not aware of just how badly Griphook wanted to keep his current job. _NO_ goblin went out of their way as he had done during Christmas without getting something out of it. In the crafty goblin's case, it was a sense of gratefulness and preference to keep the go-getter goblin where he was instead of finding a new one.

"Oh! I also need to purchase about thirty-thousand crystals of this size and at least this quality," Harry said, placing one about the size of a golf ball onto the desk, though it was a simple, pendeloque shape, which was basically a fancy way of saying an angular version of a raindrop. "These can be made artificially in the muggle world, as well, with far fewer imperfections. I don't know if you're capable of getting them from there, but the fewer imperfections, the better. I can use any orthorhombic shape for the most part like that, or a dipyramid. That crystal design there, though, should be better."

Griphook grabbed the crystal slowly, his mind furiously trying to figure out what his account holder wanted with so many high-end magic storage devices. "Might I know why, so that I can better understand what needs to be obtained? Or should present company leave, first?"

"No, it's fine," Harry said cheerfully. "I know there are a lot of squibs out there, and that there is a sort of self-help series for them to try and get in touch with their magic. For them, and muggles-in-the-know, I'm creating preset wands that do various things. One of them is for the regular witch or wizard, at the moment, which will allow people to create a Patronus without needing to use their own magic to do so. I've already managed a few, but I intend to put them into production later on. I think these will also come in handy to learn dueling, at least in regards to aim. This is how I intend to set up the paint ball games, too."

"Should be interesting to see how the purebloods take to squibs using magic," Cordelia said with a snort.

"I'm also curious about selling the parts of the basilisk I killed," Harry stated, making all three of the Gringotts employees look at him quickly as a heavy silence fell over them. "Though, if there is something I can make out of it, I'd like to do so. I know the hide is about a foot thick and highly magically resistant, so if possible, I'd like to get some suits made from that if you know anyone that can do such a thing. Cloaks, at least. My magical creatures expert told me the skin can be cut up in layers."

"Just how big of a carcass are we looking at?" Griphook asked.

"Uh," Harry stammered. "I guess I don't really know. Slytherin left it in his chamber when he left the school, though. I can show you the memory if it would help. The eyes were destroyed, though, and I stabbed it in the roof of the mouth with my sword, so those won't count in the total, by the way."

"What sword?" Cordelia asked while Griphook sent Gripaxe to quickly retrieve a viewing sphere. It was much like a pensieve, but was similar to the most basic ones which showed a memory from the memory owner's point of view.

Harry pulled out the sword of Gryffindor, causing Cordelia to snort at the letter opener-like size before it quickly grew to suit its master, making her squeak in surprise.

"How the hell did they let you get through the door with that?" Cordelia asked, shocked at seeing such a legendary item.

"Even if they took it from me, it'd show back up once we were separated too much," Harry said with a shrug, putting the sword away just as Gripaxe returned, grumbling a little at the idea of a human having such a blade. Partly because it was more than mere metal.

Harry gave up the memory and the foursome watched, three in shock with the two goblins in no small amount of respect, as Harry took a lethal blow to deliver his own when it was clear he had no escape. To then use the fang of the beast to kill the true enemy was something a goblin could also respect. But, considering the duality of his memories of that event, or the partial of his second, anyway, he gave them the original version of his time through second year so they could see all the damage it took and possibly measure it from different angles.

"Lord Potter," Gripaxe spoke after a moment's pause once the memory was over. "Cloaks are doable, but suits that are not meant for adults would not be worth much as they are of little use. They cannot be made to auto-size because of their resistant nature. Anything made would end up worthless to you sooner rather than later as children grow randomly. A cloak, however, can function for as long as it exists."

A messenger quickly ran in, handing Griphook a note that looked like harsh strokes and splotches to Harry. A glance at the goblin's desk suggested it was their native writing system from the other notes he had been making for himself.

"Mister Potter," Griphook said after a minute of reading the King's missive. "If we might have the meat of the beast and one layer of the hide, we will ward your new buildings at no additional cost and we will allow any muggleborn who come to us through the class you suggested on your notes to open a vault with us for free with a galleon deposit, though basic security only. We will provide a free money bag with a deposit of two galleons. And we will also accept your suggestion of a better exchange rate with a slightly higher fee with the inclusion of an on-site Gringotts branch for your town as long as we are allowed to set up our own security. We will also take only a ten percent, rather than our more common thirty-five percent, for selling the components. If we may have a liter of the venom, or what we estimate to be five percent, whichever is greater, we will make the cloaks for you, adding an additional feature of dragon scales on the outside to protect from physical harm, while also providing you a set of greaves, bracers, shield and wand holsters for five people. I should tell you now, the shield is a retractable version that will fold in on itself into each bracer. Your people would call its form that of a buckler."

"I thought the meat wasn't good for anything," Harry said after a moment. "Why would you offer this for that and a single layer of the hide?"

"The meat is a delicacy of the rarest type to a goblin's palette," Gripaxe growled, resisting the urge to lick his chops. "There is no magical or potion value, and you humans would say it tastes like eating death itself, and will usually poison yourselves after a single bite. We goblins rather enjoy it due to our stronger stomachs. And as basilisks do not occur in nature, we must usually wait for some foolish human to breed one before we have a chance to get it. And they usually become a problem in less than five feet long and a foot wide. The hide serves another purpose, as does the venom for us."

"Oh yea," Harry said after a moment. "Goblin blades take on the properties of anything that makes them stronger. So the venom would make your warriors far more dangerous. And, since it would eat through much else, you'd need scabbards," Harry mused aloud before he shrugged, not noticing the goblins tense as Gripaxe noticed he had said too much and made the meat far more valuable to trade with the goblins than the boy initially thought.

Gripaxe really hoped his King didn't show his anger for that slip. He had just been thinking about just how good the meat really was. His and Griphook's clan had paid dark wizards to create basilisks a few times to get on the good side of their superiors and had, once or twice, partaken of the meat themselves and it was almost addictive to the short warriors.

"That's fine by me," Harry said, causing the goblins to subtly relax while the messenger ran off, presumably to inform the King, though he was watching from behind a hidden partition to see how the Potter-Boy handled things. He didn't trust humans, but knew they, just like goblins, came in all sorts. Thus far, Potter-Boy had honor, which was more than he could say for most he had interacted with. "Out of curiousity, how many layers do you think, roughly, should come from a foot-thick hide?"

"Twenty, at least, thirty at most," Gripaxe stated. "For armor, we would expect less as it will also be worn as clothing. But for a cloak, half an inch or so will be more than enough for protection. The cloaks will have decent weight of perhaps two and a quarter kilos, or about five pounds. We will also make them a little longer than truly needed so you and the other four you gift them with can grow into them."

"Conservatively, you could expect about two million galleons from this," Griphook explained, "assuming we do not flood the market. Nearly all components can be sold by the ounce, making this a very profitable specimen."

"What about acromantula silk?" Harry asked curiously. "I went to the edge of the Forbidden Forest this morning hoping a centaur would approach so I could request their permission to get rid of the spiders, but I couldn't be there long enough. But, I know it works like silk and summoned a ball about the size of a house and blasted it with a spider-killing spell just in case any hitched a ride. I was thinking of giving it to the seamstress at Twilfit and Tattings since they do more upscale stuff than Madam Malkin for my girls to get some dress robes for an Auream Ball."

"It is a highly durable material," Griphook explained, "and generally expensive, but there are controlled farms where the silk is harvested from spiders that do not grow too large to keep. We could line the items we offered you with it to make them more comfortable. That material can be charmed heavily, allowing us to make larger clothing pieces, including the greaves we offered, and charm that with auto-sizing so that you may grow into it. Though there is still a decent chance you will outgrow your greaves. There are ways, of course, to get a rough idea of how much a person will grow."

"If I can be allowed to use magic, I can conjure seven replicas. I can either pay for the two extra, or you can raise the percentage you'd like from ten to twenty," Harry said, thinking this would work for him and his girls, Hermione's parents, Sirius and Xenophilius. It took only a few minutes to get permission in the guise of sending a letter with the request out, even though Ragnok heard it. Once permission was granted, Harry closed his eyes. _'Can you bring up images of the girls, Sirius, myself and Xeno using Griphook as the comparison between us? Add three inches to myself, if possible, and two inches to my shoulders?'_ Harry asked his mental avatar, wanting to use real memories rather than ones he created by simply picturing them all.

_'Still won't be perfect,'_ the avatar responded back. She also chose to add an inch to the girls' heights as well, along with an inch to their bust, knowing exercise would help them grow, though having no clue how much. At least if what Harry recognized on himself was any clue.

Harry elected not to use his wand as he released two percent on his bracelets and quickly conjured flesh and blood copies of everyone, along with the most recent memories of Hermione's parents. He then immediately hit them with the animation charm he used for dueling dummies and allowed them to have a rough imitation of their own personalities.

Except for Sirius.

"This is ... odd," Hermione said after a moment, moving her hands around and examining her ability to move. "And we aren't very decent copies. I feel like an animated crash test dummy."

"Why did you animate them?" Cordelia asked, wondering if Lord Potter was a pervert. He seemed far too quick and practiced with those spells to have not done them often.

"So they can be measured while breathing," Harry responded. "They have my own personality, but augmented to respond in a way similar to what I think they would do. It makes it easier when it isn't a copy of my own mental structure inside a body that isn't mine. Could you?" Harry asked, gesturing to the group, asking her silently to take measurements.

Getting permission from Griphook, as she was allowed to use magic as an employee of Gringotts, she took her wand and checked the group over. "You really think the blonde girl will end up on the edge of going to a D-cup chest while the brunette will have a mid C-cup? And most girls like blondie here won't have such tiny waists and breasts are rarely this perky. It's like there isn't really any sag with only the slightest amount of that in the brunette."

"All it would take is an aging potion to find out," Harry said calmly, though inside, he was very sure of how the girls would develop for obvious reasons. Though he would admit, the white shirt both girls wore seemed a little tighter than he remembered.

"And you realize Sirius Black is a criminal?" Cordelia asked.

"Not for long," Harry stated with authority, letting that come out in his voice as he stood straighter. "Sirius Black is innocent, and I have already caught him. He'll be questioned under veritaserum soon when the Minister can take care of his compensation for the years in Azkaban, slander and emotional and physical tortures he went through. Now, if you're done questioning me on matters, please finish the measurements and provide them to Account Manager Griphook."

The other occupants of the room could feel the magic around Harry condensing, so they quickly did as told without upsetting the young lord again while King Ragnok smirked in vicious amusement. The woman had begun to annoy him, as well, for questioning she had no right to perform. It wasn't their problem if Potter-Boy had false hopes for his mates.

"I would also like ten thousand galleons of the profit, after Gringotts gets its share of course, to go to these people," Harry stated, handing over another list from the small pile he pulled out of his pocket. It would end up being a list of all those petrified by the basilisk, along with Ginny and Ron. A note next to Hermione's name offered to allow her to keep the trust fund Harry gave her access to for her share, or a new account of her own. "For anyone who needs an account set up, please take the charges for the standard vaults such as what we agreed upon for the students in class, to come from the profits on my part, as well. And you said you'd contact the Dwarves for me, yes?"

"Correct, though they will require speaking with you in order to discuss payment and details," Griphook explained, noting that Harry took a second glance at his bracelet and closed his eyes as the number changed from a three to a one. "Out of curiosity, would you like me to look into hiring a group to remove the acromantula from the forest around Hogwarts?"

"Let me speak to the centaurs, first," Harry said after a moment. "I still want to get their okay before actually doing so. I learned we used to do a hunt twice a year, but it stopped and they rather dislike humans now. I may just offer them the means to take care of things themselves."

"How so?" Gripaxe asked, wondering if there was an idea for a weapon in the boy's noggin.

Harry looked at the eager expression on the goblin's face before snorting softly in amusement. "Imagine a stick or ball with one of those crystals I asked for storing a spell that kills spiders, then releasing it in a wave out in all directions to a distance that is determined by the power stored. It would be harmless to everything else, except maybe those able to sense magic. I'm hesitant to do that since it will also kill regular spiders and that could mess with the ecosystem."

While the goblins didn't understand the last word, they got the gist of it. And King Ragnok was quite impressed the boy would care what the centaurs thought at all, since he technically owned the land, even if it was in trust for the magical creatures dwelling within. It also irked them a little that the boy could come up with such a weapon of mass destruction. If such a thing could be altered to affect goblins...

"I think that's everything I needed done today," Harry said, knowing there was something he had been forgetting for some time. He just couldn't, for the life of him, figure it out. It wasn't something his mental avatar was aware of to remind him of, either. Even then, she could apparently only remind him of something he was consciously aware of, which this apparently wasn't. Or that he told her to remind him of, anyway. He just felt like he was running out of time for whatever it was. "Do you have any business you wanted to discuss with me?" Harry asked.

"Would you be adverse to Miss Ward staying either in Hogwarts or Hogsmeade so you have her on hand to discuss warding as needed?" Griphook asked, knowing the woman didn't quite hit it off as well as she had hoped to. He was aware enough of human mating rituals to know that outfit was selected predominantly because human males were stricken with lust when they saw her in it. And this boy didn't so much as bat an eyelash.

"There's no need until I find some construction workers," Harry explained after a moment. "You gave me some very good advice when you said I would need a firm foundation in runes before I got into ward crafting and breaking. The only thing I could honestly use her for would be help with homework and I am sure she is more valuable to you here or working elsewhere. Once I know what I'm building, I'll want to talk to her, or whoever makes the decisions on the ward designs, so wards can be built as the buildings go up if needed. I know layering wards is a good thing, and if some of those can be anchored where a magical can't get to to damage, then all the better, right?" Harry asked with a happy smile as he thought of how his own education was growing and he didn't have to be told something.

Of course, the goblins and Cordelia all shivered at the idea. No one actually layered wards _and_ a building before, that they knew of. But at the same time, even the goblins knew enough of the craft to realize that could explain several things that had vexed them for centuries about the Potter ward schemes around the Potter properties, even if they, nor Cordelia, could figure out how to do such a thing. The buildings themselves would have to be built in a specific order and with great precision to size and shape so the building itself became parts of the runic anchors. And they had no idea how to begin such a thing.

"Do you need these, anymore?" Harry asked, gesturing to the group of people he had conjured. Getting permission to dispose of them, he did so before finalizing their deals and giving Harry leave to bring all the basilisk parts to Gringotts.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 15:50 – Diagon Alley**

As it was just shortly before four in the afternoon, Harry grabbed another quick bite to compensate for what he didn't eat earlier to tide him over until dinner. He then headed over to the Daily Prophet offices, followed by Witch Weekly. He gave the Quibbler a miss since he would see Xenophilius that night.

With just under an hour before he was to meet with Skeeter, he went into Quality Quidditch Supplies with a smile on his face.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school right now?" Asked the woman behind the counter, who had been awakened by the bell jingling over the door.

"I've got business that has me out," Harry responded with a smile, breathing deeply of wood, leather and lacquer. "Since I've got a half hour to spare, I decided to come in here and buy some brooms."

"What'd you have in mind?" The saleslady asked, almost positive golden galleons lighted up her eyes as the word 'Commission' went through her mind.

"I'd like to get a set of brooms for first-year students taking lessons to learn to fly on safely, and a set for each House at Hogwarts to make the games a little more even and fair," Harry explained, looking around.

Commission flew out the window as the woman began thinking of baby names.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 17:00**

"It's a pleasure to meet with you, Lord Potter," Rita Skeeter began with a shark-like smile. "I am, as you know, Rita Skeeter. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised to find that you requested me as a private reporter."

"The pleasure's mine, Miss Skeeter," Harry said, sitting down after the woman did. She had a bad dye job on her hair to appear blonde, thick horn-rimmed glasses in a purple color that probably wasn't natural and wore far, _far_ too much make-up and perfume. Harry would only be slightly surprised if she was propositioned in the alley from appearance alone.

"So," Rita gushed, clasping her hands together and leaning forward with a glint in her eye. "What information does Harry Potter have that he thinks I would kill to have, hm?"

"First, I think we should come to an understanding," Harry began, leaning back and sipping his tea calmly as a quick flicker of annoyance crossed the much older woman's face. He was infinitely glad she had her photographer go downstairs after a couple of pictures of Harry in his Head of House Robes with all his crests sewn into it, and the Black crest lower to show simply heir status. Thanks to a powerful confundus, Harry knew they wouldn't remember the single picture taken wherein Harry's sword became full size and he allowed five percent of his magic free to create a visible aura of radiant blue energy around him as he did his best to try and look as though he radiated confidence and power. Harry didn't really care for such things, and certainly didn't want to be a center of attention. That never really changed. But this time, he was willing to use what was available to save the people that were important to him. Thus, the photo he hoped would be impressive enough to assist with that.

"I assume you would like a fraction of my profits from each sale of the article?" Skeeter asked primly, assuming the Potter boy had learned he could do such a thing for exclusivity. No matter. She would drag him through the mud for going to the Prophet while one of his girlfriends was the daughter of the owner of the Quibbler.

"To answer you, no," Harry said, wandlessly changing a scone into a perfect replica of her beetle animagus form and smiling as her face paled and her body went rigid. "I don't care for lies," he growled.

"I've not written any lies about you!" Skeeter defended quickly.

"I know," Harry said calmly, sipping his tea again. "And this isn't about writing about me as if the sun shines out my arse, either," he stated. "I am willing to offer you several things, for some truly minor things in return."

"For instance?" Rita asked carefully, judging the boy through narrowed eyes. "If you want another wife, we could possibly reach an agreement, but-" She was cut off, rather rudely she thought, by Harry's laughter.

"I've got enough witches trying to become wives," Harry said in amusement. "I have my girls, Hermione and Luna, and that is all I really care for. Any others that I end up with have to have my approval, as well as theirs."

"No, you can just get any girl you want," Rita refuted in confusion. "Are they making you think it has to be approved by all parties?" She smelled love potions! Or perhaps confounding magics of some sort! At the very least, the girls were lying to Lord Potter!

"No, it's the way I want it," Harry explained. "I truly love those girls. And if I want another girl, they would likely let me have her, but they would be hurt. To be honest, I selected Hermione first and we both had a hard time deciding if either of us could actually support another girl. But we decided Luna was our friend and we loved her. While they are basically best friends, they have a strong enough friendship to share me without jealousy."

Rita scowled, but decided to get to the heart of things. "What do you want, then? And what are you offering for it?"

"In order, I want you to print only the truth about me, including my family which includes Hermione, Luna and their families, and not try to lead people into believing me dark or evil or the like unless you truly believe it or you have evidence to back it up. If I _do_, however, do something evil or dark, then by all means, report it if you want. As long as it's the truth."

"And in return?" Rita asked.

"I _don't_ out your animagus form, which I will not tell you how I learned of, I don't find myself in a position to challenge you to an honor duel to the death," he kept his face neutral as she once again paled and sweat obviously began to form on her brow. He was also unsure, but thought he smelled urine. "I also offer you near exclusivity. It would look set up if any interviews I did came specifically from you. However, if you wish to go public that I am using you as my ... I suppose we can go with publicist," Harry considered, "then anything you do must go through the Quibbler unless Xenophilius would rather not have it. And I can promise you, I have a lot that will interest you, including enough to potentially lambaste the previous Ministry administration, Dumbledore to a degree and Snape. Not to mention I know of things coming that will have you willing to sell your soul, though I won't suggest that, of course."

"What kinds of things?" Rita asked before she could catch herself, only realizing it when Harry simply stared at her.

"You will also, if willing to agree to this arrangement, receive a stipend of ten thousand galleons a year, though I would like the opportunity to explain anything you feel should have a negative mention in any reports. Your alternative is to walk away and nothing will happen, unless I feel the need to defend myself or my family. And, if you are willing to make an unbreakable oath to keep my secrets unless I give you leave to report them, I'll tell you ... _everything_," Harry ended firmly, letting his voice suggest just how impressive it would be. Or how ominous, depending on your point of view. If she made the oath, then not even legilimency or veritaserum could pull his secrets from her. Thus, from what he remembered, she would fall under the allowances section of the contract he had signed with Lora to come back.

"I will accept your deal, but see no reason to risk such an oath at this time," Skeeter stated. For that kind of money, she would have done anything he had asked of her.

"As we have plenty of time in the future, and I have another appointment to be at shortly, let me give you some highlights. If you're curious about why Snape left so suddenly," Harry began, telling a slightly edited version of the story that didn't have him killing the professor, but the bat ran off because Harry found evidence of his treachery and was going down to the dungeons to confront him directly. He also elected to say nothing about the rapes for now until he could speak with Amelia about it. He had never forced a girl at Hogwarts, after all, though he did manipulate them to feeling like it was necessary, which Harry found to be the same, regardless. But all the violent acts were out of school.

He also spoke happily about his relationship with Hermione and Luna, though he didn't provide the juicy parts Rita was trying to talk out of him. He also spoke of plans with Hogsmeade but, since he had just given a partial interview with Witch Weekly, he explained it wouldn't be exclusive to her and clarified on his needs for hiring people and why, which would make up the bulk of the article for the Daily Prophet, along with his relationship if the blood-sucking leech that was Rita had anything to say about it. Sadly, she also commented on his height, which would lead to a future exclusive on his home life and early years in the future.

xXxXxXx

[Author's Notes:]

(1) "Dewey, Screwum & Howe" – I've heard this joke for years, but the primary place I know it from is "The Poker Game" by Enterprise1701-d. I've recommended it, before. Harry/Harem that is light on the romance.


	25. Clarity

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter24** – Clarity

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Forcible Non-Descriptive Sex (Draco/Pansy,) Suggestive Language, Nudity, Adult Situations, Adult Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Updated previous chapters**.

**I apologize** to everyone who saw my notes still on the last chapter when I first uploaded it. That was all originally going to be a part of that chapter, but I decided I would post since it was at the month mark and I'm thinking that, unless I've been unable to write at all, I'll start posting whatever I've written by the first of each month. I admit I've been doing a LOT with my days for almost a year, so I don't know what it will come to, but I will try to do so. And if I get to 20K words, I'll just upload wherever it is, be it in a day or a week or a month.

**If you have any ideas for something Harry can add to Hogsmeade, feel free to let me know.** Something like a bowling alley or skating rink that would attract people. Things like another magical library are a no-go, same with a museum. I've also been given the idea of a dance club, but don't see that being a big hit for the society it's being introduced to.

Some asked some very pointed questions due to the last chapter. Most of those questions were answered here, which is why I got to a little less than I wanted here.

**Next chapter will move over the course of a few months. There won't be an explanation-heavy scene like in this one.** It should also be posted in a week or two.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "At The End of All Things" by DLRP (Harry/Harem – Hermione, Luna, Lavender, Padma, Parvati. Fans of Hermione should note she had a "Canon" history with Ron before the time-travel occurs. Not for Ron fans. Not totally sure if more girls will join this harem or not, though.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_Draco makes a political move during his first Wizengamot meeting, Harry meets with Gringotts about various plans, meets Cordelia ward and has a conversation with Rita Skeeter. Algernon Croaker realizes he's old._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Friday – February 18, 18:05 – Leaky Cauldron after meeting with Skeeter**

Harry yawned widely as he entered the Leaky Cauldron's main sitting area after his meeting with the animagus reporter and noticed Shade sitting somewhat stiffly at a table with her eyes closed, looking either asleep sitting up, or meditating. He assumed it was the latter, or something similar to it, since her eyes popped open as soon as his were on her and already focused on him in an intense look. She didn't even need to look around. It was honestly a little disturbing to Harry. "Er, sorry I'm late," Harry said after approaching the woman who watched him like a predator.

"I've only been here a few minutes, Lord Potter," Shade said, her eyes softening over the period of a few seconds. At least it appeared as such to Harry. He could have sworn the woman's irises were ... he wasn't sure how to classify what he thought he saw. It was like the irises were the most definable part of her. The young Gryffindor could swear the outside ring of the irises glowed unnaturally. And he couldn't decide if the light was white or black or something in between.

"I've let everyone know we're coming," Harry said, gesturing with his arm to invite her to the public floo. "If you wait about ten seconds after I leave, I'll have the floo open to accept you. Actually, never mind," he said with a blush. "My exits from this thing are ... well, follow me out to the alley and I'll just take you through the wards directly, if you don't mind."

Shade cocked her head to the side and nodded silently before following the boy. Training saw her prepping her magic for a quick defense to be released in a torrential wave of raw magic, despite believing the boy was honorable and not trying to be a threat.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 17:40, Amelia's Office**

"Algie, she's thirty-six bloody years old," Amelia said through laughter while watching the man pout petulantly. "I assure you, as a woman who has experienced it, puberty is gone and past by the time we're in our mid twenties or so." The Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement couldn't decide if she should be amused that the man seemed to be going through a mid-life crisis, or upset that she had to explain something about girls to the head of the Unspeakables.

"Maybe she's goin' through it again," the older man grumbled. "I raised this girl almost like my own flesh and blood! I don't want some young lord gettin' his paws on her." The man growled as he swished a brandy in his tumbler. _'His hormonal paws, at that! Bloody males,'_ he grumbled in his head.

Amelia rolled her eyes, despite feeling like it was a childish action that was below her. "Algernon, this is the first time the woman has found someone she can relate to in a way that makes her different than everyone else save house elves. You remember how she was when she was going to meet Dumbledore and thought he could perform real wandless magic? She accused him of being a charlatan and perpetuating his own myth! Just because he couldn't do much!"

Algernon smiled fondly at the memory of an eleven-year old brunette ripping Albus Dumbledore a new one with hands on hips and tapping a foot after asking him how he could accept such praise when the best he could do were what she called parlor tricks, and poor ones at that. Of course, coming from a girl who would normally be unable to do but one or two spells with a wand, but was able to create golems and complex charms with ease was perhaps a little unfair.

Not that the girl thought so, of course.

"My understanding is the girl has little to no interest in men, or women, or anyone really, sexually. I've not even heard of her being curious about it. She prefers to be alone," Amelia tried to sooth the man's amusing pity party and make him see logic. "She's an adult. So, even if she _did_ have romantic interest in Potter, or even a purely sexual interest, that is _their_ business. Our chicks have to leave the nest some time," she finished with a shrug, grinning as she taunted him a little. Opportunities like this came along rarely.

"Not if you can figure out how to lock 'em in their rooms," Algernon grumbled. "Do you think I should get her another cat? Maybe she won't turn it into twelve-foot mount and try riding it through the Ministry this time," he suggested.

"Like hell we're giving her the chance," Amelia growled. "People that witnessed that _still_ swear they saw a nundu and it took us a week to get rid of Hagrid and his little net!"

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 18:15, Potter Manor**

Shade blinked as she felt Harry and herself seemingly slide to both sides at once as the world around them shifted and morphed into an attractive manor home's receiving room. Or, perhaps it was more accurate to say it looked like both locations at once to her as the alley she was in faded as the receiving room firmed up almost immediately. The floor was a curious crystal that looked just like marble that she felt was somehow a part of the manor's defense structure since she could feel it monitoring her from where her feet touched. She wasn't really overly aware of such things, but rather than high-backed chairs that looked incredibly stiff, the furniture was all plush and firm, meant obviously for comfort and durability. It also appeared much more welcoming.

"What was that method of travel?" Shade asked as she heard a rather pleasant baritone voice laugh from somewhere deeper in the house.

"A family trick," Harry responded, not wanting to admit to something outside of apparition and not wanting to lie to the woman. "It's just as fast, but with a little tweak, it apparently leaves an after image where you leave from and your vision of that location fades as quickly as the after image does. Feels much better than that squeezing tube sensation as well, I think," he finished with a smile, hoping she took it as a change to the apparition process. In reality, he thought that was exactly what it was, but with a different execution. One is forcing yourself to a new place suddenly, causing air displacement which causes the popping sound, while the other is, in a manner of speaking, occupying all the space in between points 'A' and 'B' and traveling through it and swapping yourself with the air which made it much quieter. At least, that's how he understood it. Hermione argued the point, but she also couldn't do it yet, meaning there was a chance he was actually the right one.

A slim shot, but he held out hope.

"Since I brought you through the wards, they won't do anything without hostile intent on your part," Harry stated, knowing he didn't have to say he could also just activate them on his own. But some were finicky things, like at Grimmauld Place. That house actually seemed to hate people.

"Hello, Master Harry Potter, Sir!" Dobby greeted as he popped in, still wearing the Spartan uniform. Harry _really_ wanted to know where the tiny sword came from. "Yours Misseses is being here for about ten or fifteen minutes and is deciding to be waiting on you and your guest. Hello Guest to the great House of Potter! Dinner is being ready now and everyone is being here!" Dobby happily saluted with a fist to his heart and seemed pleased as punch to turn an about face, and then pop away to bring the food to the table.

"Dobby can be a little ... er, enthusiastic," Harry said with a grin, leading Shade to the dining room.

"I've seen worse," Shade stated simply, blinking at Harry as he looked at her wide-eyed before shaking his head. Deciding he was obviously interested, Shade was about to continue to explain before two girls, ones the elder brunette had noted at Hogwarts, dove through the air and grabbed the boy in tight hugs.

Hermione pulled back since she knew Harry had a guest and introduced herself. "Hello! I'm Hermione Granger! How are you?" She asked happily, shaking hands with the older woman who she almost thought was a cousin she rather disliked. But that cousin would kill for a figure like Shade's.

"I'm fine. You may address me as Shade, Miss Granger," the Unspeakable greeted back with a single pump of the hand. She turned to look at Harry and the other girl, who seemed content to keep her arms and legs wrapped around the boy as he held them both up.

"You can use first names here. And, sorry about that," Hermione said with a blush. "This is the first day since we got together that we haven't been together for more than half a day. I think she missed him." Turning to the younger girl, Hermione frowned. "Luna! Don't be rude!" Both had found a rising and falling need in themselves to be near Harry, preferably hugging the stuffing out of him, but had been unable to really feel it enough to acknowledge what they were feeling other than missing him. There was a feeling that made itself known much like an itch that was barely out of reach since they got to the manor.

"Sorry," Luna said, looking almost miserably contrite enough that Shade had to actually stop herself from offering to put a sticking charm between the two teens. The blonde unwrapped herself and instead wrapped Shade in a hug of her own and began speaking in a chipper voice as she switched tracks in her mind. "Welcome to Potter Manor! I'm Luna, of course, and it's dinner time! Are you hungry?"

Shade schooled her features before she allowed the panicked expression to reach her face. She couldn't remember ever being hugged, though she remembered plenty of attempts. She was not really a fan of physical contact. Had Harry tried this, his wards would have probably harmed her. But this girl was like some sort of cuddly ninja and just skipped right through her defenses and got her by surprise. Thankfully, Luna pulled away after a second when Shade didn't hug back, which befuddled the perky blonde who wondered if the girl just didn't know how to hug back or if perhaps her arms weren't quite working properly.

_'I think her hugger is broken,'_ Luna thought to herself. She then decided to begin a misguided quest to fix the older woman's hugger.

"I came to speak with Lord Potter about several topics, which he felt would be better-suited to dinner. So yes, I will eat," Shade acknowledged.

"Are you sure about this? What about Sirius?" Hermione asked quietly as Luna looped an arm with Shade and led her into the dining room a little faster than the other two, talking animatedly about one of the animals her father swore existed from his early days courting Luna's mother. A twelve-foot tall monstrosity that had victimized the Ministry and its master, a girl who had taken all of the strawberry pastries she was bringing him in the Unspeakables department that she affectionately called Alice, for the girl, and Mister Snuggles, for the cat. After checking, of course.

Something stirred, in Shade's memory, but was lost as the girl began talking about something called spandex and asking Shade if she thought Light-oriented wizards should wear it when defeating evil. If Shade knew what this spandex was, then she might have agreed with the blonde's decision to try and get Harry to wear it.

"Part of the good news," Harry whispered back with a smile. He leaned down and kissed the nervous brunette thoroughly. "I missed you," he whispered into her ear, kissing the lobe gently and making his First sigh in contentment, only to barely hold in a squeak of shock as he very firmly, and very deliberately, squeezed her bottom and stole another kiss before they passed the threshold into the dining room.

The bushy-haired one was now nervous for a different reason. Her mother's smile was a little too large.

"Welcome home, Harry," Emma greeted with a hug before Harry introduced everyone.

"I'm glad you could make it, Hagrid," Harry said with a smirk that would have done the Marauders proud. "Before we get to dinner, there is something I need to tell you. Two somethings, really."

"Tha's alright, Harry. I was wonderin' wha' you'd invite me fer," the large man said, sitting in a chair that Harry could tell right away Hermione had enlarged and strengthened for the added weight. It appeared to be steel instead of cast iron the magicals would have made.

"The first is the most important. I found out more information about the night of my parents' murders," Harry began, trying not to look at the furry mug of his dog father as the animal form peeked around a corner.

Hagrid looked a little confused, but nodded slightly to show he understood so far.

"So, the first thing is that Sirius Black didn't betray my parents," Harry began. "That was actually Peter Pettigrew. My parents and everyone was hoping to make a second layer of security by saying Sirius was the secret keeper so they wouldn't know who really was."

"Bu' Sirius is the one who ga'e me the se'ret," Hagrid said, shaking his head. "It was on the paper he ga'e me. An' the others, too."

"Which was given to him from Peter," Harry explained gently. "I have Sirius, here-" Harry was cut off as the very large mountain of a man rose from his chair, sporting very harsh eyes and a deep growl.

"You jes' tell me where 'e is, Harry. I'll make sure e'rything gets better quick like," Hagrid rumbled, sounding dangerous for the first time Harry could remember. Poor Emma had a flashback to a horrible canoing movie with dueling banjos as she saw the half-giant rise angrily.

"He took veritaserum I gave him and swore a magical oath to prove his innocence," Harry said, not seeing Padfoot cower and leave only his nose visible. Or the puddle on the other side of the wall that Dobby cleared up quickly with a disdainful sniff. This wasn't the first time the convict had done that... But it was the first due to fear, so he wouldn't scold him. This time.

"So, he really is innacent?" Hagrid asked confusedly.

"Yes," Harry confirmed. "He wasn't given a trial, either. I've looked, just to be sure. Sirius? You want to come out now?"

Slowly, and ready to dart away in an instant, the somewhat terrified escapee inched into the room. "H-hey Hagrid," he greeted with a wave.

"You really did'na do it?" The half-giant asked, beginning to cry.

Feeling far safer now, Sirius approached Hagrid carefully. "James was my brother, Hagrid. Lily my sister. Harry my own godson. I could _never_ betray them. I- URK!"

Everyone but Sirius, Shade and Harry laughed as Sirius began to get the largest bear hug of his life.

"I've got some more good news, too," Harry butted in. Once Hagrid had released Sirius and sat down again, Harry explained it. "Hagrid, since I got the Minister to give Sirius a trial, I feel I should also tell you I got him to schedule you one, too."

"Me?" Hagrid asked, wiping his eyes with one of his hankies. "Wha' would I need a trial fer? I didn'a do anythin'."

"To be allowed a wand again," Harry stated gently, making Hagrid's eyes widen. "You brought me into the wizarding world, Hagrid. I figured it was high time I reintroduced you to it, so to speak. And it's only a formality. Despite what they find, since we know they can be biased, I'll be ensuring you get a new wand myself. But if they don't allow it, you can only keep it on my land."

Shade watched with interest as the boy tried to calm the crying Hagrid. There was no manipulation, or want of favors. He simply did something to help the man. It gave her insight into Harry's character that she was sure was worth trusting. At least now that she saw the reasons he was being like everyone else in the Wizengamot, anyway.

Five minutes later, the table was laden with a veritable feast. There were two large logs of meat that Dobby affectionately called 'roast beastie', which were about a foot wide and two feet long. Harry didn't know how the little guy did it, but the meat inside was ridiculously juicy and tender enough to need only a light passing of a knife to part it while maintaining a ruby red coloring that had Dan salivating and thinking a betrothal contract was the best idea he had ever had. Steamed carrots, broccoli and artichokes were the primary vegetables with mashed potatoes made with heavy garlic, parsley and butter. Dobby had also, at Emma's request, made a sweet plum sauce for the meat along with white gravy and a fruit salad. After all the trouble from previous attempts, Emma was making damn sure to do everything possible to make this baby healthy. And coming to the end of three months of pregnancy, she knew she would need to start eating more fruits, vegetables and drink a lot more water.

She was also looking forward to using hormones as a get-out-of-jail free card the first time some idiot blew smoke in her face. Hermione hadn't learned to throw her punches from Dan, after all.

Due to '_negotiations from a position with far greater leverage because it sounds better than blackmail_', as Luna liked to call it, there would also be several puddings for dessert. The exact same ones, incidentally, that Harry had seen in her dream the Saturday before.

"How've your symptoms been?" Hermione asked, doing a quick check on the baby's health while everyone was getting situated.

"Morning sickness never got bad, thank God," Emma said with a bright smile. "Had to buy some new bras since they've grown. I make your father bathe at least twice a day after work and have to be careful around mint and coffee. Those just make me want to ... well, you know," she said a little embarrassedly, not wanting to put people off their dinner.

"Anything else?" Hermione asked.

"Mm, not really," Emma considered. "My mood swings happened earlier than later, but that was true with you, too. And other than fruit, I've not got much in the way of cravings." Both girls ignored Dan's snort and his follow-up cough that sounded like 'fried chicken'. "Other than that, I've been drinking about half a gallon of milk a day to make sure there's plenty of calcium for the baby's bones. Plus, it's almost addictive to me right now."

"And she has to pee almost every ten minutes – Ow!" Dan yelped as he got a foot to the shin. "And she's abusive, too! You saw that!"

Hermione smiled and pulled her wand back. "Baby's healthy as can be and you look to be doing great, also. Madam Pomfrey said you shouldn't exercise, but I think that's been disproved by normal doctors. I'd ask one to find out. I've noticed the magical world still believes a few old wives tales regarding pregnancy. They still think heartburn will mean you get a hairy baby," Hermione giggled. "I see your stomach hasn't really grown much; just a slight pushing out still like you've eaten a lot recently. Shouldn't that be changing?" Hermione asked, having not looked up how quickly that would grow.

"Not this early," Emma said with a smile. "It can, but I expect it to start in a few weeks."

Seeing everyone eating their fill, Harry looked to Shade who was sitting next to Hermione. Since he was at the head of the table, and his girls on either side of him next under normal conditions, Hermione had offered the seat next to her so the parents could sit to the other end near Hagrid who was telling stories of Hogwarts and their kids. They had already gone over Sirius' and Hagrid's histories, both of which only really took a few minutes. Still, there was more he remembered she wanted to talk about. "So, what was one of the things you wanted to start off with about my wandless ability?"

"I suppose my first question is how much can you do with wandless magic?" Shade asked.

"Well, everything I've tried works except the Patronus charm. I only get a little mist, which is confusing me to no end. Most of what I've learned is for use in combat, so it can be messy. I've only bothered with a few things to help me get my wand back otherwise, like summoning charms, disillusionment and such."

"So you can do more of what I saw during the duel?" Shade confirmed, allowing a very small smile to grace her lips. _Finally_! Someone she could look upon as a peer!

"Oh, Harry is _very_ good with his hands!" Luna chirruped happily, causing her father to wince before she continued. "He flicks his hand and does all sorts of things. His shields are quite impressive and he conjures some of the nicest things." The chipper blonde was about to ask if she wanted to see the very pretty panties he had made for her, but remembered Hermione's talk about what was and wasn't appropriate, especially in front of parents. She would have to wait for something more private first. Luna just couldn't get past that 'tie-dye' concept!

"What about you?" Hermione asked curiously. "I didn't see you use a wand at all during the duel."

"I am unable to use a wand for even the smallest of things," Shade stated simply. "Except maybe as kindling, anyway. I was born with a chaotic magical core. This essentially means my magic is not naturally as dense as a normal person's and can fluctuate wildly, hence the name. Wands will usually shatter when I try to use them since the magic pushed through them would be too unstable. What I might normally use for a simple lighting spell might in fact be enough to send a cutting curse through a quarter mile of forest or be as little as to all but do the spell without any magic being recognized as cast and get the same result either way."

"So you used wandless magic instead," Hermione nodded in understanding. "Harry's promised to teach us wandless magic. We should be starting it soon," she said happily.

"What are you waiting on?" Shade asked.

"We've been focusing on other things," Hermione said with a mischievous smirk.

"Our days have been stuffed with school-related things and side projects," Harry explained, wondering if maybe they should have been working on wandless magic earlier or not. "We've got etiquette lessons, dancing lessons, private projects, defense meetings and other stuff. But, we've figured out a new schedule to get some free time for it. That should allow us to practice wandless magic each day."

"I see," Shade said, sounding a little disappointed. "What kinds of exercises do you perform to enhance your control?"

"Well ... nothing really," Harry said slowly. "I work on making each spell work and then refining control by using it more and tweaking it the same way I learned with my wand. The book I have on it essentially says that I have to focus on the result I want and that I have to practice to make it easier. But, I might have misread that, I suppose. It gave exercises like levitating an object slowly and holding it in place with as few wobbles as possible and then moving it around and lowering it the same way."

"I read the book, too, and thought that it meant practicing the spell, just like Harry," Hermione explained.

Shade sighed heavily and was quiet for a moment before she looked first to Harry and then his two girls. "That will not do," she stated as though trying to make them understand. "Wandless magic does not, and _can not_ function using structured spells like you would use with a wand. How have you been adapting wand magic to wandless?"

"Er," Harry stuttered, brought up short. "Well, I focus on how my magic works when I use the spell normally, then try to replicate it wandlessly," he explained. "The book we learned from never mentioned wands or compared them."

"That is wrong," Shade countered, realizing that not only were Harry's two girls listening in, but so too was Sirius. Actually, he didn't seem to stop paying her attention. It was ... awkward. "What you are doing is causing your magic to imitate the wand magics like an echo, which means it can only be, at best, as powerful as an echo. I suppose your 'tweaking' could better that, but it causes much more work for smaller and fewer results. A wand will make the spell come out with a unique ... shape, or signature. But that is something refined through the wand itself. It is not the raw form of magic. Therefore, you get that echo concept."

"What _should_ we do?" Luna wondered aloud before mushing the soft steamed carrot through her teeth at Sirius and making the escapee shove out his tongue with thoroughly chewed ... _everything_ on it to show her in return.

"You have been taught that wand-based magic uses a small number of basic movements, combined, to get an effect, yes? For charms, I believe the swish-and-flick is very common?"

"Yes," Hermione agreed. "There are seventeen recognized motions..." She trailed off as she noticed Shade didn't really care and only wanted confirmation. That woman could have an intense look.

"Those movements are based on rune patterns," Shade explained. "You may notice the design in part of one of the runes on the Futhark alphabet."

Hermione's hair gained a little additional volume as her shock hit her system. "Oh my."

"That is the nature of the focus a wand provides," Shade continued. "It can, of course, be enhanced with gem foci, inscribed runes on the shaft and the compatibility of the wand and core to your magic, which is why wands are used today since they will make casting easier and you can use less magic for the desired result." Shade looked at those paying attention to her and wondered if they would be capable of wandless magic.

"With wandless magic, you can affect magic you cast to make it do as you desire, free of all restrictions but your own ability to think and the limitations wands give you, which is substantial when it comes to powerful magic. The problem comes in having the focus to simply make your magic act out that desire. When you learn to do casting without moving your wand, you are, essentially, performing wandless magic. But most people only take it down as far as a simple flick of their wand, or using even less of a rune symbol than normal. Still, your most problematic issue will be your ability to focus. And as you've noticed, most magicals haven't got the strongest minds. The problem isn't even in that, though. Children can and do use wandless magic all the time. It is imposing your will on the world around you that few can grasp the understanding of. That desire to simply make something happen."

"How does the wand do that with a runic symbol, though?" Hermione asked.

"The wand movement, for all intents and purposes, inscribes the rune in the air using your magic. Then, it invokes that into the spell effect desires and releases it, which is usually the reason for calling out a spell's name, which is the nature of invocation. Silent casting usually involves the first step of all of this, which is invoking the spell without the verbal aspect of the focus. That is why they say it is ideal to remove all possible wand movements. This is why runic magics fell out of practice, along with rituals. It takes more time. But at the same time, those were greatly more powerful and potent results than one can get with a wand."

"And wandless magic is basically doing just that?" Hermione questioned, doing her best to commit all of this to memory. "No wand movements and silent casting while essentially keeping your mind firm on what you want?"

"Mostly," Shade confirmed. "It isn't quite the same, but essentially. That is a correct, but not entirely accurate, view. They tell you throughout school that you must want a spell to work, picturing what should happen. Your intent should be clear. That is the truth even more so for wandless magic. It is, in fact, the core of wandless magic. But so few people attempt to do so and fewer still have the ability to focus clearly enough on their desire to make it reality. The more complex your desire, the more magic or harder it will be. You can summon an item, for example, by asking it to find an opening in a wall, go down the hall, and not hit people on the way, or you can simply tell you magic to bring it to you and let the magic work itself out on the how. The latter is easier, simpler and requires less power and less focus as well."

"So what are your training methods?" Harry asked.

"A wand acts as a channel for your magic, while your body will do that same function for wandless magic. I assume you've noticed how your body aches rather than simply be tired after your practice sessions?" Shade asked, getting an affirmative. "Good. That means you're doing it properly for the most part. And the first thing you will need to learn is to channel this magic through your body, which also enhances all your physical traits such as strength, eyesight, speed and the like. And with your eyes, especially, but occasionally other portions of your body, you will sometimes notice special abilities pop up. Almost universal is what is known as 'mage sigh', which is nothing more than seeing magic, even if it is cloaked, inverted or ambient."

"Are you _sure_ you can see inverted magic?" Harry asked, remembering Gryffindor's brooch and how his last death with Hermione had occurred.

"Yes," Shade stated immediately.

The next half hour was devoted to Shade explaining the best way she found to begin training for herself, then variations she had created. Hermione found the steps a little overly simple, but felt it may make the process easier to start off with. From Hermione's numerous questions, she realized the best thing was to learn it without trying to compare it to what she was used to.

The first thing they would need to learn to do was channel magic through their bodies, making themselves, for all intents and purposes, their new magical foci. This could be tested easily enough with weight lifting and timing a run over a set distance. Harry had also giggled like a fan girl when learning this was very possibly one of the first steps to learning to fly, though Shade was unsure as she hadn't tried it before.

Shade's methods could be easily incorporated into their morning exercise routines as hers was an extremely physical training process. She channeled her magic in her body to get better training in, which also explained a body that even had Hermione staring a few times.

Interestingly, the best idea of the group for their own starting ideas regarding control had come from Luna. "So, would it be a good idea to learn to levitate a blob of liquid and perhaps make shapes and act out plays now that we understand that book levitating was meant to be an aspect of control over the magic rather than practicing the spell? It would certainly be fun," the dreamy-eyed girl said with a bright smile before turning to her glass of lemonade and staring furiously. _'Float to your doom inside of my mouth,'_ the girl tried to command. _'Come to me...'_

"That would certainly enhance your control," Shade agreed with a wider smile than anything she had provided thus far. She liked the perky blonde. A little too touchy-feely, but fun to interact with. Deciding nothing more could really be discussed about the wandless magic topic, and having obtained the majority of the information she wanted, to say nothing of giving more information about training methods than she really intended, she decided to focus on Lord Potter's bracelets.

"Might I ask about the power-limiting seals you have?" She asked, pointing at Harry's wrist.

"I think it's the 'in thing' these days," Sirius spoke through a mouthful of white gravy and potatoes. He didn't really care for bracelets, and had not been paying attention to their function, but there was finally something he could do to get the pleasant-looking woman to look at him. Well, look at him without disgust, that is. She didn't seem to like the game him and Luna were playing. And he doubted she would like the tricks he learned in Azkaban, though an army of roaches might still be a way to help out Harry. _'Could Harry use an army of roaches? I bet the dark wanker would never see it coming...'_

His healing from Azkaban was almost purely physical. That was still fairly apparent.

"They're bracelets that have seals to limit my power," Harry corrected Sirius. He then went on to explain the situation as he knew it with Dumbledore sealing him and how it caused his core to expand about a hundred times, but his inability to control more than six percent, and even that was touch and go for him, so he usually kept himself at one percent unless practicing his control.

"Stop that," Shade demanded immediately upon learning that last fact. "If you do not keep yourself constantly dealing with higher levels of power, it will not grow to be second nature. It will also slow down your ability to learn to harness that power."

Hermione perked up a little at hearing that. She absolutely adored when Harry let his magic out to play. She could feel it around him and radiating out and loved the sensation being in his presence gave her. Only, since it was at one percent, she felt it because he pushed his magic outwards. She learned that was one of the things that she had been able to sense when Harry had broadcast his Patronus on the train, in the Great Hall to prove he could teach the spell and in the forest when they were surrounded by dementors.

Hermione scrunched her eyebrows as she tried to remember when they were in a forest together other than their first year. And there weren't dementors present at that time.

"But if I keep the seal open beyond that, then my magic will sometimes do things without me making it on its own," Harry explained sheepishly.

"That is the whole point," Shade stated with a flat look. "It will take you much longer to learn to control it, and never quite as well, if you continue on as you have. Maybe lower it by a percent or two, but never take yourself back down to one percent unless stealth is necessary, perhaps. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes," Harry said, feeling like he was being chided by McGonagall. He was also annoyed because it made too much sense for him to have missed it without feeling foolish.

"Out of curiousity, where did you get those bracelets?" Shade continued, allowing her curiousity to show on her face.

"I'm afraid that is something I can't discuss with you," Harry explained. "I think you're a great person and really enjoyed talking with you. But I'm afraid neither of us can honestly say we trust each other enough to provide that information. I'm sorry," Harry said, truly apologetic.

Shade knew immediately there was something about the bracelets that was suspect when she saw them. And the boy couldn't hide that fact in the slightest. Still, he was correct. That was enough.

"Oh, Hagrid," Harry began, getting the chuckling man's attention from where he was telling the adults, and Sirius, more of what he knew about their children. While the Grangers were scared at the description of a Thestral, to say nothing of what they ate, learning Luna had been imprinted as one of the foal's mothers and that it followed her around in Hogwarts where only a few could see it had led to some interesting things from her first year. Sadly, though, none of the students would believe her, which is where some of her taunting had come from, not that Hagrid knew that.

"Yeh?" The man asked.

"I'm going to need to speak with the Centaurs soon. Do you think you could tell me some customs and things so I don't upset them?"

"Sure!" Hagrid boomed out happily, rattling the dishes. "I'll even make i' one o' me next classes! I bet ol' Firenze would be 'appy to visit the class!"

Harry's eyes very nearly twinkled as his plan bore unexpected fruit. "That would be wonderful, thank you," he stated, thinking Firenze could deliver a message with his intent to be rid of the acromantula.

"Ah, that reminds me! Not that I know how," Sirius exclaimed, then mumbled in confusion. "But, I got the booze for your Auream Ball. You should be able to knock about six hundred people flat on their backs easily with this and still have some left over."

"Wassail?" Luna asked in obvious interest.

"No, of course not," Sirius stated, but nodded far too enthusiastically and with too wide a grin to be telling the truth. It'd be impossible to miss.

"Good," Xeno said with authority. "You're still far too young to be drinking that."

"What about food?" Hermione asked as Luna pulled over three bowls of pudding and pushed her plate back. _'It looks like Tammy is going to voice her displeasure again,'_ Hermione thought, still amused that Luna named her stomach. She wouldn't bring it up, though. Then Luna would bring up her naming her bottom cheeks Velma and Daphne again.

"I took your suggestions on a buffet-style spread," Sirius acknowledged with a nod and grin. "With liberal use of stasis charms, I'll be eating like a prince for weeks after the event."

"No you won't," Harry denied. "You can eat off it for dessert, if you want, but you need to eat healthy so you can look and be your best for your trial, at the very least. I'm hoping that will be before this, but if not, I need you to look the part of Lord Black. And if it is, then you'll ruin anything your exercising is doing to help you."

"Well, I _could_," Sirius grumbled, agreeing with his godson. Well, not _agreeing_, but going along with it. "Other than that, I sent a letter acting as your party planner and got The Weird Sisters booked, along with two other bands. Then you have the enchanted orchestra in the ballroom, so you can have some of the grandpa music in there, too, if you want."

"What about the guest list?" Emma asked with a chuckle.

"I've almost got the last of the invites ready," Sirius said with a blush, not looking anyone in the eye. Hermione was on the man in an instant, sensing weakness.

"What did you do?" She asked, knowing he was guilty of something.

"If you invited Malfoy, I'm going to see your animagus form neutered," Harry stated conversationally.

"I wanted this to put you off in the right way in society," Sirius explained hastily. "I invited those we agreed on, obviously, and not those you said no to."

"But?" Hermione asked, hearing one in there somewhere.

"I may have also tried to up the ante a little by inviting some others, as well...," Sirius mumbled.

"Who?" Harry asked with a sigh.

"Well, like I said, I was acting as your party planner," Sirius delayed. "I explained you still need to learn about your station and what is expected of you and, while learning at an rapid pace, you _are_ still learning, of course."

"Out with it, Sirius," Harry demanded as the parents looked on in worry, not really quite sure what was going on since it sounded like Sirius did what he was supposed to do since Harry didn't know enough people to know who all to send an invite to.

"I invited all of the Holyhead Harpies, letting them know they're your favorite team," Sirius rushed out.

"But I don't have a favorite team," Harry muttered. "Is that it? And why them, specifically?"

"An all-girls Quidditch team?" Sirius asked, aghast. "What's not to like!? And, er, no ... Not all. I also invited a few other teams. I also remembered you trying to entice Slughorn into teaching, so I invited him. I also invited some of what you might call the middle-class people, particularly those that knew your parents."

"So, in short," Hermione began, "you invited famous people rather than politically important and some regular, every-day people and that's it? I don't really see any reason to be upset about it."

"I'd rather have more normal people, anyway," Harry grumbled.

"That's not why I was worried you'd get upset," Sirius sighed. "I invited about an extra sixty average people for this that normally wouldn't really see an invite. I also added that, as a gift for attending, and supposedly under the short notice, they are given a credit at Twilfit & Tattings, along with Aphrodite's Finery, to outfit themselves in some modest, but decent, outfits. Five galleons each. I plan on reimbursing you from my own account if that's a problem, I just didn't think you'd be okay with the added numbers and the cost."

"No, I'm perfectly okay with that," Harry explained. "How are they all getting here?"

"Timed portkeys onto the front lawn," Xenophilius stated. "I took care of that and the invitations themselves at Sirius' direction. As my little contribution, I also got a few hundred fairies from the forest behind the Rookery to detail the lawn and manor for you, while also visiting that night to light up the grounds. They were quite happy to do something for Luna's new family and for something other than Christmas."

"Thank you, Xeno," Harry and Hermione said warmly while Luna waddled over to hug her father. Hermione made sure to move her pudding back to the center of the table so Luna wouldn't overeat it again. She was back to looking pregnant. _'She shouldn't pull it off so well, though,'_ Hermione thought, thinking the girl looked radiantly happy. Granted, she always did when able to binge on pudding, but still.

"Er, would you like to come, Shade?" Sirius asked, looking at the woman who had been silent where she knew she wasn't needed and felt probably not wanted. The girl's shock was well-hidden, however, through an apathetic expression. Only her rapid blinking gave her away, though no one there noticed it.

"I am unsure. I ... don't do well in crowds," she admitted.

"Neither do I," Harry said with a smile, letting her know he was amenable with the idea. "But I'd be happy to have you here if you want. But you don't have to feel pressured and you certainly don't have to make a decision now. Choose whatever you're comfortable with."

Shade nodded, very unsure of what she should be feeling right then. She preferred to be alone most often because people looked at her oddly. She also just simply didn't trust people. The only ones she really felt comfortable around were Croaker, Amelia Bones and an Unspeakable named Timothy that was perfectly happy to be near each other in silence without talking, without interacting and stayed quiet.

Being with these people was different in a big way. There was everything she generally disliked with other people. Noise, interaction, talking, actual conversation where she had to talk and wasn't given enough time to simply watch and observe. Not to mention the little blonde hugger. That led to the one she was least fond of: touching. She didn't like touching.

She was ill at ease with these things, even with this group. But she didn't stop any of it. She allowed the blonde to hug her without pushing her away or blasting her into a wall, which was her norm. She conversed with these people despite a dislike of talking, though most of it was about what she wanted to talk about, so it was perhaps understandable there. The noise was ... it was like a rabble in her ears, but it was all friendly and happy.

When she observed others, she liked to be invisible and simply watch and listen. She could learn quite a bit. In the Ministry, there was always someone plotting with someone else about how to hurt someone or extort them. It was never happy, or if it was, it was overshadowed by something dark or sinister nearby. It was the same in public. Diagon Alley, people were rushed and sometimes angry.

Most of the time, she heard a buzzing, like thousands of stinging bees or wasps, just waiting for the opportunity to get at you. This, however, was a low, happy rumble. Well, unless the big one laughed. Then there was the occasional explosion. But it settled ... nicely ... upon her ears.

It all made her feel uncomfortable. She wasn't used to it and it felt strange.

"So, how did the Wizengamot meeting go today?" Sirius asked, trying to get away from the subject that made him feel like an insecure teenager again. _'Definitely too early to try picking up birds,'_ he thought.

"Well, Malfoy showed up for the first time," Harry said, annoyed. "He also managed to pass a law since we had a majority today, even though no one actually _read_ the bloody law since it was submitted only a few days ago. I tried to get it held off, but couldn't. Too much risk of people making money as far as they could tell. And when I said it may be badly worded or something, everyone just told me that that was what amendments are for. Even Bones and Longbottom. I thought better of them than that."

"That's ridiculous!" The Grangers all exclaimed as one. Dan, though, kept going. "I know people in the muggle world may vote without reading something, but they don't all do so! And it still sits long enough to give them an opportunity to do so!"

"Something I've learned is that Hermione had the right of it. As a general rule, all magicals have little to no common sense," Harry said with a sad shake of his head. "There are some that do, but it seems just to be how they are raised. No offense, guys," he said to the others around the table.

"No, you are quite correct," Shade agreed. "Some are quite cunning and that provides a modicum of sense. But they, too, tend to not look too far beyond their plans, which are usually convoluted to an extreme. Just as we spoke of with wandless magic. Too complex and it crashes in on itself."

"What was his law?" Emma asked.

"Basically, I think it was like a debt collection thing," Harry said, scrunching up his face. "He is setting it up so that the Ministry can buy all sorts of debts, possibly at lower amounts than the debt is for, but then sell it for more or just use the debt for their own use."

"How would they use a debt on their own?" Hermione asked. Her brow was furrowed as she tried to figure that out.

Harry, with the help of Shade filling in a few blanks to clarify the actual law itself as described by Malfoy, went on to explain the meeting and details of the law. The young lord explained it how he saw it, which was simply debt collection. Once they were done, however, Sirius became the voice of caution.

"Harry, this is very important. Are you _sure_ they are allowing people to barter life debts?" The animagus asked.

"Er, yea," Harry confirmed in confusion. "Why?"

"Do you remember telling me how you and Hermione became friends?" Sirius asked, ignoring Harry's question as far as the boy could tell.

"Of course! I'm not likely to forget."

"Hermione owed you a life debt from that," Sirius explained gravely. "And if the details you told me regarding that Ginny girl from last year are correct, then she owes you one, too. That may be why he wanted that three-year forfeiture period."

"Do you think that's why the little prick is doing this?" Harry asked, looking like he was getting ready to go to war.

"Possible, but I highly doubt it," Sirius said after a second.

"What exactly is a life debt?" Dan asked a little darkly.

"It's actually fairly difficult to explain," Sirius said. "Basically, when a magical person is saved from something, usually life-or-death, then they owe a person a debt that magic itself enforces. A cosmic balance or, as Lily liked to say, something called 'Karma'."

"Save a person's life, and they owe you?" Dan asked to confirm, getting an affirmative.

"Now, the difficult part is just what that means," Sirius continued. "Let's use Hermione as the example since that is most relevant and will give you the answers you want, I think."

"Continue," Dan stated.

"Their friend, Ron, said mean things and made Hermione go into the loo, right? Good. Now, that means he has at least _some_ culpability for her being in danger. Maybe not the direct cause, but at least some. That means she cannot owe him a debt as severe as it could have been. But, because Harry said nothing, and I've learned never really said anything bad about her before that, it means she owes him pretty much nothing. Then Harry decided to rush after her and had to convince Ron to go with him. For Ron, helping with homework and not killing him will probably be more than is needing to pay off that debt."

"You had to talk him into going?" Hermione snarled. _'Just like those bloody dragons and the tent! At a drop of the hat, he leaves when things get tough!'_ She continued to listen, although she didn't pay so much attention to her thoughts as current rage matched and drew upon familiar rage from another time and place.

"Let's stay focused," Emma suggested, wanting to hear what was more important to the parents at the moment. "What about her owing Harry a debt?"

"Harry didn't say anything to cause you to get upset, right Hermione? No? Good. Did he ever really say anything mean to you? No? Good. That means Harry wasn't really at fault for Hermione being in the loo save for maybe not speaking up to his friend. That establishes that a person cannot be at fault for putting someone in danger and, if they are, then the degree at which they are at fault can impact the end result. With me so far?"

"So, Hermione being in danger by a troll was like a danger worth one hundred points," Dan said, bringing out some of his Dungeons and Dragons days. "Harry, not really at fault but possibly speaking up, could have maybe two points for not stopping Ron from being rude. Ron, perhaps, eighty points responsible, so saving her would leave Hermione owing them ninety-eight points and twenty points, respectively?"

"Correct," Sirius agreed after a moment of thought. "Now, on top of that, is accountability as friends, acquaintances, enemies, lovers, family and the like. Ron was openly mean to Hermione most often and Harry not really at all, but they weren't friends until this event, correct?" Sirius asked.

"Right," the two teens agreed. "I am sorry I never spoke up in your defense," Harry continued, making Hermione smile and give him a kiss as she waved it off.

"We're betrothed and it's great," she said happily. "I think we're good."

"Well, the point is," Sirius continued with a grin. "Harry was in no way accountable other than a peer and acquaintance. Ron even less so, really. So, because of that, you'd put Hermione's debt a little larger to the both of them. But, because Harry had to drag Ron there, you'd take some of that debt away from Ron."

"So, in short, she owes someone a larger debt in this case because they had no reason to seek her out and save her?" Dan asked. _'Other than perhaps guilt,'_ he considered to himself. He was just smart enough not to mention it out loud.

"Yes," Sirius confirmed. "An auror, or magical copper, would have almost no debt at all because it is their job, for example. The next is the level of danger. With a mountain troll averaging ten to twelve feet tall, and about as big and strong as Hagrid over there," Sirius pointed out the sheepish-looking half-giant, "and with only two months of magic education under their belts, plus I understand it had a club which would have been basically a tree without branches, then the danger is quite high."

"Right on all counts," Hermione agreed, looking to her parents. "Plus, when they got in there, it was just about to crush me, and Harry jumped onto the thing's back." Seeing both parents look at Harry gratefully, Hermione considered her little boast there worth it.

"Well, onto the rest," Sirius explained. "A debt is then weighted on the importance of the people involved. I don't mean for this to sound bad, but this is how magic will see things, so please keep that in mind," the escapee began with a wince.

"Hermione has no known magical history. So, she has no overt financial wealth, she is new to magic, and thus has less history to suggest she will continue on to do something special like magical texts or experiments and the like, like the Potters do, for example."

"I get it," Dan growled. "Continue."

"Well, Harry is the Head of several families, controls massive amounts of land and the servants who take care of that land, or perhaps serfs would be better. He has great financial wealth. His family is _still_ the most famous for their warding with designs and schemes that are still spoken of in whispers. In short, in relation to the world, he is more valuable to it."

"That isn't even the worst of it," Hermione stated in an awed whisper. Her hair was quite a bit poofier as realization hit her.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked.

"Harry still has an active prophecy around him that will literally decide the fate of the world," Hermione said quietly. "He has-"

"Hermione!" Harry barked out, snapping the girl out of her shock. "Please remember there are some things that _no one_ here is allowed to know," he demanded gently, causing the brunette to wince.

"She is still right, though," Luna said, in a similar state to Hermione. "There is something even far more important than that prophecy that leads to his importance. We cannot discuss it, but please rest assured that anyone owing Harry a life debt will owe him anything he demands of them."

"Er, right," Sirius blinked owlishly. Harry's girls were weird.

"It isn't that we don't trust you guys," Harry said with a sigh. "But I'm under a magical oath of sorts that I cannot tell anyone about what they're suggesting and really _shouldn't_ be talking about."

"Sorry," Hermione whispered.

"It's okay. Just try not to let it out again, okay?" Harry said calmly, trying to soothe his First from the short distance Shade's presence kept between them. The earlier kiss had her getting up for it, but neither felt like doing that since it would draw more attention to them.

"Well, to continue on," Sirius began again.

"There's _more_?" Dan asked incredulously.

"Just paying the debt off," Sirius explained. "Since they became friends, and Hermione's been with him through thick and thin, that would reduce the debt owed, though I have no idea by how much. Stuff like that is subjective to them and magic both. Becoming betrothed likely means the debt would be virtually non-existent, but depending on what they were talking about earlier, I don't know for sure. But, certainly, nothing that can be used by this bill. Unless whatever they're talking about is public knowledge like the rest, then it won't be considered when they try to judge that and, even then, they usually accept it if someone says it's paid off and consider most debts paid in full with marriage or some other sort of bond," he finished, deciding it would be wisest not to mention the types of bonds that were considered legal for such a situation.

"That's a relief," Dan and Emma sighed. "In essence, the entire situation is weighted based on the who, the what, the why and paid off with the how."

"Though, that one with the Weasley girl is another thing entirely," Sirius continued, looking to Harry. "You were friends with her family, so that helps, but a basilisk and whatever that diary was that did it, then going and getting her medical attention, still not really being friends like you are Hermione ... There's no doubt a debt still exists there."

"Would that also be why the entire population doesn't really owe Harry a debt?" Hermione asked, ignoring the thing about Ginny as unimportant. They could deal with that, later. "Because they weren't in direct danger?"

"Yup. There are few rules of magic, but those that do exist, are ironclad," Sirius stated. "A person must be in direct and immediate, life-threatening, danger. That basilisk is a prime example(1.) The students were in danger, but not direct danger yet."

"That is so convoluted," Dan whined, wrapping his head around everything.

"It's magic," Hermione rebutted with a snort. "If it isn't, then you can bet it's probably fake."

"Speaking of convoluted," Sirius switched gears, sighing sadly. "I've been looking over the Black family grimoires."

"Find anything for the Longbottoms?" Harry asked.

"It could be one of two or three spells," Sirius stated. "But I would have to see them to find out which. Needless to say, that would be a little difficult."

Harry turned to Shade, who was contentedly watching the group until she noticed him looking at her. "If what we have to discuss here could heal the Longbottoms, but discusses some slightly less than legal options to find out if we can, are you going to tell the wrong people?"

"Not if it can heal them," Shade stated, tilting her head to the side. "I am not an auror, nor am I affiliated with law enforcement. I am called out to fight against demons and worse-"

"-There's worse than demons?" Dan and Emma asked each other.

"-thus, I have no reason to reveal your plans. On top of that, you would be party as a conspirator and you are too intriguing to allow to go to prison."

Harry turned to Sirius with a grin, even while Hermione eyed Shade with a little more interest than she normally would have. "Dobby!"

A few minutes later, Sirius and the excitable critter were off. This time, Dobby elected to wear a black suit that appeared to have been ... appropriated ... from a muggle science lab for warfare technologies. Either that, or he had been watching some movies from somewhere and decided to recreate something that looked like it belonged a few decades in the future. It even had spots for his ears to fit in to.

"Still think you've seen worse?" Harry chuckled.

"Yes," Shade admitted, finding more interest in her carrots.

"How?" Harry asked.

"I've seen the process for making the house elves," Shade explained, placing her silverware down. "When they are first created, their magics must settle. Before it does, they create all sorts of fantastical things and usually imprint onto a random object and gain odd fixations on them. Normal-born ones don't have that issue with their magic though they will still bond to an item rather than their mother, but sometimes, they must still be created to assist with the potential for breeding problems or to incorporate new genetics."

"What do you mean first created?" Hermione asked.

"House elves were created by wizard-kind," Shade explained. "Their base is that of a brownie, with some goblin resilience thrown in. Bat genetics to allow greater hearing and abilities I am unaware of as I didn't care to learn them. They also use some fairy, human and a couple other creatures. This allows for selective-trait-breeding, such as the symbiotic bond they require with a magical human to stay alive. It is also usually only done if a quick increase in numbers are needed. Otherwise, normal breeding suffices."

"That's horrible," Hermione whispered.

"They are currently the only legally-allowed chimera to be created," Shade continued. "Before, house elves, squibs and lower-class magicals were used to fill such roles, usually bound for some imagined slight or for a debt gone out of control. This helped to stop such things," she explained. "This is also one of the reasons knights of old would try to save women in trouble as it was hoped to be a witch who would then owe a life debt they could call."

"But you shouldn't create a living, thinking being just for the sake of enslavement!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Do muggles not do this with dogs and cats?" Shade asked in confusion. "Those, they use to show off. And they do the same thing for farm yard beasts, do they not? Just for the sake of being butchered and eaten?"

"That! That!" Hermione spluttered, unsure of how to respond. "We don't enslave them, though!"

"What about fighting?" Shade asked, still confused. "My understanding is that you also breed dogs for guarding and fighting one another."

"It's generally not an accepted practice, but we understand what you mean," Dan butted in, trying to get off the subject. "Honey, didn't you tell us that you've learned most house elves are treated very well and are happy with where they are and that cases such as Dobby's are unique?"

After a few moments of silence, Dobby popped in, bouncing on his feet, while Sirius stood there, actually serious. "I know how to fix them, but it will take three days each. And I've no idea how they will handle being out of it for so long. Also, er ... the two nurses on shift at night are romantically involved."

"Dobby is being having to drag Master Harry's dogfather away from them, too!" Dobby harrumphed before marching away, head held high.

"That's great news!" Harry exclaimed while ignoring his godfather's peeping antics. "We'll figure out a way to get you the time with them."

"What else did you do with your day?" Luna asked. "You were meeting with the goblins and that reporter today as well, right?"

"Well, the reporter was Rita Skeeter," Harry began. "I explained any exclusives I provide should be offered to the Quibbler, first, just in case you want it. I also bought her off since she has a tendency to make up stories and write whatever strikes her fancy. I also wanted to let her know just how badly doing that with me could come back to haunt her."

"Blackmail?" Hermione asked, having a vague recollection of his plans.

"Mostly," Harry said with a grin. "Since there aren't libel laws in place, there's nothing to stop her except the threat of violence and ending her career. Libel and slander are only able to be fought under the pretense of a magical duel. But due to laws in place, a person is allowed to select a champion to fight on their behalf, so most don't do this since there is no telling who you may go up against. Especially when it's the biggest newspaper in the magical world and they have a few dueling champions they sponsor who agree to fight on their behalf if called upon."

"Maybe you could introduce them," Xenophilius suggested. "It provides a method for you to get into the political game while protecting people as well. Win-win for everyone."

"I think I will," Harry mused thoughtfully. "I'll probably have to look into the muggle laws to get an idea of what I'm in for, though."

"Isn't blackmail a little ... over the top?" Emma asked hesitantly.

"Not with this woman," Xenophilius refuted. "I don't know how, but she gets dirt on everyone and uses that to allow her to write articles that smear everyone's good name and infer anything she wants, usually to show people in the worst-possible light. And everything she writes is taken as truth. Same with everyone in that paper, to be honest."

"What Xeno is not saying," Harry picked up, "is that the woman smears _everyone's_ name if she can. She goes for the biggest story to fit whatever facts she can, or makes facts up to support her claim either way. But, she gets all that dirt because she's an illegal animagus. A beetle, to be precise."

"Why not just report her?" Emma asked. "Why blackmail?"

"Because blackmail allows her to be on my side," Harry explained with a shrug. "All she has to do is register her form and she can attack me with impunity, which is why I had to point out I could, and would, fight an honor duel if she lied about me or any of you. In short, she knows I can legally kill her if I really wanted to. Or at least make the attempt. The law allows for that since she would still have to legally be the Second unless she has family willing to stand in for her. But if she works with me, then she doesn't have to report her form, and she can keep writing how she wants otherwise. In short, it's the most profitable solution for her. I also offered to pay her a salary that should see her positively gushing about anything regarding us. And that is going to be needed in the future, regardless. I've got big plans and she could ruin them within the next few months."

"What plans?" Luna and Hermione asked as one, though Luna did so through a yawn and stretch that was decidedly feline.

"I've got big plans for Hogsmeade that I expect to have finished by the end of the summer," Harry said with a proud grin.

"Such as?" Sirius pressed.

"There isn't a lot to do there for students. It's mostly visit the pub, the candy store, or wander around. I intend to add some new shops and magical versions of muggle entertainments."

"Bringing the non-magical world to the magical?" Dan asked with a raised eyebrow. "Can't say I'm against that. It'd be nice if Hermione didn't have to forget her roots."

"What are you planning?" Emma, Hermione and Sirius asked.

"First, I'm going to either hire aurors to supervise or chaperon on weekends to ensure added safety and security, or find some retired aurors or hit wizards to police the town. Nothing major there, but they'll need a barracks for whichever option is taken, or combination. Bringing in more people means more homes, as well. So, I've got plans for a few dozen homes."

"Not a bad idea," Xenophilius said with happy agreement. "Auror response time is sometimes lacking."

"I'm also doing something similar for a Gringotts bank branch."

"The goblins will never support that," Sirius disagreed, shaking his head. "Their land is sovereign and they can do a lot. They can't do that elsewhere. Plus, they enjoy making people go to one central location in Britain for their money."

"I already got them to agree to it," Harry said, shocking the magicals, even Shade. Hermione just took it in stride, however, since she didn't realize just how impressive the feat was. "For the revamped Muggle Studies class, they agreed to create vaults for free, to the student, with an initial deposit of a galleon or more, with a free money bag of two galleons or more. I've also agreed to make the soil theirs for as long as the agreement is in place, but it isn't much land. I can't explain it for security, but they're using a Potter Portal device to make things easier."

"Oh, like those things you got us for Christmas?" Emma exclaimed. "I love those," she said wistfully, beyond happy at seeing her daughter each weekend.

"What else?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I'm also planning on a community center that should introduce bowling, roller skating, a magical gaming arcade if they exist and, if not, then I plan on making one. I'm also setting up a muggle literature library, go-cart track, paint ball arena, basketball and football courts and a beauty salon and boutique. There'll also be a movie theater that I hope will be a hit and show what muggles can really do. Educational films and documentaries will be free to watch, but entertainment movies will be very cheap. Then, I hope to have a muggle candy store in the theater to sort of give the full experience. I'm also planning on building a restaurant for various ethnic cuisines and, most importantly, pizza."

"That'll do, boyfriend. That'll do," Hermione said with a grin.

"I'm also looking to hire a few dozen muggleborn, muggle-raised, or magicals knowledgeable about the muggle world with knowledge of Runes and Arithmancy to create some of these things and for a technomancy lab I hope to create to marry muggle and magical devices to try and help bridge the divide."

"How so?" Dan asked. "Isn't there that secrecy thing that keeps us from talking?"

"The Statute of Secrecy is meant to keep people form learning of the magical world," Harry explained. "But, there is a stigma of non-magical ideas, even though they are fairly well taken in many ways. A muggleborn invented the wizarding wireless network after non-magical radios. But it could only pick up magic, not radio waves. The Ministry has cars, but they are so heavily modified as to be like something from Star Trek. Take a ride on the Knight Bus some time and you'll see. I've also learned that most of their textile goods are from the muggle world, like cloth. Unless it's magical in nature, anyway. I mean, the Weasleys will sometimes wear jeans, for example. They can't get that in the magical world."

"So you plan on exploiting that?" Sirius and Emma asked in stereo.

"Yup. Hermione's already got a long list of ideas like televisions, microwavable meals modified with magic since they don't have microwaves, data storage devices to help with libraries, communication devices. All sorts of things."

"How did-," Hermione began to ask before she realized it was probably his future knowledge. She would ask him tomorrow where and when she brought this up, though. She had given up on it at the end of last year when her teachers found her ideas 'quaint' and 'amusing'. "Never mind. I think I remember."

"Well, I'm looking forward to hearing ideas if any of you are curious."

"Zoo!" Luna exclaimed quickly. "Preferably of the petting variety."

Harry laughed, along with several others before Hagrid spoke up a little nervously, raising his hand. "Er, I reckon I migh' agree with 'er on this 'un."

"A zoo, unfortunately, isn't something I know how to plan. But, if you'd like one, then we can always see about field trips in the new Muggle Studies class. A few will be expected, regardless. But for now, I don't really have anyone to take care of the animals we would get."

Luna pouted, but agreed with him. Hagrid pouted and sniffled.

"What are your goals with doing all this?" Dan asked, trying to be sensible about what he just heard his daughter's fiancée talking about creating. The costs associated would be enormous. "You're talking about a lot of money while some of these ideas aren't too reasonable just to merge magical and non together."

"It is that, in many regards," Harry agreed. "But it is also for money. Right now, I can do a _lot_ of things that others can't just because the Ministry can't enforce as many rules on me at all. One of those is a generalized ban on anything muggle. For the most part, it's a view of what is on one side, stays on one side. The wizarding world hasn't really had any innovations in a long time. Especially anything impressive or big. I hope to draw others into my land to spend their gold doing things that are fun and entertaining while also _not_ letting them know directly that what they are enjoying is muggle. I hope to make all of this as a magical equivalent so they just think I took ideas. That, they can support, but not do, due to the laws."

"So you expect to see a return from this?" Dan asked, feeling a little better.

"I have little doubt I'll see massive returns," Harry said with a grin. "After all, look at how big the television became, and how quickly. My Potter Portals, once I go public with them, should see me make back a decent amount of what I am investing into this, alone. Throw in other things I hope to make real through the technomancy side of things, and I hope to come out drastically ahead."

"Not to mention," Hermione suggested, "that with movies playing and being accepted, you could magically create all sorts of things that the non-magical world can't. Inventions from a movie would be easily recreated, or hopefully not too difficult."

"I suppose we can try and think up a few things," Emma offered. "Though, if you're really looking for money, you could probably look into amusement park ideas and gambling if that's legal."

"The goblins definitely won't be happy with the gambling, but nothing says they've got the monopoly on it," Sirius said with a shrug. "But, I've been to an amusement park. I don't see that being something that can be put in Hogsmeade too easily. Could be fun, though."

"We'll think of something," Dan said.

"I think it's time for bed," Harry said, letting out a loud yawn as he noticed his blonde Second already resting her eyes. "Shade, would you like to use the floo, or would you like me to Shift you somewhere?"

"I'll floo, thank you," Shade stated, feeling a little apprehension now. She wasn't sure about the etiquette in leaving something like this. "Thank you for the dinner, Lord Potter." Somewhat relieved, she followed the tiny house elf who led her away.

"What an odd woman," Emma muttered once she was sure the girl had gone. "I like her, though," she continued, unaware that Shade was away from the room, but able to channel magic to her ears and listen to everything that was said.

"Me too," Sirius said with a too-wide grin.

"Down boy," Harry laughed tiredly. "She's a good person, and I agree. I like her, too. She seems to have a problem interacting with people, but then again, so do I."

"Harry," Hagrid said, laying a large hand on the boy's shoulder with enough force to make his knees buckle slightly. "I wan'ed ta thank yer for invitin' me over an' helpin' get me name cleared."

"You were the first one in the world to see me as a person, Hagrid," Harry said with a grin. "You didn't deserve to suffer for what happened. However, if you want to bring any animals onto the land that aren't native, you'll need to get permission first from now on, okay? Aragog, for instance, let his family try to eat me and Ron last year, saying we weren't protected like you were."

"Aw, they was jus' messin' with ya, I'ma sure of it," Hagrid said with a grin.

"Thousands of them chased us, some the size of lorries, and tried to bite at our legs with their pincers," Harry stated flatly, making the much larger man look a little sheepish. "Anyway, I just don't want to risk something like that again."

"I un'erstand, Harry," Hagrid mumbled, scuffing the toe of his massive foot on the marble-like, crystal floor, looking like a child that got caught trying to filch a cookie from the jar. The large man then accepted Dobby's offer to return him to his hut rather than flooing to the Three Broomsticks and taking a long walk.

"Are you staying here or going home for the evening?" Harry asked of his girls' parents.

"I'm meeting with Sarah," Xenophilius said with a blush and smile. It was amazing how having feelings for a girl could make someone feel like a blundering teenager again.

"We've got work," Emma said, hugging the girls.

"Thanks for the meal, son. And we'll see you next weekend," Dan said as he ruffled Harry's hair and went to kiss Hermione on the forehead.

After everyone was gone and Sirius bounded off to his room in his dog form, Harry and the girls elected to spend the night in Harry's room. They were too tired to bother with bathing and decided to hold off until the morning for that. They undressed and fell into bed, Harry and Hermione falling asleep as soon as they got comfortable.

_'Command our magic to do what we wanted, hm?'_ The quirky blonde thought to herself, lifting the covers to see her favorite toy. _'Rise, minion! Rise!'_ A moment later, with nothing happening, the blonde sighed and let the comforter drop. _'Bugger!'_

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 16:15, Malfoy's marriage quarters (earlier in the day)**

"Gentlemen," Draco began as officiously as possible, pride swelling his chest and causing a grin to stretch over his face. "Step one was an even greater success than I hoped for. Please, partake," he offered, indicating the firewhiskey Pansy had poured for the three of them.

"So you can get away with things, now?" Crabbe asked, throwing back the shot quickly so they wouldn't see him suffer the burning sensation. "Er, M'lord. Sorry 'bout that. M'lord."

"No, you simpleton," Draco sneered, grabbing his wife by the hair and dragging her down to her knees where he felt she belonged. She wasn't allowed a chair save for in public. He also enjoyed letting his first two minions see just how much control he had over her. He began to lightly pet her hair absently, much like a dog. "This was just the opening salvo of my plan. That is my long-term goal."

"Oh, right," Goyle spoke up, proud of his memory. "You're plannin' on buyin' Granger's debt next year, right, M'lord?"

"It would certainly be amusing to walk her about, assuming I let her off her back and not servicing Slytherins in the common room," Draco chuckled. "But that is not a part of my end goal, either. It would simply be a delightful bonus. Especially if I were to make her misery public," he stated almost wistfully.

"The blood-traitor Weasley girl owes him one, too," Goyle continued. "I don't s'pose'n my lord would offer her as a boon should he ... uh, acquire her, too?" The boy asked hopefully, his gaze drifting off as thoughts drifted through his mind's eye.

"Hm," Draco considered, dropping a hand to painfully grope his wife's chest. It always helped him think. "I suppose I could be bothered if a minion proved deserving enough. Therefore, I'll make a game of it," the boy laughed sinisterly. "I'll acquire her, or some other plaything for whomever provides the best idea for my title as a dark lord between the two of you."

"Your compassion knows no bounds, M'lord," Crabbe gushed. He had asked his father about using that phrase for when he was rewarded. The boy hadn't actually thought he would get to use it so soon.

"I know," Draco drawled.

"So, when d'you get to make them let you get away with breaking the law?" Goyle asked.

"Did you understand _nothing_ of what I explained to you before, you simple-minded fool?" Draco scowled. "I don't intend to break the law. I intend to make a safety net of laws that should act as loopholes to serve me in case I get caught while allowing me to do more than would otherwise be permissible, legally speaking of course. In other words, I am making laws that shall work together to allow me to get away with things that I can't right now."

"How long will that take, M'lord?" Goyle asked again after determining he wasn't totally sure what the newest dark lord was talking about.

"As long as it takes, you fool," Draco said flatly. He then waved his hand to shoo them out while he grabbed Pansy's hair firmly with the other. "Leave us. My wife will be attending to me."

Pansy's hands frantically flew to her master's robes so she could please him, knowing he was not a patient man and his punishments were nothing if not severe.

Draco tilted his head back with a sigh as Pansy used her mouth for the only good thing he had found it to be of use for. Much better than her mindless blabbering. "I will become the newest dark lord. And those bloody fools will pass the laws to give me the power," he groaned, grabbing the girl by the head as he quickly neared his end and shoved it down to get as deep inside of her as he could, finishing with a weak spurt to hit the roof of his pet's mouth. He looked forward to the day he could go further than four inches into her.

"Remove your robes and accept me, Wife," Draco commanded harshly. "If you cause me to finish too soon again, I'll prove my threats of allowing Crabbe and Goyle to use you were not idle!"

Pansy did as she was ordered, calling out enthusiastically about how wonderful her husband was, just as she was ordered, while internally, she mourned that he had ordered her not to cry again as that was all she really wanted to do. Her mind was her own, but her body was her husband and master's to control.

She had tried to fight the magical contract after her first night. Poison was pointless, as she was under orders to do everything in her power to keep him from harm. Attempts to use it had ended in the poison's destruction. Any method of physical assault, such as knives, forks, spoons, drowning or even giving him spoiled food was impossible for her. Using magic against him was impossible unless she was authorized or it was an authorized reason, such as healing.

Pansy had always spoken highly of Draco. Always doted on him and proudly told anyone who would listen that he was being trained for politics. She had just never assumed he was smart enough to give her a whole slew of orders immediately following their wedding, even before they bought the bloody elves, to essentially make her his perfect slave, physically at least. She did what he said, regardless of what it was. He had even proven it by making her please him in all the ways he could imagine in front of his two best friends, or minions as he now called them. Then he made her sit on the floor, naked and bared to them, while they relieved themselves on her before ordering her to stay there until the morning where he then ordered her to bathe herself thoroughly.

Outside where people could hear her, she moaned and begged for it like a whore in Knockturn Alley.

Inside her mind where it was silent, she screamed.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 22:20 – Department of Mysteries: Outside live-in dorms**

"You're rarely back this late unless dealing with something rather dangerous or 'misunderstood'," Croaker greeted Shade as the woman entered the hall to her apartment. He had been waiting for the woman for almost four hours now.

"Lord Potter invited me to dinner with his family," Shade explained simply, having seen the attachments the boy had created in Hagrid even though the man wasn't family or in any way going to be while everyone else, but her of course, was soon to be his wife or an in-law. "It was a meeting I requested that had to be put off due to previous engagements on Lord Potter's behalf and was a suitable compromise for my request and met both of our needs for a mutually beneficial evening."

Croaker's face soured as his mind took that in a very ill-thought out manner, but he ignored it, feeling Amelia probably had the right of it and he was simply just paranoid. "Is that so?" He asked, sounding unenthused.

"Please be aware, as well, that I will be likely making a modest withdrawal from my Ministry account soon," Shade said after a moment's pause, sounding only slightly unsure of herself. It was enough to catch the wrinkled geezer's attention, however.

"Oh? Not that it's my business, of course, but might I ask why?"

"Lord Potter invited me to his Auream Ball," Shade stated, brushing past her mentor as she decided to throw her hesitancy behind her since she still hadn't quite made up her mind and she greatly disliked that feeling of insecurity.

Working on her own insecurities like that, she didn't bother to notice Croaker scowl. She was also already in her apartment by the time he started to grumble about boys not knowing their place and trying to get their hooks into his little girl.

Had she heard that, it would have given her an entirely different set of priorities to try and come to terms with. Thankfully, she didn't, so she just had to decide if she was willing to play dress up and visit again with Lord Potter. And his overly-hugging girls.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 19, 09:05 – Potter Manor, Next Morning**

Harry woke up to the delightful sensation of one of his girls sucking the breath from his body and his tongue being teased by theirs, while the second of his girls was kissing up and down his chest.

"Good morning," Luna said brightly, pulling her face from his just enough to smile at him as her long hair tickled his cheek.

"Good morning, Harry," Hermione greeted before Harry could speak, trading places with Luna and stealing a kiss while his mouth was open so she could suck on his tongue, which she knew did delightful things to his body. Especially since this was the first time they were each fully naked.

"Morning," Harry greeted back in a daze as Hermione shifted on top of him while Luna grasped her favorite toy in a gentle grip, simply delighted to hold her fiancée in her hand. "What's got you two so chipper today?" He asked after coming to his senses while Luna followed Hermione's lead and they cuddled up to his side.

"I think that has been the best night's sleep I've had in months," Hermione explained, stretching languidly. "It's about nine in the morning. That means we got almost twelve hours of sleep and it feels _delightful_," she purred, nibbling on Harry's shoulder. "Hold your girlfriends, boyfriend," she whispered, cuddling into his shoulder.

As it was their first time on their new schedule, they agreed they would be lazing about for a little while in bed after waking up. On top of that, they had been so tired recently that their personal time together was generally some light snogging, very light petting and almost nothing but cuddling. Harry's arms wrapped around his girls and slowly stroked their tummies gently, occasionally rising to softly cup their breasts and retreat while he turned his head back and forth to share lazy kisses with both so that whoever was waiting for a kiss was still getting some form of enjoyment without breaking that morning haze that made them feel isolated from the world as if it were just the three of them.

"Best. Idea. Ever," Luna sighed in contentment after a few minutes of bliss. It was shattered, however, as the svelte blonde muttered an angry, "Bugger!"

"What is it?" Hermione asked, tracing a finger over Harry's chest from where she was occasionally slipping it down to tease hers and Luna's shared boy toy.

"Oh," Luna pouted. "I just realized I will have to change my title."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, confused. He had been playing with her bottom and knew she rather enjoyed that, but her exclamation had made him unsure if he had crossed a line.

"First Hogsmeade weekend," Luna explained. "I can't be the Mistress of Time. Hermione has a time-turner, and you were actually hurled backwards in time like a blitzed-out nargle. And _now_ I'm simply doing these things with you."

Hermione giggled, despite herself. Today was just too good a day to not find the good in everything as far as her world was concerned right then. "Then we'll just have to find something else for you to be mistress of," she proclaimed.

"Can I be Mistress of the Heaving Bosom?" Luna asked after a moment. "I'd very much like to have a heaving bosom for you and Harry to play with. I know I've got far to go, but I'd like for you both to enjoy them."

"Urk," Hermione spluttered, red faced.

"Huh," Harry grunted, staring at his Second's lovely breasts. "I haven't actually noticed, but they're larger than before."

"That happens over time," Hermione said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"No. I mean since we've been together in the last two months," he defended, gently taking Luna into the palm of his hand and kneading in the way that caused her to shudder and quite literally let out a deep, throaty purr. "When this started, I could cup them and cover them entirely. They've nearly doubled the last few months."

Rather eager, and with a positively lecherous grin, he looked from Luna's breasts to Hermione's. "Yours have, too, though not quite as much. You look about the same, now. Luna's like large lemons and you're apples."

"Fruit, Harry? Really?" Hermione teased.

"I spent a lot of time in a kitchen," he shrugged back.

"In your general memories, I seemed to grow quite a bit this year," Luna stated happily, bouncing her chest with great amusement. "It's just difficult to tell how much since robes aren't exactly flattering and you never focused on me until I was already as large as the various mes roaming about your noggin.

"She wanted to see all the sortings," Hermione said with a smile. "We were both curious to see if your changes made anyone this year get into a different house, but they didn't."

"Would you like to play with them?" Luna asked hopefully, thrusting her chest out with a proud smile.

"I've got my own," Hermione refused with a laugh.

"I would, but I think I promised my lovelies breakfast in bed," Harry said. "Why don't you get on some gowns, or at least a shirt, and I'll see if I can get Dobby to let me make you two some-"

"-Waffles!" Luna cried out gleefully, clapping in delight. "Don't we have such a wonderful, thoughtful boyfriend, Hermione?"

Fully in agreement with the younger blonde, Hermione grinned evilly at Harry. "Assuming he knows what to do with the whipped cream and berries, then yes."

"We still need to turn back time," Luna reminded in a sing-song voice as she slid out of bed and slid up to Harry and attached herself to his left arm. Sheepishly, having forgotten the need to do so, the three got their things together, leaving nothing behind, and turned time to the previous morning where Harry was heading out to the Wizengamot meeting and Hermione was talking Luna out of going without her panties to surprise Harry with later. She then had to talk Luna out of a pair with a drawn map to her buried treasure.

She almost failed that argument.

"Remember not to let Sirius see you," Hermione warned. "He knows we're currently at school and won't show up until later. We should probably go ahead and move to the other house, actually."

"After breakfast," Harry commanded gently, kissing both girls and giving a pinch on their bottoms just because he liked to hear their shocked squeaks. "I promised you breakfast in bed and we're already here."

While Harry was downstairs and having failed to convince Dobby of the reason he wanted to cook, Harry made an appointment to see Clara Zabini before lunch. He wouldn't realize until days later that asking Dobby where his sword was turned out to be why the little guy in his Spartan uniform would have it later in the day.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 18, 11:15 – Zabini Home (Previous meeting was Fri, January 14)**

"Amante," Clara Zabini greeted Harry after brushing his shoulders off from the soot his floo travel had generated before bending and kissing his cheeks with as much happiness as she could portray. "Welcome back to my home, Lord Potter!" The woman's honey bronze hair appeared to have extra luster that morning compared to their first meeting and her eyes were just as mesmerizing, making Harry feel he was correct in that they were somehow enhanced. He also did his level best to ignore the dark green dress that showed far too much cleavage in his opinion. He was fairly sure the woman would literally pop out of her top if she breathed too deeply due to how strained she looked.

"Thank you," Harry said, blushing lightly. He could snog his girls all day and not blush. But a fully-grown, adult woman, especially a highly attractive one, still brought out the little boy in him. He wasn't enticed in the slightest, but it was still outside of his comfort zone considering she was a stranger. "How's Leonora?"

Clara's eyes lit up in glee. "Oh, she's quite well, thank you! As I mentioned during our first meeting, I'm teaching her my craft. But what I've been working on for you recently is far too advanced and dangerous for her, however, so she has been a bit put out."

"Welcome to our home, Lord Potter," Leonora greeted with a little curtsy again, this time in a silk dress that was such a pale blue it was almost white with silver lace along the neck and hem while it left her arms bared. There was also a heart cut-out over her chest that was filled in with golden lace. Harry couldn't help but acknowledge the little girl was a vision to behold with her pale green eyes and her mother's hair and lips.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Leonora," Harry said, shaking his head to clear it of the cottony, stuffy feeling as he accepted the girl's hand and kissed her knuckles to her delighted giggles of amusement.

"I apologize, Lord Potter," Clara said as her necklace began to buzz from the alarm she set on it when she heard the floo activate. "I've been working on your Felix Felicis and the next step is ready. Leonora, please entertain Lord Potter until I return," she suggested, quickly stepping away and leaving the two in the sitting room she had led Harry to. It was smaller, and hopefully, the Veela lust pheromones added to her daughter's earlier bath would hang better in the air.

"So, do you actually enjoy potions, or are you simply learning because your mother knows the craft?" Harry asked after the two sat down and Leonora had poured them both more lemonade.

"I truly enjoy the art," Leonora said. "It is highly lucrative and has a tendency to do far more than spells and charms ever could."

"How so?" Harry asked, letting his gaze drop to the girl's flat, undeveloped chest before he darted them to the side and turned his head slower so as not to draw attention to himself. _'What the hell is wrong with me? I just keep picturing Hermione or Luna in her place and can barely fight this semi!'_ Through sheer desperation and fear, Harry forced a compulsion on his robes to ignore anything abnormal about his physical state, specifically anything related to his near arousal.

"Well, it might be more accurate to say they last longer and are harder to reverse," Leonora said with a blush. She set her drink down and took a seat next to Harry, smoothing her dress perhaps a little too much and bending down too slowly to sit. The nine-year old was definitely too close. "See my skin?" She asked quietly, holding his hand and forcing her own into it to be held while forcing his other hand to stroke her forearm gently. "How soft and smooth it is? I use potions to keep it clear and like this. A spell would do this as a temporary thing, but a potion will do this ... all over my body," she stated, shocked at her own forwardness.

"I see," Harry said, pulling his hands away and grabbing his drink and gulping it all down before pouring himself another and sipping it.

"My hair is the same," Leonora said, lifting her hair and letting the silky tresses fall. "Sleek-Easy is temporary, but my mother brews a long-lasting version."

Harry's eyes narrowed as he actually _felt_ his arousal spike when he got a whiff of the little girl's shampoo. He cast a bubblehead charm on himself with a waggle of his finger and felt it leveling off. "Leonora, I'm going to ask you a question. It demands an answer."

The pink on the little girl's face darkened to red as she nodded enthusiastically. Harry had seen enough of Ginny Weasley to know the girl was abnormally excited. Hopefully, not the way he was. "Alright."

"Are you using some form of attraction agent against me like an air-based lust potion?" He growled out, fighting the urge to release the power on his bracelets against a little girl.

"What?" Leonora asked, looking hurt. "No!"

"Then why was I being affected by something like that until I put a bubblehead over my face?" He asked more loudly, rising to his feet to tower over the shorter form on the couch.

"I ... I don't know!" Leonora stuttered, looking frightened. She darted up and then ran from the room in the direction her mother had gone. Harry took the opportunity to quickly check the lemonade, just in case, and found it to be clear of anything magical.

"What is going on here?" Clara asked as she entered the room with her daughter behind her, looking terrified. "Leonora says you accused her of something vile!"

"Her, or you," Harry snarled, deciding _now_ was the time to release his limiters to five percent. A miasma-like cloak burst forth from his body like a flame, burning the magical aphrodisiac from the air around him and his own system whilst scaring the woman and girl in front of him. "I was being affected until she got too close and it was too quick! I want answers!"

"It was me, Lord Potter," Clara stated after a brief pause. "Leonora is innocent in this and knew nothing of it. It was affecting her in the same manner."

"Why would you do that to your own daughter?" Harry asked angrily. "Does she mean so little to you!?"

"On the contrary," Clara stated more calmly. If he was yelling, he wasn't killing her. At least not yet. "She means the world to me, as does Blaise. However, I wasn't lying when I said we should have had suitors for her hand. But we have had not a one. We have wealth, but not in great excess such as yourself or the Malfoy line. We are beautiful women, to be sure. But my husbands, all of them, have died shortly after marriage. Some believe it to be a curse, though we have been unable to find one."

"Sad, but not answering my question," Harry growled.

"I believe Leonora will not have any suitors after her hand, though many will possibly offer that to bed her before leaving after getting what they want. As a mother, it is my place to find the best option for my girl if I can. What you sensed was nothing more than an amplifier, increasing what is already there-"

"I have not _once_ had sexual thoughts regarding your daughter until today," Harry growled, though the older woman's only sign she was interrupted was to wait for him to finish speaking to finish herself.

"-and as such, it will amplify feelings of love, should they be there, lust if that is there as well which it seems is the case here, anger, animosity and the like. That may even be why you are reacting so negatively now."

Harry had never kept his power so open while listening to someone, trying to determine their motives and thoughts. Off and on, he noticed he was gaining an ability to sense those things, along with truth and lies. While he never figured out what made that ability come and go, he recognized it was there at the moment, which is how he knew what to say next. "You're lying," he snarled. "I can feel it! Oh, the first bit was true, but you lied about it amplifying everything except lust!"

Clara was silent and still.

"Please don't hurt my mother," Leonora whimpered as Harry's expression hardened.

Harry stared at Leonora long and hard as he came to a decision. "Tell me the truth. Did you know of her plan?"

Leonora shook her head quickly, causing her hair to fly about. "No," she said honestly. "The last time you were here, she may have done the same thing because I ... uh ... responded the same way, but she told me it was because I liked you and my body responded," she whispered, horrified at telling him such things. But she didn't want to get her or her mother in trouble for not telling something she suspected.

"I believe you," he said, turning to Clara. "You will either give me a magical oath to stick with our deal, ensuring you will continue to do your best with my potions and not do anything to them that will cause the drinker any form of harm as if none of this happened and you brew them legitimately so I know this won't cause you to do something to what I am purchasing, or we walk away from this deal here and now and I _don't_ show you just how pissed off I am."

"I had no intentions of breaking my end of the bargain, Lord Potter," Clara said, providing the oath with the understanding Leonora would no longer be helping so she wasn't required to take the oath as well.

Once done, Harry went back home where him and his girls finished their homework from the day before and worked on their occlumency to patch up anything their near-constant lethargy weakened. They then cuddled the rest of the day after Harry explained what happened at the Zabini home before telling them they would be entering his mind the next day to see something that had been developing over the previous week.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – (1) – Basilisk and Life Debts – In some of my stories, I will change this to fit (such as the one-shot in "Into the Rabbit Hole" entitled "The Only Thing".) However, when I write, I try to keep a certain set of rules for magic, and this is the only way I can see life debts making sense. Especially since this SHOULD have been a HUGE plot development or concept. Peter Pettigrew owing Harry a debt, but able to use his blood (thus, cutting Harry up) to resurrect his arch enemy? Doesn't sound like something a person in a life debt would do, and I THINK I remember someone saying Peter owed Harry one. Then, Hermione does, Ginny, Arthur ... in THEORY, one could claim the world, or at least Magical Britain. Unless there are rules, such as these. But nothing happens with them.


	26. Clock Ticks Forward

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter25** – Clock Ticks Forward

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Suggestive Language & Situations, Nudity, Adult Situations, Adult Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Draco will get his comeuppance!** Fear not, everyone. He will get his. But it won't be quite yet, or too soon. Expect towards the end of the year unless the writing simply makes it happen sooner, which is a good possibility. I don't like what he's doing any more than any of you seem to.

This is being posted so quickly because I reached 20K words, which is roughly what I feel should be a moderately decent chapter length for myself (so long as enough happens.) This chapter is also a bit of development with some fun stuff thrown in.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Not Normal" by Radaslab (H/Hr/L/DaphG/HanA/GinnyW, Nev/Astoria/Padma/Parvati/Sally-AnneP/TracyD/SusanB, Ron/KatieB, J/L, Sirius/OFC)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_Harry's dinner with Shade explains the nature of wandless magic and they discuss their days while updating about the trials Harry got for Hagrid and Sirius and Harry's Auream Ball. Clara is caught by Harry trying to magically coerce him and her daughter into a relationship, forcing a magical oath to keep his contract out of Clara._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Friday – February 18, Before Dinner – Hogwarts**

"Oh?" Madam Hooch asked, impressed despite herself at what the young Lord Potter had told her about why he wanted to talk to her in the antechamber off the Great Hall before he left for the night to spend with his future family. "I suppose that makes sense. As you do own the school and technically run it from a managerial perspective, it stands to reason you'd want to be as fair as possible."

"Right," Harry said, pointing at the brooms standing against the wall. "Cleansweep Sevens for keepers, forty old Cleansweep Sixes and training brooms for new learners since what we learned on were definitely not suitable, Nimbus two thousands for everyone else since I was offered a decent discount due to the two thousand and ones becoming so popular and being the main focus of professionals. They were quite happy to trade in their two thousands to upgrade from what the saleslady said," he explained, not feeling he had to tell anyone that the recent Hogwarts graduate had offered to bear his children for the commission she was going to get. It would have been funny if Harry didn't think she was serious. "These are house brooms, though."

"Are students still going to be allowed to use their own?" Hooch asked, inspected the older brooms since she was sure of the newer ones' quality.

"If they have them and want to, yes," Harry confirmed. "But, I know Hufflepuff has been using school brooms only, which could account for their poor performances. That reminds me, though. I want you to stop allowing so many fouls to get away with a mere smack on the wrist," he warned the woman, who glared at him. "Don't look at me like that! I know you don't let them go without calling them, but I won't allow you to keep simply giving warnings. If it looks like an accident, fine. But three intentional fouls, and the team can either replace the player or forfeit. If it's the same person and they get two intentional fouls, they are banned for the rest of the year. This includes hitting players with beater bats and grabbing other players for any reason, just as the rules officially state."

"This is a vendetta against Slytherin!" Hooch cried out.

"No, they're just the only ones who foul on purpose," Harry rebuffed. "If you don't want to agree, that's fine. But you'll be out of a job, otherwise. Do we understand each other, Madam Hooch?"

"Yes," the gold-eyed woman hissed.

"Enjoy your dinner," Harry said, spinning around and leaving the woman to curse his name and thank his generosity in the same breath.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 19, 06:40 – Hogwarts: Married quarters by Hufflepuff common room**

"It's just really weird," Neville told the two Hufflepuffs after Susan asked why he was acting so strange about their betrothal situation. He had just entered the small and cozy sitting room that their married quarters had, which was really only large enough for about eight people total if they were really friendly, to head out to breakfast that morning. "I know most guys would like this sort of thing, or at least say they would, but it's more than just me and two girls. This is meant to be a real relationship. And we're _thirteen_. And we're expected to get on well enough together to ... er, make babies and all that."

"I suppose I _have_ been a little more aware of things becoming like this than you may have," Susan admitted grudgingly. "Neither me or Auntie Amelia want the Bones estate to be gobbled up by some other family."

"So, how exactly is this meant to work?" Neville asked nervously. "I marry you both, but you and I only really see each other when you're ready to get p-p-pregnant? Will we even live together? I just don't really know," he admitted.

"I'll be Missus Longbottom," Hannah said with a pinking face. She wasn't opposed to the idea of babies, but despite the Regent Longbottom's desire, Hannah knew she would like to sit her NEWT's if at all possible first. "Unless you decide you don't want me, anyway. And Susan will be a consort and keeping her own name. We were also thinking, due to the general animus about having children for another line like that, that she and I would blood adopt any of them so you can be doubly sure they have no claim over the Longbottom estate. Once the baby is born, it really doesn't matter what blood provides the lineage and it's almost painless for a baby."

"So, I help make the baby, but then you remove all the Longbottom blood from it?" Neville asked, not sure how to feel about that. The part of him that could be classed as family pride and honor approved of the idea and how it would provide his own estate safety, but the man in him, and the part of him that grew up ultimately feeling alone, was quite against it.

"Basically," Susan admitted nervously. "But it doesn't have to be that way. We were also thinking, and hoping you wouldn't be against it, that ... well, Hannah and I ... we'd like to have a bit of a relationship together, as well as with you," she finally admitted, both girls' faces a dark red.

"You ... er, _like_ each other?" Neville asked, wondering idly if Harry had to deal with this.

"Yes," Susan explained, knowing Hannah was probably far too shy and nervous to do so. "We both like boys _and_ girls. It just sort of ... happened as we grew up." The girls looked at each other, drawing comfort for the conversation. This was the first day without classes since they were all officially betrothed six days before that they had to sit and talk. And the first one where Neville wasn't too freaked out to take part. Or perhaps it was better to say that they had threatened to have the conversation in the Great Hall since he couldn't seem to balls up and discuss it with them. Once they found him under his bed, they had warned him that they needed to talk if for no other reason than the fact that they were, indeed, betrothed now. It helped that they had a concentrated calming draft already waiting for him to take before he even left his bedroom, too. "We _do_ like you, Neville, or we wouldn't have asked our parents and guardians to think about this. And we asked that you have the right to withdraw from this betrothal at any time. Your Gran wasn't too thrilled with the idea, but understood we didn't want to trap you into this."

"We've also agreed not to stand between you and any girl you might want to take on as an additional consort or mistress for the sake of adding to the Longbottom line as well," Hannah stated very quietly.

"As long as we don't hate each other, and the girl in question doesn't try to relegate us to separate wings of the house or different houses all together," Susan added. "We want to try and make this work out. One big family. All three of us, _together_," she explained. "And yes, that means threesomes down the road if you're interested," she stated with a saucy wink that wasn't quite as effective on a thirteen-year old girl as it might normally be. It was still more than effective on a thirteen-year old boy, though.

Hannah squeaked and tried to turtle up into her robe at Susan's bluntness while Neville looked down and tried not to think naughty thoughts.

"Our families have agreed to this," Neville said after a short silence. "We can, with their blessings, marry at any time after our OWL's, or before if we end up in a family way. I guess all that remains is deciding what _we_ want, right?"

"Not for me," Susan stated. "I'm already sure of it. Or, should you not want me and I can't find someone else, then I've got a few options, but nothing I'm looking forward to. I don't really _want_ out of this. While I would like more than a business arrangement with you, that is all I will ask of you."

"And be with Hannah," Neville corrected. "If we're all together, I don't really see a reason not to let you. I mean, it'd be a little hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?" He asked nervously as his calming draft, fighting his nervousness, began to lose its potency. _'Is it getting warm in here? I think it's getting warm in here. Maybe we should all take off a few- GAH! I need out! I need out!'_ Neville's mind was a very loud and panicky place.

"Not _entirely_," Susan said slowly. "Not when you consider your grandmother's not-so-subtle hints to get on with the grandbabies as soon as possible."

"Er," Neville spluttered, blushing up a storm and beginning to sweat. "How about ... er, not too soon with that, yea?" He looked to the exit of the room and almost missed Susan getting up. Would have, in fact, had she not plopped herself into his lap.

"Oh, I don't know about that, lover boy," she purred, tapping him on the chin with her index finger teasingly. "Our professors _do_ say practice makes perfect, after all-Ah!" She squawked as she was tossed into the air and landed heavily on the chair as Neville fled from the room to Hannah's giggling.

"You scared him!" The blonde girl scolded gently, feeling much more secure now that the boy was away.

"But it was fun," Susan giggled back.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 19, Gringotts – Ragnok's conference room**

King and Liege Lord Ragnok eyed his subordinates through critical eyes as they all sat at his table. They all, to the last wrinkled goblin, carried stacks and rolls of parchments, thick folders and even a few bones in the case of one of the wrinklier ones. Once all had taken a seat, scurried more like once they realized their leader was waiting on them, the lord of goblins commanded the doors shut and sealed. "I want an update on Potter-Boy," he demanded. "Griphook. What is the status of Potter-Boy's accounts and goals?"

Griphook was only two seats away from his king, which was far different than before as his clan was never allowed in their lord's presence unless it was at a great distance. He was understandably nervous, but fought to control what his peers and superiors could see, earning a little respect in the process as goblins were not to show fear.

"Lord Potter's accounts are still sizable and one of our largest. We have confirmed that while he may have less gold than some accounts, he has rights that no others do because he is outside of much of the Ministry's control, making this a potential gold mine of profit. As you witnessed, he plans to expand the businesses on his land and is making immediate inroads to creating untapped marketing potential with his technomancy venture. After sending some scouts out to gain an understanding of some of the ideas he has shared, I expect he will have the opportunity, if not squandered, to completely change the magical world in Britain with the advent of this 'television', alone, if nothing else."

"Probabilities?" Ragnok asked curiously, accepting a sheet of parchment from the lesser goblin that explained in numbers what he was saying in words.

"Incalculable," Griphook stated with the barest hints of hesitation. "Several of his ideas are non-magical in origin and it will ultimately fall on his ability to market and sell the ideas. Should he be able to get past the initial resistance, it is expected he shall have a ninety-five percent success rate on that item, with anywhere from sixty to ninety percent on most others we are aware of. This 'movie theater' idea, from what our people say, will likely be a constant source of income. Some of the ideas are too mundane or require too much exertion for them to be taken well. The exceptions are Lord Potter's ventures that the wizarding young will experience and grow up with, possibly giving them potential sustainability. A few of his ideas we expect not to take on well at all with a below fifty percent success rating, such as the sporting fields he will be building."

Ragnok growled in thought, which was the equivalent of humming to himself once. When all was said, it appeared Potter-Boy was likely to still make more than he spent, but it would likely take time to accomplish. Perhaps half a decade to break even, if not a year or two more. But with the technomancy, there was a chance he could clear his expenses much faster depending on his ability to sell his ideas.

"What is the general consensus of the pretty face we provided Potter-Boy? I didn't see him taking well to her," Ragnok asked as he looked over the numbers.

"Mostly as expected," a different goblin offered. "The human female observing with us stated the woman was blatantly obvious and that Lord Potter not only refused the bait laid before him, but seemed to recognize it for what it was. Miss Ward, the pretty face, believes he acted as anticipated and planned, however. As the latter is the one who is more suited to these tasks, I suspect it more likely to be something in between. My own views lead more to the former, however."

"Agreed," Ragnok grumbled, looking up. "We allowed him to cast within the bank. What have we learned of his power?"

"Worrisome," Bloodthirster stated simply and bluntly. As head of the Gringotts security team and his king's general security, he was the one monitoring that as soon as permission had been granted. "We already know he has some sort of power-limiting or dampening effect active on him. We also know human magic is suppressed in our walls. But he used more than I feel comfortable with him capable of under those circumstances. Investigation from our Hogwarts contact suggests the boy keeps himself suppressed to only one percent of his power. If that is true, then he could bring the bank and a good portion of our army to its knees if he is capable of controlling it. I have no doubts that he could get from our tunnels to out of the bank through fighting if he was of mind to, though I am unsure if he could handle the archers. Knowing he can speak Parseltongue, we can't rule out his ability to speak with dragons as well."

The goblins noted, but did the safe thing in not acknowledging their king's lips curling into a snarl. None of them liked to admit there was someone so strong and capable that they could not legally keep out of their land. Goblins were capable of magic, but by and large, couldn't cast it without a focus. What that focus was, however, could be almost anything compared to humans. They could use wands, knives, daggers, swords, arrows or even the hammers they used to forge their metals, which they preferred and excelled in. Metal was their focus of choice, despite its form. They knew Potter-Boy didn't require a focus, which meant he was never unarmed, even if they ignored the sword that once belonged to Godric Gryffindor not willing to leave his side even if removed.

"Have we discovered what Potter-Boy wishes to learn warding and ward breaking for?"

"Nothing confirmed," another goblin grumbled. "However, we suspect it is in relation to the prophecy and the ultimate demise of the dark lord and not to become a ward crafter as we had feared. In all we can tell, Lord Potter has simply gone from a slightly below average student with no backbone and no goals for the future to what we now see. Someone who duels aurors into submission, takes charge and has something ... ancient imbued within him."

"I felt that, too," Ragnok admitted, having felt something that resonated within him like the others. It was something not quite of Lord Potter himself, but that they knew to recognize and respect. It was death that they recognized, though they didn't understand what it was by name. "Whatever it is, we can deal with it later. What of the prophecy. Have our Ministry contacts found anything more conclusive?"

"They've confirmed a prophecy exists and Lord Potter is a primary part of it, but the actual prophecy itself is not anywhere we could obtain it. We've clarified that Lord Potter has likely seen it and is more apt to know of what it contains than anything Malfoy might state. I believe our best option would be asking what we wish to know."

"I concur," Griphook agreed. "I know we've been avoiding showing a lack of knowledge, but I do not believe Lord Potter would take it as more than it is. My understanding of the boy leads me to believe he would appreciate the forthrightness rather than manipulations. Having worked with Lord Potter, it is my belief that his affections for his two betrothed girls is too great for Miss Ward to successfully earn his trust enough to get the information we seek, at the very least."

Ragnok performed another humming growl as Griphook finished, deciding the point of view was worth enough merit to not crush him utterly for speaking without permission. At least he was smart enough to keep his observations relevant. "We will wait before we see that as a viable option. I am also aware he updated the details of Potter-Boy's will, is that correct?"

"Yesterday, to include Miss Lovegood, yes," Griphook confirmed. "In short, it leaves all his worldly possessions to the two girls he is betrothed to."

"Her father is the publisher and editor of the Quibbler, is that right?" Ragnok asked, getting a chorus of agreements. "So, should the Potter-Boy be unhappy with our services, he has within his power to crush us through a steady media outlet, in a fight or potentially with his not inconsiderable political clout," the goblin king eventually growled in his gravelly voice, unhappy with the situation he found himself and his people in. They had such fears with others, as well, but never with any one, single person who had so much power to call upon without aid.

"I don't believe we have to worry about such an outcome," Griphook offered after a moment of silence where none of the others were willing to have their leader's ire directed at them. "All contacts and my own personal dealings with Lord Potter suggest he is a rare instance of a human with honor. Unlike most, he does not treat me or others with disdain or contempt. And unlike the majority of the rest, including muggleborns, he does not simply tolerate my presence. He has even assigned me as his account manager despite knowing little about me. While it could be said he is a fool to do so without investigating me, he also only allows me to invest a small portion of his portfolio and restricts my over all handling to what is considerably safe while ensuring I cannot ruin him."

"Does this have a point?" Ragnok asked darkly. "I do not need to know in such detail your new rank and duties."

"Forgive me, My Lord," Griphook bowed. "What I was attempting to state is that I believe Lord Potter would only prove to be an enemy if we made him one. Not helping him or holding steady in our practices is not likely to do that. Especially as we do not assist his most hated enemy," the goblin finished. While Harry had never mentioned it directly, they all felt it safe to assume Voldemort was, indeed, that enemy.

"I will take that into consideration," Ragnok snarled, letting his contempt for the lesser goblin show to indicate that he should be more careful about speaking out of turn. "What have we determined about that enemy? Was Potter-Boy's information accurate on Voldemort's origins?"

"It was," Bloodthirster stated. "We've since learned more about him, but nothing of real consequence outside of his lust for what the humans call Founders' Artifacts. However, we have not been able to discover anything new about the means by which Voldemort survived the destruction of his body."

"So be it," Ragnok grunted, dropping a folder that was on the previous dark lord to the table. "Leave me."

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 19, 11:30 – The Leaky Cauldron**

Harry's body ached as badly as it did the first time he pushed himself to exhaustion with his exercises after Hermione had reawakened after Cho's attack in November. The difference, however, was he was now officially a boyfriend and his girls had exercised normally, meaning they were more than happy to give him a massage and an obscene number of kisses while they chastised him for ripping his body apart, at least as far as they were concerned. So, while he ached, he learned his girls had a hell of a bedside manner. Throw in a hot tub after the massage and about three hours of snogging after that, and there was little doubt as to why he had a bounce to his step.

"Horace Slughorn, I'm Harry Potter. It's nice to meet you," Harry said, shaking the hand of the rotund potions master. The man was dressed in surprisingly flamboyant livery of a royal purple, button-up, silk shirt with what looked like gold-colored, velvet pants. He had a very wide, handlebar mustache that actually made him look more like a walrus than Harry's uncle Vernon and a cloud of smoke from a cherry cigar hung in the air. He also looked to be torn between happiness at such a high profile acquisition for his Slug Club, and terrified at just what the boy knew and was capable of.

"The pleasure is mine, Lord Potter," Horace greeted back. "Or do you prefer one of your other titles?"

"For this conversation, Harry is fine," Harry stated, allowing himself to be led up to a private room where Tom brought up a steak lunch for the two of them. The young lord knew the older man was trying to curry favor by splurging a little. The steaks were large slabs of meat, veal if he wasn't mistaken, that were ridiculously tender and flavorful with a spinach salad, baked potatoes and corn. Not really Harry's preferred food, but certainly worth the trip.

Once Tom left them, and both tossed up security measures, they got to the meat of the matters at hand, so to speak. "How did you learn I had anything to do with horcruxes and who have you told?" Horace asked right off the bat, practically swallowing his meat cuts with little actual chewing.

"I've told no one, but Dumbledore already knows. And I should take that back. I've told my two fiancées, but they are my sounding boards with destroying those that the dark wanker created. I've destroyed a few, and have others in my possession. I've just got a couple left and I can be rid of him for good," Harry explained. One way or another, he intended to get an oath of silence out of the man, even if he had to go to extremes to do it, so didn't mind mentioning it. In retrospect, he knew bringing it up with the man in the letter was foolish and stupid, but there was nothing to be done with that for now. And he knew the older man wouldn't tell a soul since he didn't want anyone to know he had a hand in creating the dark lord Voldemort. "Who have you told that I'm aware of it?"

"No one!" Horace exclaimed, sounding highly offended. "And I don't intend to! But you didn't tell me how you learned of it."

"And I don't intend to tell you _that_, either," Harry responded, taking a careful bite of his steak and deciding it was satisfactory. "I've cleaned up the trail, so you don't have to worry about anyone else finding out about that."

Horace nodded and took an overly large piece of the steak into his mouth before shoving in a large piece of potato with it and chewing nervously. Harry kept his face clear of the mild disgust he felt from watching it. Ron was sometimes worse, so it wasn't anything bad, but he could also tell the man was nervous as hell and doing it compulsively. Once he swallowed the large bite, Horace nodded again, shakily. "And you won't tell anyone and are offering to protect me?" He asked.

"I'm advising that Hogwarts is the safest place you can be that I am aware of," Harry corrected, "and that I won't tell anyone, yes. No one needs to know about those things that ... well, doesn't _need_ to know. But it isn't protection, specifically, I'm offering. It's a job that is totally irrelevant to the horcruxes. I just felt it good to get all our cards onto the table, as it were."

"And blackmail me into accepting?" Horace asked with a little contempt before taking another very large bite, now almost finished with his steak.

"I know you're nervous," Harry began, watching the man cutting his steak again before finishing his bite. "But you don't need to be. I honestly mentioned those because I was ... well, I found out Snape had mutilated my parents' remains just before sending the letter. Needless to say, I've got need of a new potions professor and head of Slytherin house for Hogwarts again and would like to offer you the job."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Slughorn offered sincerely. He really had liked Lily Evans. He had really hoped she would idolize him a little for some special student-teacher bonding, but he never did anything to encourage such things and simply took something that was freely offered without coercion. The girl could have been his apprentice and risen to heights that would have been something truly magnificent to behold. The fact that her and the boy that would become her husband were even more impressive when working as a team had been almost humbling to witness, although it never happened in potions.

"Take smaller bites, sir," Harry warned, seeing the man about to take an overly large bite again. "As I said, I know you're nervous and probably just cutting randomly, but it wouldn't do to choke when I don't know the spell to make you cough it back up and don't know the Heimlich maneuver."

"The what?" He asked, realizing he probably should cut what he was about to eat into three pieces.

"Muggle method of making someone stop choking," Harry said dismissively. "Anyway, as I said, Snape is already gone. So, other than a little more gold, you'll end up with the same offer as before if you want it."

"We never really discussed what was offered," Slughorn admitted. "You simply stated what having you in my club could offer."

"I'll join your club, as will my girls," Harry offered, making sure the older man knew that was non-negotiable. "You can use Hogwarts to host the meetings, but anyone invited must go through checkpoints to ensure the safety of the students. You'll also get a suite as you know, with being Head of House. Also, any potions made that the school will not use, you may sell as you wish, but anything made with school materials will belong to the school. I'll pay you three hundred galleons annually, or thirty-thousand pounds if you do business in the muggle world, plus an extra fifty as Head of House. That will end up as an extra hundred than a normal professor. As Head of House, you also get access to the heirs of several families in Slytherin, on top of the many in other houses, of course. I'll also give you some inside information about things I am up to this year and over the summer that might be interesting to you and a large number of your clientèle. I've also got the parts of a thousand-year old basilisk I killed at the end of last year," Harry stated offhandedly.

"B-b-basilisk?" Horace asked, shocked and awed with a little drool.

"Everything but the eyes, which were destroyed fighting it," Harry confirmed. "And I might ask you to make potions specifically for me, as well, though I'm willing to pay for those as they would be outside of your demands as a professor."

Horace was being offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here and he knew it. The pay, alone, was fantastic. The additions to the Slug Club would be phenomenal, especially considering he didn't really have anyone from the younger generations involved, but Potter alone was worth practically half of his current members if he were honest. Not that he was going to tell the boy that, anyway. Didn't want to get less of an offer. But the basilisk! That was practically worth its weight in gold! And in truth, probably more than that. The older those things became, the more they were worth.

"What _exactly_ would be my duties?" Horace asked.

"Potions professor and Head of House, as you know," Harry stated, wondering where the ambiguity was. "On top of that, I want you to ensure that anyone you find is going dark, you try to either get them to at least see other ways, such as your own where they can still have power and influence without the risk of being evil little bastards, or let me know if there is substantial risk so I can ensure they are taken care of. That is what I am hiring you for. Basically, what you did before. The difference is that we also acknowledge I may ask for other potions from you, though I'll pay for them. And anything you can make on your own time and wish to sell, you may do that as well, of course. I would also greatly appreciate it if you held tutoring classes as Snape was a great brewer, but pitiful excuse for a teacher and many are woefully under prepared for their tests. But, if you want to hold a pop quiz to judge everyone's level, that is up to you and you don't have to do so if you don't feel it is needed."

"When would you want me to start?" Horace asked after a few minutes of silence in which Harry gave the man time to think and they both ate. Harry would have preferred asparagus to the corn or salad, but Hermione had refused to let him eat any in the last week when he suggested it when Dobby asked about their preferences for dinner. He didn't know why, but she assured him he would learn soon enough and she wanted him to get into the right habit.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 19, 11:20 – Room of Requirement**

After Harry had left, Hermione and Luna used the Room of Requirement to create an ideal place to practice their occlumency. The day before, at least after Harry returned from the Zabini residence in a bit of a tiff that, once explained, had both girls demanding to be present the next time he went there, they had all performed a little maintenance in their minds since their extremely tired states had allowed many weaknesses to creep up. Hermione's were most apparent since her defenses, such as the ghosts, were too weak to feel any worse than the real thing according to her two ... well, she still didn't know how to refer to them. She wanted to go with 'lovers', but that was really only true for one of them. Or at least it would be eventually.

The point was, they had fallen behind, despite daily – or so they each claimed – upkeep.

However, today was their Hogwarts day, but also a Saturday, which meant they had to be there to do something, but their school work was all done save their end of year projects, which only needed some polish. So, Harry had explained that morning after one hell of a snogging session what he had discovered in his mind. Both girls were now interested in seeing if they could find it for themselves.

Hermione took a little longer to get into her mind than she was used to, being more aware of how falling into her mind felt since she was, indeed, that much more aware. But once within, she opened her eyes to the new landscape of her mind since she finished her upgrades and alterations to her world since Harry had visited last.

Her outfit wouldn't be out of place on a special operations soldier working in similar snowy conditions. The cold no longer touched her now that she had been learning to control her environment and the outfit was more because it amused her rather than because she needed it. But it was also in case anyone tried to break into her mind and she could confront them. It would either make them attempt the same or a similar outfit, or it would make them more aware of the cold, biting winds. If it was the former, the icy wind would turn into blades of air to cut at them, so either option was really good in her view.

The brunette strode confidently past the hidden yetis, icy behemoths and golems of all shapes, sizes and races that were actually glass, crystal and diamond to throw off invaders much as they had with Harry. She threw her hands up and apart, causing the snow on the ground to bend to her will and uncover the hidden bridge that spanned a gorge a hundred feet across and more than a thousand feed deep, though not by much. She wanted them to fall a bit to allow fear to come, but not so much that they might figure something out quickly. That was also why there were spikes at the bottom of razor-sharp blades that were, in all honesty, the bladed heads of the weapons of fifty-foot tall ninjas. The snow she moved would have rested over the top of the gorge as if there were solid ground beneath it, but that was simply a ruse. The path was even well off center to trick people into walking straight into it.

Once past the gorge, she walked past the thousands of yellow eyes watching in the snow. These were actually Hedwig copies. Hermione wasn't actually sure _how_ they came to be around here. She didn't make them. But they were under her control. They just blended into the snow so well that all you noticed were eyes, even though she should have seen beaks and talons. It was actually a little creepy.

Finally, she got to the gate, which still looked like it did the last time she had changed it. It appeared to be a solid piece of brilliantly shining silver with a runic puzzle that glowed eerily with a green light that she couldn't help but match to Harry's eyes. There were a series of rotating circles that the runes could move into and out of to solve the riddle, that was not only in runic script, but had cuneiform in the mix with some of the Elvish script she remembered from the Lord of the Rings books she had read.

Holding out her hand, the frighteningly intelligent girl spun the circles and exchanged runes almost too fast to see before pressing on the center bulb of glowing light and causing the door to open.

From there, Hermione began a very critical search of everything she passed in her maze as she made her way to her Nexus, believing anything that changed like with Harry would be in her control center just like him but not willing to ignore what she passed just in case it wasn't. So she walked the path to ensure the maze didn't change on her as it would if she deviated even one step.

It took what seemed like an hour for Hermione to finally get to the vast, cathedral-like room with arches that acted as doorways lining the room. It had actually been roughly a month since the last time Hermione had been here. Not since she learned to do what she needed to from anywhere within her mind. It had also been easier for her, much like Harry, to focus on something right in front of him than on the entirety all at once.

She saw the difference almost immediately.

The room was still just as large, with a gorge similar to the outside one still spanning almost the entirety of the room as if it fell into the abyss of outer space with the lone gazebo structure in the middle where the silvery blue strands of her mind danced and wriggled in a ball of breathtaking light. However, the gazebo, while once circular, now had two smaller versions on either side of it that all hugged together in a triangle formation, both with a similar light show of strands of light within them. However, that was where the similarities ended.

Her own was a thing of beauty with ivory, marble and gold as the structure with ivy falling from the roof similar to the branches of a weeping willow tree.

The one to the left was similar, but appeared to favor marble, obsidian and wood that was stained a golden honey color. But, the wood still looked alive rather than the cut and dead wood that normally graced a home. The floor of what she was sure was Harry's gazebo, after pulling up the pentagram that would act as the bridge, was made of the same crystalline material, or something similar, as her guardians. She suspected it might be different, though, only because the material was textured like natural stone rather than the smooth look of those guardians.

The reason she was so sure that had been Harry's gazebo was because the other one, not that it really shocked Hermione at this point, looked like a large muffin. The top appeared to be banana nut, while the posts keeping that up were also trees. But they had mushrooms growing out of them of all shapes and colors. And they watched her.

_'Things like this should surprise me, but they don't,'_ she thought to herself.

Luna's gazebo mushrooms also seemed to be rather playful since they kept smacking the hanging vines from Hermione's and letting little strands of light, which Hermione could swear _almost_ had faces of delight, swung on them. There also seemed to be a simple moss floor that rose with a slight hump like a small hill. The awkward part was that it somehow seemed to include a tiny village, a lake and a river of gingerbread men – and women and children, banana cream pudding and hot cocoa, respectively.

Since Harry was off doing things and probably busy, the bushy-haired brunette decided to focus on Luna. After a quick attempt to send a message to her boy toy. "Harry!" She called out, watching curiously as the strands in his gazebo solidified into a ring and a swirly vortex spun within it, just as he had described from his own mind. "Bring me ice cream!"

Grinning, she turned to Luna's, shivering slightly as all the mushrooms watched her curiously. And waved. "Luna!" Hermione called out, seeing much the same thing as from Harry's. "Can you hear me?" She yelled. Half a second later, her eyes widened as she tried to scream.

It was too late, however.

xXxXxXx

_'Wee!'_ Luna shrieked happily as she flew down the slide into her mind. This had been so much more fun than an unsettling dropping sensation! The loop-de-loops were _really_ fun and she just loved the end, where she fell into a giant log and splooshed into water before a copy of Harry helped her out. "Thank you, Mister Harry!" She hopped up and forward into his arms, wrapping her legs and arms around him as she kissed him for everything she was worth for a few minutes before finally releasing him. "That's your reward kiss. I've gotta go!"

"Later, Luna!" Fake Harry called out, waving with a large grin.

Luna hopped onto the top of a giant caterpillar that was held at the reins by another Harry that took them through a forest that was curiously similar in appearance to the forest behind her home that held thousands of fairies fluttering about as the day switched immediately to nighttime at the tree line. The chipper blonde immediately snuggled into the cuddle Harry that was there for the ride and kissed him fondly for the ten or so minutes the ride took before sighing as the trip ended at the end of the happy, pretty forest, only to be met by a copy of the darker, forbidden forest from Hogwarts. "Oh! Almost forgot!" She quickly gave the handler Harry a two minute snog as well. "Best part about these mindscapes," she told him as she pulled away. "All the happy kissing Harry's!"

Once they were gone, she grabbed a green, brown and blue flower and tucked it behind her left ear and began to skip through the forest, ignoring the snarls, the roars, the hisses, the pleas for help and the general distractions as she stayed on the left path any time the path would fork. Well, almost. She would give the Harry in each location a quick kiss and ignore whatever they said the direction was.

Forty minutes or so, and five Harry's later, Luna came across her first Hermione, who she immediately glomped and kissed, making the older girl splutter and turn red, just as she expected the real Hermione would do – and sometimes did. "Hullo fake Hermione!"

"Hello, Luna," the fake girl greeted. "Everything's ready." She then moved aside and let Luna open a tiny little door that led into a small burrow in the ground that Hermione would have remembered as something from the Lord of the Rings book or, more accurately due to the small size, the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland.

Luna squeezed through, wriggling her bottom just so as she managed to make it through with a comical 'pop' sound to enter a part of her mind that resembled the castle from Beauty and the Beast.

She rather liked watching those Disney moving pictures from Hermione's mind.

Drinking the proper tea cup from the large assortment that was a cartoony version of the offers from something called Indiana Jones, Luna shrunk down and cackled madly as she ran into an overly large boot and ignored the children and the harried mother to step outside through their front door to the walnut tree farm, where Chichi was guarding hundreds of trees that held giant walnuts instead of branches and leaves.

"No nut is the same, so no walnut tree should be the same, either," she stated with authority, giving a resolute nod. The completely sane blonde walked her own little maze, which included a hop and a skip, to finally end up at an army of lovers, or so she called the massive number of Harry's and Hermione's before her. "Alright you lot!" She bellowed. "Line up and start puckering!"

Almost an hour later, a giggly Luna winked at the last blushing Hermione before she stepped to the final walnut tree she would approach without any surprise as she saw two new trees growing up right beside it.

"I'd have thought Hermione would have been something other than a cherry tree," she muttered to herself. "But, I guess Harry hasn't taken those, yet, though a few look like they've been touched," she giggled with a decidedly naughty tone.

Looking to the next tree, she nodded as though it all made sense. "I do like my nanners," she said with a smile, looking at the banana tree.

"_Luna! Can you hear me?"_

"Ninja pounce!" Luna yelled out, leaping through the cherry tree's bush as it parted slightly to the sides and opened a curious swirly portal. She had just enough time to watch Hermione's eyes widen as she flew through the air and knocked Hermione onto her bouncy bottom. "Hi, Hermione!" She exclaimed, kissing the girl soundly.

"Gah! Why are you kissing me like that?" Hermione asked, rubbing her backside.

"I have a bunch of you and Harry's in my mindscape," Luna stated primly. "You have to kiss each one to pass as a failsafe. How long doesn't really matter, and I know it isn't as good as the real thing, but that doesn't really matter."

"You have to kiss us both?" Hermione asked, shocked. It was a surprisingly good idea. She certainly didn't see Snape thinking of it if stumped. "How many of us are there?"

"Um," Luna pondered, sticking out her tongue because it _totally_ helped. "One hundred and forty Harry's and a hundred and one of you," she stated, causing Hermione's eyes to bulge out comically. Since they weren't bound by physical restraints, Luna discovered that her own perceptions affected Hermione's mental world, or perhaps the two girls were more similar than they thought since that bulge went out nearly a foot with a funny sound Luna remembered from something called a cartoon.

"How the bloody hell did you get to the portal in time to hear me, then?" She asked. "Or ... did you even get there?" She wondered, nibbling her bottom lip.

"I did," Luna said. "But our minds probably work differently, and it wasn't really all that much kissing. Especially after such wonderful kissing this morning."

"Er, right," Hermione said with a blush. She had been snogging a pair of lips for almost a minute before pulling back when she realized the lips were different than she expected, only to find Luna had been the enthusiastic one while Harry had nibbled the blonde's neck. She'd have not minded had Luna not grinned brightly and exclaimed she may need to take lessons from the older girl. "Did you see a representation of us in your mind?"

"I did," Luna said with a nod, dunking a finger into the pudding and licking it off. "You're a cherry tree and Harry is a banana tree. You split your bush when you called my name," she stated, licking her finger and causing Hermione's face to flush brilliantly at the suggestive comment and action combined, "and opened a portal. Not sure what Harry's would do. I don't think I can jump that high. But maybe I can work with his wood. Mm, I do like banana cream," she moaned, getting another dollop and licking her finger clean.

Hermione sat transfixed as she watched Luna's bright pink tongue dart out and do seemingly dirty things to her own hand for three different repetitions before she shook her head, knowing that while Luna could be even more perverted than Hermione herself, she usually was very blatant and, despite the words and the actions, she still _looked_ to be simply enjoying fake pudding.

"Well," Hermione began, forcing her mind back to what they were supposed to be experimenting with. "I suppose we can safely say the telepathy bit is working unless we both somehow performed legilimency during our medi... tations...," she trailed off as she watched Luna grab a pleading gingerbread man and then gobble him up.

"Do you think we can make it so we don't have to meditate for this?" Luna asked curiously, ignoring the rest of the cowering treats.

"I don't see why not," Hermione said with a shrug. "We've already posited that everything in our minds is symbolic. Otherwise, I'd have a banana tree as well, though you seem to favor mushrooms with both Harry and I, just not the same way."

"They are a delicious fungus," Luna agreed. She reached up and looked backwards to her version of the Nexus within Hermione's mind, letting a silvery tendril of light loop around her dainty index finger in a manner very similar to a child wrapping its fingers around an adult's. "Would you mind creating a bridge and link mine and Hermione's spaghetti lights together?" She asked the little tendril. It seemed to bob before unwrapping itself from Luna's finger, much to Hermione's open-mouthed shock, and reach out to her own glowing ... noodles.

"It's stopping," Hermione stated disappointedly. "It's only making it part way."

"About half way, to be precise," Luna pondered aloud. "Perhaps I can't do this alone?" She suggested, making Hermione jump lightly.

"Oh!" Hermione looked to her own Nexus and blinked. "Er, would one of you mind assisting us create a telepathic link?" She asked, feeling a little silly. She felt decidedly less so when a tendril of light seemed to sway and dance out of the large group and reach toward Luna's before they got about a foot apart, only for both girls to suddenly feel a pressure push them away from each other. Attempts to push harder and make it work were met with an equal force pushing back.

"It's like ... they aren't long enough or something won't let us," Hermione stated. "Same for you?"

"Yes," Luna frowned, looking at what she considered noodles. "Perhaps it is something we have to all do together, or we must develop the ability more?"

"Only thing to do is experiment," Hermione stated with a sadistic grin. She did so enjoy figuring out how things worked.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 19, 12:05 – Hogwarts: Unused Classroom, Tenth meeting between Ginny and Healer Smythe**

_Subject: Weasley, Ginevra Molly (Minor outside inheritance)_

_Sex: Female_

_Age/DOB: 12 / Aug 11, 1981_

_Blood Status: Pureblood _

_Purity: Virginal_

_Emrys Index: 74 – Slightly above average for age by 13 points, 1 point increase since 2, January_

_Eyes: Brown_

_Hair: Red _

_Healer: Smythe, Jacob R._

Healer Smythe shivered as he looked at the slightly altered mind of Ginny Weasley.

The girl's mind was mostly put back together by the psyche that it contained, and the world was shifting to match that. It was ... frightening. It looked like the world as it was with three very disturbing differences to the mind healer. The first was that all things, everywhere, were cracked and appeared put back together with a glue that was the same material it repaired. Mental scarring showing with barely a square foot untouched by it almost everywhere. That had been difference number one.

Difference number two was that any symbol for anything whatsoever was exchanged with a replica of Harry Potter's head, face or various body part or parts, including a full physical body. The seal of the Ministry was instead Harry's face. The Houses of Hogwarts were variations of that face – Slytherin Harry had a goatee, Hufflepuff Harry smiled, Ravenclaw Harry kept his glasses and Gryffindor Harry had a Spartan helmet. Any references to Merlin were statues of Harry himself with an apparent cult of a dozen Ginny's that worshiped his nude statue like a deity or god. Any references to wands were, instead, his penis. The symbol of what should have been aurors was instead Potter's fist.

Everywhere Smythe looked, there was some semblance of Potter and Ginny's subservience to him. Every room in every building had at least one Ginny and one Harry rutting like a couple of rabbits and there were Ginny's being led down roads, fully nude as well, but with various accoutrements to suggest a pet of one sort or another such as cat paws, ears, whiskers and a tail that was inserted anally, or the same with a dog, rabbit, owl and even a few sexy versions of fae.

"Isn't it grand?" Ginny, in her school uniform and with a rapturous expression on her face, asked as they entered her mind since the last time the doctor had looked.

"Wh-Why are they all running around? Why did you choose to do this?" Smythe asked, horrified, but doing his best to sound normal. This wasn't his worst case, so it wasn't incredibly difficult, but it was definitely near it.

"Well, you were curious about my thoughts, fantasies and goals in life," Ginny stated with a roll of the eyes, believing this healer was slow on the uptake. "I want out of these visits as soon as possible and it just seemed best to make it so you can see them all at once. And since you visited my mind before and I was able to see you in here, just like I was able to see that bloody specter, I just did the same thing that night as I had for the last year or so and started making this world for myself the same way I kept my mind together! Oh! Look!" She pointed to a garden portion of a park gleefully as she hopped up and down.

Healer Smythe looked to find not nudity and debauchery as he expected, but what was legitimately a beautiful wedding ceremony.

Except she was vowing to be his slave and accepting a collar instead of a wife and ring while Potter was accepting his role as master and getting a leash.

The man let out a shuddering breath as he realized his patient had consciously pushed forward what he had been trying to undo while, at the same time, tying in her personality and emotions to it all. Thus, while she was and could be the same girl she had once been, his earlier thoughts had proven legitimate and now likely irreversible. The girl's entire world centered around Harry Potter.

From what he could tell, this is what would have happened even without his expertise, if what the patient said was to be believed. She would do anything to become Lord Potter's, nothing was beyond her and it was now most likely irreversible. The only chance to heal her was now the one thing that could make it impossible to cure as well.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 19, 18:00 – Hogwarts: Great Hall**

Dinner for Hogwarts was just starting when Harry walked into the Great Hall with a ... jolly man following his wake. Most of the students watched curiously as the young lord led him to the Deputy Headmistress where they had a short talk, causing the old witch to smile happily and invite him to sit next to her for the meal while Harry went to sit next to his girls.

"That Slughorn?" Hermione asked.

"Yup."

"Hey Harry! Who's that?" Seamus asked from across the table diagonally from Harry.

"Our new potions professor. Used to teach before Snape came along and was Slytherin's Head of House. He'll be taking that role back up for a while."

"Anything's better than Snape, Mate," Ron spoke up from a few seats down where he was getting lessons in manners by his not-quite-yet-a-girlfriend and not seeing Hermione glare at him when he spoke. "D'you know if he's any good?"

"Supposed to be," Harry said with a shrug. "I was going to hire him as a private tutor so I didn't have to deal with Snape, but that turned out different, so here he is."

"What kept you today?" Luna asked with a pout.

"The bugger wanted to be seen with me in Diagon Alley," Harry grumbled. "Apparently, he wanted me to make an announcement in the Daily Prophet in order to accept the position, which took an hour or so. Then, he wanted to set up a contract for what we agreed upon-"

"I thought Professor McGonagall or the Headmaster would do that," Hermione interrupted.

"Not the school bits," Harry admitted sheepishly. "I ... er, might have suggested I would use blackmail material on him without thinking about it. We spent most of our time agreeing on that."

"Did you get a solicitor to look over the wording of it?" Hermione asked fretfully.

"That's why we took so long," Harry explained. "He doesn't want anyone to know about it at all. He's even obliviated some information from his mind and modified his memory for even more. He knows things, but his memory of the incriminating part is altered by himself. So, while he doesn't remember exactly what happened, he knows what happened, if that makes sense."

"Hermione and I explored like we told you we would," Luna stated, causing Dean to throw his head up in shock. "I was able to get inside of her, but we couldn't really connect. We felt it might be better if you were with us, but we want to try working on it a bit together before we do that so you can see how good we get at it so we can show you."

"Lucky son of a-" Dean began.

"That's fine," Harry said, not hearing Dean's comments and not knowing he was mistaking it for something else entirely. "Just let me know when you want me there and I'm all yours. What was it like for you two?"

"Hermione's bush spread when she called to me, and I think I may have to work my way up with your wood if it doesn't just open right up," Luna stated, quickly pounding on Dean's back as the boy began to choke on his chicken. "Careful, Dean! You shouldn't try to swallow such a big load without practicing first! I learned that the hard way, believe me!"

The black boy just shook his head, pushed his plate away and walked awkwardly away to take a cold shower and admit who the bigger man in Gryffindor was before trying to find a girlfriend of his own. _'I am going to be known as the Gryffindor to get a girlfriend after _Ron Weasley_ of all people!'_

"Was it something I said?" Luna asked, sincerely confused.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – February 21, Breakfast at Hogwarts**

**New Jobs for the Wizarding World**

By: Betty Braithwaite

_Harry Potter has been many things to many people in the wizarding world. He's a savior to us all, an icon of all that is good to many, powerful, wealthy and due to archaic laws, is pretty much his own government. And now, he is an entrepreneur outside of simply investing in other businesses._

_That's right. Lord Potter is starting several businesses to take up shop, so to speak, in Hogsmeade Valley._

"I have been to Hogsmeade and there isn't a whole lot to do there other than getting some school supplies, candy and the pub. As a bloke, I can't really speak about Madame Puddifoot's, though I also haven't been there. The point is, there could be much more to do and there are many things I think could be big hits that the wizarding world, or at least Diagon Alley, just doesn't have."_ Lord Potter quoted._

_You may be asking yourself, 'What can a thirteen year old boy really know about business?' Well, I wondered that as well. That is why this article is coming out three days after getting this interview with Lord Potter. And if that doesn't interest you, keep reading, as he is also providing several jobs that some lucky individuals may be qualified for!_

"Probably the idea I think will be the biggest hit is the movie theater,"_ Lord Potter told me. I, of course, was unsure of what this was and went out to explore this, and almost all of the other concepts and attractions Lord Potter intends to provide. I don't know about all of you, but I expect I'll be there at least once on each day off I get!_

What followed was an overview of Harry's plans with the leg work of a pureblood witch going out and experiencing things for the first time, thus allowing her own enthusiasm to practically gush from the pages at the reader and, though she was told Witch Weekly, and the younger audience in Teen Witch Weekly, would be getting the exclusive on the beauty parlor and boutique, getting the bare basics was enough to see nearly every witch in Hogwarts look at Harry with lust in their eyes at this wonderment he was providing. Hermione and Luna were _not_ thrilled, but understanding. Not so understanding they didn't snog him right in the Great Hall, of course, but understanding.

_Lord Potter also had this to say:_ "...Some of these ideas require a basic understanding of the concept, as well as a very detailed understanding of the concept, to say nothing of the magic involved. Thus, I'm looking to hire muggleborns, especially, since living in that world gives them the knowledge of what I am going for, but I will accept anyone who can adequately and accurately describe what I want. That should be simple enough for something such as the arcade I am hoping to have. I don't care one whit about blood status, but ability. I'm willing to hire anyone, wizard, witch, werewolf, dwarf, goblin or anyone else. The only thing that will see me kicking you out will be not having the skills you need and simply expecting to be handed a job."

_When I first heard Lord Potter's proposal, I thought he was looking specifically for muggleborn witches and wizards due to a heavy focus on that during the interview, but that isn't the case. It is merely a status that should provide a person with the needed knowledge simply by growing up around that culture. To that end, I've offered to specify exactly what Lord Potter wants to make it more clear._

_Anyone wishing to work in the field of Technomancy may apply. You must have at least an Exceeds in Arithmancy, Ancient Runes or, preferably, both. To those who believe this is a field that is banned from exploration, Lord Potter pointed out that this is not the case on his own land. While most of the Ministries in the world restrict this field, Lord Potter had this to say about it, _"We cannot hide from the non-magical world forever. It's impossible. But if we can better blend into it, then we can hide right in plain sight. Plus, several of their ideas would make our lives much easier in a profound way."

_Anyone wishing to work on a specific project of Lord Potter's must have a working knowledge of the resulting goal and have skills that will allow them to be helpful. This would include pretty much anything. An example is, once again, the arcade. Lord Potter suggests not only does he need people to create the games, but people to come up with game ideas._

_But that isn't all for this entrepreneur! He has actually gone further to do something truly amazing. While it is merely in the beginning stages, Lord Potter has also begun crafting powered wands. What does this mean? It's very simple._

Sadly, due to the length of the article and lack of interest, Harry's pre-loaded wands were only given a basic overview, but with a promise for more to come later, with dedicated articles to each of Harry's ventures and projects as the days came. But this had led into a call for squibs to test these wands that were powered with what was being called a 'battery', which seemed to tickle Hermione.

"If you can keep introducing muggle terms and ideas," she whispered so it wasn't as likely to get out as quickly, "then those purebloods that are ignorant of the muggle world will get an education about it whether they like it or not!" This set her off to giggling again.

"What I don't understand is why they waited so long to print your interview," Luna commented. "I've _never_ known the Daily Prophet to do that kind of work before posting something. Usually, they'd tell everyone first, build interest and then go into more detail to sell more copies."

"They may have done that, but I told them they only got the exclusive if they waited until today," Harry explained, scarfing a muffin which almost set Hermione off again.

"Why?" Luna asked simply.

"Sort of what you said," he began. "I wanted public fervor and enthusiasm to build on this before anyone could really get any ideas on how to stop it by today. While they're at work, they have other things to deal with and can't divert all their attention to stopping me. While I know they can't do so anyway, they _can_ make it harder for me, still."

"Oh, look!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing at the second page where Harry's story continued. "It also mentions Professor Slughorn. Says you took matters into your own hands since Snape vanished without a trace and the faculty didn't get a new one themselves."

"Dumbledore suggested it, even though I was already getting him for a private tutoring class for us," Harry disagreed with a frown before shrugging. "Oh well."

"It also explains you're looking to add to the curriculum with a class for the introduction into the wizarding for muggleborn, which will be mandatory for first years and will be making Muggle Studies mandatory for purebloods?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Not that I disagree, but why? It says you're already getting a lot of resistance on that."

"It'll mostly be things on the biggest differences between the cultures," Harry explained. "Nothing extreme. But how to use the public transportation system, the differences in currency, how to dress, important legal differences, how to identify law enforcement just like those educational videos we got in school. Definitely how to find your way if lost in the muggle world."

"That isn't really a problem with the Knight Bus," Luna pointed out with a shrug as she took great delight in her baked chicken.

"Just thoughts for now," Harry said with a shrug. "But muggles aren't as stupid or weak as magicals seem to think they are."

"They also put in an ad for your desire for retired Hit Wizards and Aurors, but they put in a long paragraph explaining it isn't to raise an army, but to defend Hogsmeade and your land in general," Hermione mumbled, only slightly trying to be heard as she read.

"The Ministry can get involved in a big way if they think I'm trying to build an army," Harry explained. "If they twist the facts to say something like that, they can 'invade' since it could be seen as prepping for war against the Ministry or Ministry-controlled lands. That's why it should also say something about just needing a small force but that they'll be expected to train daily physically and magically, hence the high preference for Hit Wizards."

"It does," Hermione nodded.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – February 21, Hogwarts: Second class of the day**

Remus Lupin was nervous. Not just nervous, but _very_ nervous. Harry was staying behind after class to talk to him.

It wasn't that the werewolf didn't _want_ to speak with the boy, but that he was scared to. McGonagall had warned him of hers and Harry's conversation from earlier in the year where he accused her of all but abandoning him and blaming her as culpable in what had happened to him growing up. On top of that, he was sure Harry knew he was friends with his parents and had never once visited him.

But that wasn't all that worried the man. Harry had voted in favor of werewolf legislation that would force them to register. Remus was disgusted by the knowledge that he feared Harry was a bigot. He was the son of his best friends. Doubting in Harry was like doubting in them, and that was something Remus just couldn't bring himself to do. _'But he _did_ vote to register werewolves,'_ Remus' traitorous mind reminded him again. _'And he was raised by that bitch, Petunia, and her husband who was even worse.'_

Remus had been doing his best to ignore Harry, and _thought_ the boy had been doing the same for reasons he thought he understood. But apparently, that wasn't the case any longer. The two of them had one conversation and that was comically short about that 'Bolt' character. They hadn't even spoken with one another when Harry sought out staff approval for the defense lessons when, by all accounts, Harry should have gone to the DADA professor since it was, in all honesty, treading on Remus' toes and somewhat usurping his authority.

But it was too late. Remus noticed he had a pair of all too familiar green eyes staring into his own. "What did you wish to talk about, Mister Potter?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to get involved with the DA meetings," Harry explained. "My original reason for starting it has been accomplished and now that it's running, I thought the DADA professor might want to begin leading. You're brilliant in class and I think everyone likes your teaching."

Remus smiled, happy it wasn't the confrontation he was worried about. "No, but thank you. You've begun it and the students are happy with your lessons. You're also teaching things that apply more to general and daily life where I really need to focus on things to get students to pass their end of year exams. Anything extra is bonus. But they're happy with you. It would probably be best to continue on with that."

Harry nodded, not really willing to fight against something he agreed with. Remus was, indeed, a brilliant teacher, but the werewolf wouldn't teach what was really necessary to everyone the same way. Plus, Harry wanted to keep his position as a sort of authority over the students for his end goals and the offer was more of a smokescreen anyway. "I was also wondering if Moony would like to run with Padfoot in a few nights."

Remus' eyes widened and the man went very still. "Harry, if you know where Sirius Black is, you need to report it to Dumbledore or the authorities! He's a very dangerous-"

"Prankster," Harry interrupted. "I've seen Peter's name on the old Marauders' map and seen the rat with my own eyes. On top of that, I had Padfoot dosed with veritaserum before he offered a magical oath to the same effect. I've got Fudge setting up a date for an actual trial since he never had one."

"What?" Remus asked, getting choked up. "Are you sure?"

"Completely," Harry stated. "I've had him at my manor since Christmas night. Each weekend, we go there to eat dinner with him and the girls' parents. Friday night, we had Hagrid too, because I also got the Minister to give him a trial so he can be allowed to use magic. But I thought you might want to spend time with him. Kind of like the old days."

Remus was silent for a moment as he allowed himself to cry and simply rejoice in the knowledge he was learning until he realized exactly what was being offered. "How? How did you learn about my ... well, furry little problem?"

"Known since the first full moon, honestly," Harry told him. "Hermione and Luna, too. We don't really care about it. I understand you've been taking a potion to keep your mind during the transformation, so that just makes things even better."

"Well, I was," Remus admitted with a relieved grin. "But without Snape here, there isn't anyone to make it."

Harry's eyes opened so fast there was a wet-sounding pop. _'_That's_ what I forgot about! Snape was making the Wolfsbane potion!'_ Harry relaxed after just a moment, though. "Well, my deal with Slughorn was to pay him for any potions I need outside of school as well, so this isn't a problem."

Remus shook his head. "It takes too long to brew for this month. The full moon is in just five days. And I don't need it, Harry. Keep your money. As long as I get to the Shrieking Shack, and no one goes there, then it'll be safe."

"I don't care," Harry grunted out. "There's always a chance someone will be stupid or you may not make it all the way or something similar. Consider it a safety precaution. I know you don't want to turn anyone, so I won't hear another word about it," Harry stated a little more forcefully than was probably necessary. "It may not be in time for this month, but there's no reason to risk more than we need to."

Remus nodded, suitably cowed by the logic. His pride wasn't worth turning even a single person, despite how unlikely. "If ... if you knew I was a werewolf, why ... did you vote in favor of registering us?" He asked haltingly.

"Those who register and are accounted for during a full moon are automatically acquitted when there's an attack. Those like Greyback may be the leading problems and not registering anyway, but it can show that there are those who aren't willing to be classes as a part of the same lot."

"Harry," Remus began slowly, "you do know that it's mainly the first step of restricting us, right?"

"Not on _my_ land," Harry stated simply. "Any werewolves on my land who register and need a place to safely transform can either join you at the Shrieking Shack, or I will build transformation buildings where they can lock themselves up. I've already got plans drawn up, but don't know if they're needed quite yet or even if there are those who would accept it other than you. So, I've not pushed that idea forward, though I may still do so for no other reason than a place to hold criminals since my dungeons are otherwise occupied at the moment," he stated with a small smirk. "Anyway, if you want to see Sirius, "We'll be heading there on Friday evening."

Harry turned as Remus nodded, a little too choked up to answer verbally. Almost before he was at the door, Remus called out. "Harry? Why haven't you come to talk to me yet if you knew I was friends with your parents?"

"Why didn't you?" Harry asked simply without turning around.

xXxXxXx

**Monday – February 21, 13:35 – Second time through day at Potter Cottage**

"I did it!" Hermione cried out gleefully. With a proud and mischievous smirk, she looked at Harry and faded from view to appear behind him and pounce, hopping onto his back and wrapping her arms and legs around him. "Thank you, Harry! This is amazing!"

"Congratulations!" Harry called out happily, looking backwards and kissing the excited girl.

"What did you do differently this time?" Luna asked. "I can still only feel the shifting, but it stops as soon as it starts." They had been at this for almost two months, though the actual practice was somewhat rare. While an invaluable skill to have, their focus had been on just too many things to really bother with it.

"Well, I got nothing when trying to compare it to apparition," Hermione began, unraveling herself from Harry so she could help her co-girlfriend. "And when I heard Harry's process, it sounded ... awkward, no offense," she stated, wincing in his direction.

"None taken," Harry responded. "Most things about me are."

"But, then I thought, '_What if apparition is more like a quick replacement and this is more like wormhole theory?'_ and-"

"Wormholes?" Luna asked, confused. "What do worms have to do with this?"

"Ah. Right," Hermione blinked at her pureblood friend. "Well, in basic terms," she began, thinking being just a little inaccurate couldn't hurt, since it would still technically be correct. "A wormhole is both there, but not there, kind of like the extra space inside of a bag that's been expanded. Or like Time. It's here, we experience it, but it is not a physical thing we can truly quantify, even though we know it can be somewhat manipulated. Do you understand that concept?"

"Like a ghost, in a sense?" Luna asked. "It is here, but only because it is aware it is?"

Hermione bobbed her head back and forth in thought before going with it. "Yes, but a wormhole is not aware. It is basically a tube or tunnel, which is what I always considered to be in apparition."

"Oh! I can understand that! It always feels like going through a drinking straw. But Harry said that feeling isn't there," she reminded.

"And it isn't. But we're only talking about that as comparing it to the wormhole."

"Gotcha," Luna responded happily, saluting her friend and standing at attention. "Ready to learn, Ma'am!"

Hermione chuckled and smiled. "Well, imagine that tube that is both there and not, I guess thinking of it like a ghost works for this, but that you are inside the ghost, so safe from the physical things you pass through, and ends exactly where you want to end up and that it moves you and you only have to basically let it." Hermione wondered suddenly if that could counter one of the negatives with apparition. The inertia, or energy in moving, has to go somewhere. With apparition, that usually meant your body would get flung around when you arrived. _'I'll have to ask Harry if he's practiced that or not,'_ she thought, turning her attention to Luna.

Luna obviously tried a couple of times before she was suddenly in the air above Harry, who exclaimed in shock and moved just enough to throw his arms up and catch her. "Hurray!" Luna cried out happily, kicking her legs and throwing her arms up before following Hermione's lead and kissing him soundly.

"You know," Harry said a few minutes later as the girls were practicing moving about, getting faster in their execution and more comfortable with things. "Your switching theory actually makes a lot of sense if you consider there's no risk of splinching with this, but it's a very real fear with apparition. It can also explain why you could end up anywhere or without things like your hair or clothes," he told Hermione.

Luna perked up and immediately set about trying to leave her knickers behind as she popped around with thoughts of sitting in Harry's lap in the Gryffindor common room and leaving them there as she left.

"I suppose it does," Hermione considered, going from the top of a wooden case that looked like a modified stand alone closet to the couch, testing her ability to modify her physical position with this new ability and liking the results. "By the way, have you tested to see if your movement pre-shifting follows you after like apparition?"

"It can, unless you account for it," Harry responded. "If you want to practice that, I'd recommend jumping up and shifting above a pool," he added with a blush.

"And how'd you practice?" Luna asked, curling up into a ball and shifting so that she was rolling around on the ground and giggling.

"Jumped from a tree branch a few feet up and onto the bed. Didn't account for the whole bouncing into the wall or onto the floor part," he said while grabbing the back of his neck and not looking at them.

"Boys," Hermione mumbled with a roll of her eyes, though she was still smiling. "And I hope you learned from your mistakes?" She asked.

"Yup," Harry responded cheekily. "Spent a week in the shallow end learning to swim." He started to laugh at Hermione's look of shock. "But, now that you have this down, I should warn you I'm planning my next set of ... _targets_ soon," he said, once they had settled down and got more into a cuddly phase than experimenting with their new ability. Both girls became serious.

"Is it really necessary?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Harry responded. "We got those who didn't turn their back on the dark wanker, but he has more on the outside."

"Who?" Luna asked, hoping to prove to Harry that she wasn't useless. She knew he didn't see her that way, but after the Azkaban hit, and doing the others by himself, she still felt as though her loyalty, her love and her worthiness to be with him hadn't been proven. Not like Hermione's had. He had proven her fears to be false, but that didn't stop that feeling from being there. And since he wasn't willing to use her body to sate his physical lusts, as she had initially tried to offer him, she wasn't sure how else to do that other than be with him. But, that meant in all things, as far as she was concerned. Including this.

"Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Avery, a guy named Yaxley that works at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement-"

"Won't that be risky, getting someone that aurors would class as one of their own? Like a cop killer in the muggle world?" Hermione asked nervously. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"It's truly necessary," Harry explained. "Anything the aurors learn, plan or try to do, Yaxley alone can get out. He was responsible for over ninety percent of their failed raids because he knew everything going on as a requisitions officer. In other words, he authorized personnel, equipment and the like and could warn the Death Eaters in advance. And they never thought of him because he, officially, doesn't ever know any of the stuff going on. But that's just it, it's all official. Unofficially, he knew damn near everything."

"I guess that makes sense," Hermione said quietly, admitting defeat after a very brief moment which she only needed to acknowledge what she heard. "Others?" She asked, not sure she truly wanted to know, but knowing she had to. She would be damned if she let him do any of this without her. Especially after she had learned to put killing Dolohov behind her.

"The Carrows," Harry responded with a growl. "A guy named 'Gibbon', Travers, we'll have to get Draco eventually since he is prime D.E. material. Same with the Crabbe and Goyle here in Hogwarts, I suppose, as well, and there are a lot more I just don't know the names of."

"Harry, Crabbe and Goyle haven't done anything yet," Hermione chided.

"But they follow Draco completely," Luna stated. "And they will continue to do so."

"They also tried to kill us using fiendfyre," Harry explained. Although they had been meeting weekly for etiquette lessons, Astoria had not mentioned what she experienced to them when Crabbe was eying her like a pleasant piece of meat. All the Slytherin girls knew to watch out because Malfoy was up to something, but they had no knowledge of what that something was, so they were waiting and keeping an eye open. "But if you want, we can hold off on them until we get something more concrete for this time line," Harry offered, rubbing Hermione's arm gently and kissing her shoulder to show he wasn't upset with her and still cared.

"I would prefer that, thank you," Hermione said thankfully, kissing him gently as reward.

"Just remember we must be willing to accept that anything they plan to do must be assumed to be a sincere plan for the future," Luna stated. "I would much prefer to be rid of them before something truly unfortunate happens, but am willing to concede they have done nothing we are as of yet aware of to justify their deaths."

"That's what we hope," Harry stated. "I'll get Twinkle on watching them. Him and the rest of the Thundercats have been doing something with the owls for a while and I think Pitter-Patter is getting ... well, I think she'd be much happier if I had her on something else," Harry suggested, wincing slightly as he remembered Twinkle's lack of fur and the stuttering story he had received when asked about it. All he really got was, "Pitter-Patter ... mauled ... so sorry!"

"Still, these are people that actively assisted Death Eaters, even if some of them don't have the mark yet. They also enforced bigoted laws and did what they could to help Voldemort's dream become a reality. We can't let them do that again," Harry finished with a sigh.

Hermione wanted to argue some of them may have been trying to protect their families, or were doing what they had to in order to survive, but knew her arguments were hollow at best. While that could have been possible, arguing would have been essentially telling Harry she didn't trust his judgement on something that she had no real knowledge to counter with, essentially calling him a liar. And considering what was at stake, and his restraint in those he _could_ be killing, she had to admit that this was likely to be a general course of action that was best. At least until something better could be proven to come along later.

"Were you waiting on us to learn this before going out hunting again?" Hermione asked after a few minutes of contemplative silence.

"Yes," Harry admitted. "Now, even if you don't have a wand or get trapped somewhere, you can safely get away. And if you see or hear it early enough, Shifting is fast enough to get out of the way of a killing curse without them being aware for about half a second, which gives you time to get behind them and knock 'em out."

"Oh," Hermione said.

"You know, it occurs to me that you still haven't taken us out on that date," Luna mused aloud to change the subject so Hermione wouldn't have to dwell on sad things. Thankfully, it worked as brown eyes lit up in happiness.

"Hey, that's right!" Hermione agreed, punching Harry on the arm. "We talked about doing that around _Christmas_! Well, a week after, anyway."

"Sorry," Harry apologized. "I had honestly forgotten, and it sounds like you did, too."

"Had you put any thought to it?" Luna asked, cuddling up to his side in a little ball and holding his arm to her tightly while Hermione did the same, winking at the younger blonde.

"Not really. What would you like to do?" He asked.

"First date. We'd like you to choose," Hermione said. "It doesn't have to be anything impressive, of course, and we know you don't have a lot of experience."

"But I have absolutely none and know little of the muggle world," Luna stated, "while the magical would be difficult for us, though not impossible."

"I was thinking more along the lines of just seeing what happened and building off of it," Hermione corrected. "But I suppose that makes sense, too."

"Well, with the ball coming up at the end of the March, dancing could be a nice thing to get some practice with outside of our lessons," Harry considered. "But I don't see many places we could get in to that would allow us to dance without an adult. So, how about we go out on the first, but also take the Easter hols and have a date each night?"

"That's not bad," Luna agreed with a nod.

"Agreed," Hermione stated, thinking. Then she continued a little unsure of her idea. "What if, after our first date, we, Luna and I that is, have a date alone with you? I've noticed we spend all of our time together except for visiting the loo or when we get something from our dorms. Well, and classes of course. I don't even visit the library anymore because I've got almost all of the books copied there. And while we spend time alone with you, it's been with turning time so, when the other is with you, we still have time together as though we never spent time apart."

"You don't want to spend time together anymore?" Luna asked, somewhat shocked and worried. That feeling from earlier, and the night Hermione and Harry visited Azkaban was back again. She didn't like that feeling.

"Of course I like spending time together," Hermione assured her co-girlfriend. "But remember how badly we reacted when Harry spent most of the day away from us when Hagrid and Shade visited? I just think we should try to get comfortable not being around each other all the time. I don't know about the two of you, but when I _am_ without either of you, and especially both of you, I feel nervous and ... well, like I'm not where I belong."

"That could just be the bond because we don't _want_ to be apart," Luna argued. "I certainly don't want to."

"I don't, either," Hermione said, trying to get her point across and knowing she wasn't doing so properly. "But it isn't normal for us to spend every possible moment together. Under normal conditions, it would even be classed as unhealthy. I wouldn't have even realized it had Lavender not mentioned it some time ago."

"This isn't a normal relationship though, either," Luna countered again.

"Is this what you _want_, or what you _think_ is how we should proceed?" Harry asked, bringing himself into the conversation.

Hermione looked at him, trying to determine if he was upset or angry and couldn't really get a read on him in the slightest. "I _know_ it isn't exactly normal. So, I _think_ we should do this, even though I know I don't want to. It isn't a matter of being together or apart that makes me think this, so much as it is our ability to function _when_ apart. You get time away from us with the time turner, but almost never do that and not turn time so you are also with us, even if we have to hide out in the Room of Requirement."

"So, how are you suggesting we do this?" Luna asked, thinking she understood. She had practically been joined to Hermione at the hip that day Harry was gone for the majority of it. Only when he was back with them and she had been able to assure herself he was really there had she been more comfortable. And even then, they had _all_ gone to bed starkers that evening for the first time since getting together. Normally, Harry at least had on his underwear. Whether it was because they sometimes found themselves on top of him or because he didn't want to make messes when he had his dirty dreams, Luna wasn't totally sure, or even if it was something else. But they had all been naked and there had been a reason, even if they hadn't noticed it directly.

"I was thinking of just not turning time during our daily bonding time on the days we repeat," Hermione suggested. "It's simple and is a fairly short period of time. And if it's difficult at first, we can spend some time, all of us together, after we've both had our time with Harry, to spend together and bond a little more."

"I tell you what," Harry said after a brief hesitation by both girls. "Since I'll be with at least one of you regardless of what is decided, and because I'm fairly often away on my own anyway handling my part of the same thing, I think I'm going to leave this decision up to you both."

"What? But you should be a part of this!" Hermione complained. "Our relationship needs us to decide things like this together!"

"Normally, you'd be right," Harry argued gently. "But like I said, I am apart from both of you when I do my duties in the Wizengamot or business needs and other things similar to that. For what you are deciding right now, I can't provide any input other than hearing you both out. I will agree to whatever you both want. But this is not a decision about me so much as it is how much time away from me, and each other, you are wanting and how that time is created. I agree that we need to be able to function apart from each other and I've noticed that same thing, if I'm honest. Just not quite in the same way. So the two of you need to work this out, not as my girlfriends, but as ... uh ... well, I guess 'co-girlfriends'? Basically, this is more about the two of you than it is me."

"I ... understand," Hermione said after a moment. "You're right. In the end, it'll be between us anyway."

"Agreed," Luna said after thinking through Harry's comments. "We admitted the night before we came together that we needed to work things out and always remain open. In this case, it is certainly between Hermione and I."

"I'm glad we agree," Harry said, kissing both on the foreheads.

A few minutes later while discussing the merits of their private time with Harry not being done while turning time so they'd get used to not spending so much time as a group together, Harry had turned time back to that morning to spend the first half of the day telling Twinkle to actively monitor Draco and his group before moving the horcruxes and all the purloined items from the Room of Requirement that had been stashed in the ball room to a cottage that was midway between the manor and the furthest cottage, which the Triad were using on their repeated days.

He had been able to move everything in mere minutes. But going through it all was the difficult part. The pile of gems and loose money was all checked for magic, then stashed in the master bedroom of the cottage, while books were checked for ownership and water damage before getting piled in another room. Those from family homes that were neutral or dark, he also kept, but ensured there was nothing to signify them as anything but a random book otherwise while those belonging to his friends' families, he set aside to give back. In those two areas, he had a piled of gems that took up a full quarter of the bedroom's volume and the books wound up filling one entire cottage that he was going to keep and most of the sitting room of another that he would be giving back.

Furniture was destroyed or, should it be salvageable, used in the holding rooms of the building he was considering building for werewolves, which he sent off with one of the Hogwarts elves that had been called for transport duty to store kept, but unneeded, items back into the Room of Requirement.

The obscene amount of dirty magazines, if you'll pardon the pun, were also sent back to the Room of Requirement while he goggled at the realization he had at least one copy of every year of all the known dirty magazines except muggle ones since they went into creation.

Apparently, his elves got bored easily and some decided to organize them by year and the names of witches within.

That hadn't been the most disturbing part, though. There had, up to fifteen years before, been an underground Hogwarts version. Started by a crafty Slytherin, any boy who got candid shots of girls, either from pensieve memories, willing girlfriends or various trickery, pictures had been taken for more than three hundred years when wizarding cameras were invented. It was only annoyingly relevant that the first professional one came out four years later, started by that same Slytherin, now known as '_Playwitch_'. But, he could now learn who each girl shown in those magazines had dated up to the point of their publication and learn new facts about them, such as their preferred sexual activities and how they rated in various fields, on top of their fertility rating. It would be funny to let Draco know what his dear mummy had been up to, had Harry been willing to speak ill of the dead that weren't total enemies.

Needless to say, the naughty magazines were stored in a locked trunk Harry had found in his pile, after being placed into a linked mokeskin pouch he had found. Finding a few dozen others, he did the same with the gems, just so they were easier to handle.

There was also a very large assortment of weapons, shields and armors that he had to go through. Rusted things he put into a pouch in case the dwarves could melt it down as an offer of a simple gift. He also took note of any that were goblin-made and set those aside for Gringotts except for daggers that would fit well for attaching to a boot. He knew his girls could now get away from anywhere as long as they were conscious, but sometimes, they may have a reason to stay, or try and get others out. Therefore, he hoped to gift the little over a hundred swords, axes and pole arms, plus some basilisk venom, as an offer to keep them. That should also assist with some good relations, he hoped.

Paintings had also been stored in the room, apparently for a ridiculously long time. Harry wouldn't learn until later that he had a few masterpieces in his new collection. Rembrandt would have two such paintings, Leonardo da Vinci had one and, what Hermione would find most incredible, a surprisingly large number of originals by female artists such as Properzia de Rossi, Catherine de Vigri, Lavinia Fontana and Artemisia Gentileschi. Of course, she would also wonder just what those paintings were doing in a magical castle, school even, in the Scottish Highlands.

Harry had also found almost six hundred wands, which he assumed was not all that unlikely since the school had been accepting students for just over a thousand years and used to carry far, far more than they did now. Those, he kept stored in the cottage even though he wasn't too sure what he would use them for yet, though he suspected it may come in handy if the war got started and he needed to rearm his allies. He was very surprised when he found three staves that were covered in runes and had large gems on top of them.

He also found a few dozen high-grade ward stones that were completely blank. However, not recognizing them for what they were, he banished them to various locations on his property since he saw no reason to destroy or vanish them. On a similar front, he found a few ward picking sets, but also didn't recognize them for what they were, either, only that they came in a leather pouch that could be rolled up to close and, even after however long they were there, each piece was still shiny and in excellent condition. Only realizing they were a kit for something kept him from discarding the items.

The toddler-sized pair of lederhosen had gone to an ecstatic Dobby who had found them, despite obviously being for a woman. Harry elected to not think about where they've been, what they were originally for, or where they were going.

Ridiculously, he had found two hundred and eighty-seven brooms. Most were the original, homemade variety that were nothing more than museum pieces. But he also found a Bluebottle broom, twelve Silver Arrows, three Oakshaft 79's, a few old Comets from the entire available range except the latest one, Nimbuses from the 1000 to the 1700, a Moontrimmer and even, most impressively, a Shooting Star. While the charms and enchantments were practically gone on them, Harry still giggled like Lavender and Parvati when he thought about showing Ron.

He also found a dozen and a half simple sweeping brooms that he spent a few minutes trying out before realizing that they weren't meant to fly.

A not surprisingly large amount of the bric-à-brac was nothing more than junk and broken beyond repair even if it wasn't, so was summarily vanished into the ether. But despite that, and how much Harry had gone through in the several hours he had been sifting through everything, he knew he was only a fraction of the way complete. Only the gems, books, dirty magazines – in case he got his girls to help, that was one item he didn't want them thinking he was holding back from them – and the general weapons, armors and shields had been searched through in full since he had summoned them all, specifically, in hopes of finding things to use.

"Well," Harry said to himself, stretching the kinks out of his back and sighing happily when it popped and cracked. "At least now Sirius won't need to move the stuff himself and won't ask questions about it. Just need to keep the horcrux hidden in my study." He turned himself invisible and waited for his younger self to leave the room to before he replaced himself, bringing the girls each some ice cream from Fortescue's since Hermione's experiment the day before hadn't yielded results on his end. "What'd I miss?" He asked.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 25, 17:35 – Potter Manor, first time through after classes**

Emotions were pretty high at Potter Manor between Sirius and Remus as the two friends reunited after more than a decade apart wherein one believed the other had betrayed him and their mutual friends. And with Emma, who found it 'just so beautiful'.

"I'll portkey to the Shrieking Shack tomorrow evening and bring enough to feed your furry side," Sirius stated happily. _'Of course, I'll bring a chew toy, also, but won't let you know yet.'_

"That'll keep us closer to the building," Remus said with a grin, cutting into his two pound, nearly raw – What Dan called 'blue' – steak that had simply been quick-charred on the outside. He had explained about his potion and what it could do, but that he was also without it. Sirius realized Harry hadn't told the man what he had done to Snape and couldn't then with the girls' parents there.

"So, I saw the article for your plans regarding Hogsmeade," Dan began with a little excitement. "What was the general take on that, do you know?"

"According to the Prophet, there've been some naysayers regarding the non-magical sources for some of the ideas, but since they don't know what is overly muggle and what isn't, that is about it," Hermione explained since she had a more realistic view than her beau.

"But the general and public thoughts are that they're great ideas," Harry countered. "The articles this last week have been on individual topics. The paint ball and arcade ideas were also heavily focused on improving aiming and dueling ability when explained, so people are looking at them as a fun method of learning."

"And the Teen Witch Weekly article on what exactly a beauty boutique and beauty parlor actually _are_ started a small riot, from what I understand," Xeno proclaimed happily. Granted, he may have been the only reporter near by that had been there, thus allowing him the scoop, but the knowledge it was his little girl's man that was the source of such a wonderful idea to bring something like that about really pleased him. "It was a bunch of old pureblood women who were already talking about setting appointments to keep them busy so no one else could get in, but some of those not involved in making those appointments weren't too happy with the idea," he explained with a hearty laugh. "Found out one of the old bitties got her teeth so white visiting a muggle dentist when her teeth went flying after an overly large handbag knocked her in the side of the head!"

"That's horrible!" Emma exclaimed, wondering why the man was laughing at her misfortune.

"Nah! This group of women are wives of the sort of men who want to euthanize people like your daughter," he explained. "And they agree with them. It'll be in next week's issue of the Quibbler."

"Oh," Emma blinked. "That's okay, then."

"Well, the reason I bring it up is I had an idea I thought you might enjoy," Dan began a little nervously. Not because he was offering an idea, but because he had inquire before and was given a flat, outright refusal to even consider it. "I was wondering about what me or Emma would want most and realized that, before you gave us these weekends with Hermione, we most wanted to know what she was learning. We had absolutely no way to see her or see what she was learning. We had to trust that she was going to be able to get the education she needed for a rewarding, or at least capable, career. We now know, especially with you as a patron, she can. But we know a few other parents of muggleborns from a few words at the train station and I think they would all enjoy and appreciate something like a parents' day. So, maybe you could provide the facilities necessary to do that?"

"That's a great idea!" Hermione exclaimed happily, smiling proudly at her father. "Just because they can't see the castle doesn't mean they can't see Hogsmeade!"

"Actually, they can," Remus refuted. "Once they're inside, or if that ward is dropped temporarily, a muggle can approach and see the castle. It used to be allowed, actually, but stopped during the war with Grindelwald. It was just too much risk and was never reinstated. It was really only started in the early twentieth century, though."

"'_Hogwarts: A History'_ doesn't say anything about that!" Hermione stated, mildly offended, though she wasn't sure by what. Either that the book didn't explain something she would have enjoyed knowing about, or that it had ended and not come back.

"It wasn't a standard practice. Just something that was being allowed," Remus shrugged. "I may even be wrong about being allowed, though, too. I just remember overhearing about it while I as attending school one summer. It stuck with me because I found it interesting. I do know there've been some that have visited in the past for rare exceptions."

"Could have misunderstood, too," Sirius piped in. "But it's certainly a nice idea. It would also bring in more money from those families, though that's a minor point compared to seeing your family."

"It never really occurred to me that muggle parents would have a problem like that," Xeno said sadly. "I'm sorry I never really thought about it."

"That's okay," Emma consoled the man. "It sounds like something that most don't really think about, anyway."

"Well, I like the idea," Harry confirmed. "I won't start it until next year, though. I want to make sure there's enough security and enough to do to keep families happy. Plus, I need to think of a suitable way to arrange it."

"What about those arches?" Emma asked.

"Was hoping to keep them quiet," Harry said honestly. "At least for a little while. But, it may just be the best option. But I want to run them through some tests to ensure only authorized people can truly get through. I trust the goblins' expertise, but they _did_ know I wasn't going public with them for a while. Better safe than sorry. Any other ideas?"

Everyone responded with variations in the negative.

"Your invitations to the Auream Ball will be going out tomorrow," Sirius advised. "Last chance for any changes." Being told there wouldn't be any, Sirius had one last question about the big night. "You may need to get some help for the evening. Dobby won't be enough to serve that many people no matter how willing he'd be to try."

"I've already got the agreement of several elves from Hogwarts," Harry responded. "There are so many elves and so few students compared to what they are capable of, they wound up having to figure out who would remain behind. Not sure how they decided, though." He was _not_ going to tell Hermione that the solution had only come after a few minutes after every single one of the elves had popped away after saying they'd 'quickly decide who was going to help the Great Master Potter' and popped back in with every elf scuffed and bloodied, having apparently fought for the honor. Only being assured that elves healed quickly and magic could fix them right up anyway kept him from panicking about that.

He was also not going to mention that most of the winners were females who had been holding broken rolling pins and asking if Dobby would be there and which uniform he'd be wearing. But he wished he could.

Sirius and Remus left minutes later to take a long walk on the manor grounds and into the orchards for a private talk that the former told Harry would include an update on everything he knew with Harry's permission. And whether due to some prearranged decision or simple happenstance, Harry found himself alone while Hermione and Emma went off to chat about something and Luna went off with her father. Harry, as the Potter family luck would have it, was left with Daniel Granger. All alone. By themselves. And he was staring at Harry.

"Harry, I'm not sure how to begin this conversation, and I am going to be just as nervous as you, most likely. But Emma suggested it and I had to agree it was better safe than sorry."

"God no..." Harry muttered, wide-eyed. _'This conversation is going to be awkward as hell with the father of one of my girlfriends!'_

"What do you you think you'll do when you graduate?" Dan asked, holding back a smirk at messing with the boy.

"Wait, what?"

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 25, 20:00 – With Hermione and Emma**

"So, this was the closest you've come to having an argument?" Emma asked to clarify, having just heard about Hermione's desire to spend a little time apart from the others and her reasons, along with Harry and Luna's, and the knowledge that she didn't want to spend time apart, but thought it was necessary.

"Yes. We also had a pretty big misunderstanding a while ago, where Luna thought we were beginning to exclude her because she wasn't as ... necessary?" Hermione tested the word before shrugging. "Well, she thought we didn't want her as much, so she tried to be useful to Harry by basically offering him anything he wanted in a physical sense. It didn't start exactly as that, but she just pushed the limit a little and Harry eventually asked her about it and cleared it up."

"And you think this may be why you spend so much time together now?" Emma stated more than actually asked.

"I suppose it could be," Hermione pondered. "But, we've been spending almost all our time together since the start of last term. We just do so even more, now. We eat together, study together, sleep together, exercise together, come here-"

"Wait! Hold on. Back it up," Emma interrupted. "You sleep together?"

"In the same bed," Hermione quickly corrected, blushing slightly.

"We'll come back to that," Emma stated with a hard look. "Continue."

"Er, right. Well, anyway, I know it's not normal to do this, right? I mean, we don't even _want_ to spend less time together. We like spending time together more than not. That's wrong, right? Not healthy?"

"If it were an obsession, then I'd say yes," Emma said honestly as they made it to what Hermione called her bedroom. The mother quirked a hidden eyebrow at the open closet that showed a few clothes in the closet. "But, it's a mutual decision and I'm assuming it isn't all studying and sex?"

"No, Mother," Hermione stated with more than a hint of exasperation. "There's been no sex yet."

"Then I'd say it's because you all enjoy each others' company," Emma explained with a shrug. "If you think about it, your father and I do the exact same thing. We live together, eat together, work together and the like. If you exchange school and work, then it's almost the same thing, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose," Hermione mused.

"But you are right. You need to be able to function without each other, which sounds like it was your primary reason for doing this. And just like you're trying to do now, your father and I spend time apart as well. He likes to go bowling or to the pub while I prefer to come here now, where it's quiet and I can watch the stars. It isn't always quiet with Sirius around, of course, but he leaves me be when I want to just sit out there or lay on a lounge in that area you showed me that was good for something to do the with the solstice. If you and Luna truly had a hard time spending as much time apart from Harry as you suggested when we had the dinner party, then perhaps this is a good thing."

Hermione sighed gratefully. "Thanks. I guess I just needed some validation since I think it's the right thing, but none of us really wanted to do it. And we're only talking an hour or two a day. They also agreed, but I think it was more because they wanted to support me rather than the belief it was really necessary."

Emma nodded consolingly. "Good. I'm glad that's settled. Now how close are you to having sex?"

"Mum!"

"Don't 'Mum' me!" Emma chided, rolling her eyes and waving her hand dismissively. "You know I wouldn't be thrilled, but won't be upset or judge you. But I want to be able to be here and help you in something that is still one of the few things I can truly be there for you with."

"We bathe together each morning," Hermione said after a minute of contemplation. "Every day, we spend an hour together to snog, though at least one of us keeps our knickers on, usually Harry since neither Luna or I like to."

"Then you _do_ already spend an hour apart?" Emma asked with a small bit of confusion. Hermione blinked curiously at her mother for focusing on _that_ detail.

"Well, we've got these little devices that let us go backward in time," she explained, realizing that it didn't matter if her parents knew about the devices or not. All the staff knew she had it. They had to in order to not realize she was in multiple places at once. Though, now that she thought about it, the students should have realized as well since it wasn't exactly privileged knowledge on who took what classes. "They go back by the hour with each turn of the hour glass," she finished, showing the device to her mother, but not letting her touch it.

"That's amazing," Emma stated in awe.

"Yea, but they're highly restricted. I got it to take extra classes. But ... Harry's family has some as well," she said, not quite lying. After all, his family did have them now.

"And you use it to snog?" Emma asked, amused. "Good girl."

"Anyway, we do that so that it seems like the snogging was all done in that extra time," Hermione finished explaining.

"And what else have you done?" Emma asked, amazed that her daughter could get in all the snugglebunny time she wanted.

"Er, we do a lot of exploring with our hands, and we've used them to bring each other to climax," she said, mildly curious that she wasn't blushing up a storm. Other than a very light pink hue on her cheeks, you'd not realize she was at all if not looking for it. "Luna and I don't really do anything together unless we're caught up in the moment and that's usually just teasing and kissing. I've also been talking him into taking more control in our relationship as well."

Curious, and a bit amused, Emma quirked an eyebrow, silently pushing her daughter for details. It wasn't specifically that she _wanted_ to know these things about her only child's love life, but that she did, indeed, want to be there to help Hermione through it, but she also wanted to be sure that she was being safe and taking necessary precautions. It didn't help knowing that the kids would do whatever they wanted despite her preference to the matter, but by supporting them and being an ear to listen, shoulder to cry on and a voice to provide advice, Emma hoped to keep them as protected as possible. Dan was of the same mind, though he was far more accepting of the idea that his only daughter and Luna would be sexually active than Hermione and Harry. Less chance of pregnancy that way, as far as he was concerned.

"Well," Hermione began, getting the message. "I want him to not ask permission if he wants a kiss, which he would do if it wasn't when we were alone. But I suggested just grabbing me, pulling me into a nook where we're at least mostly hidden and kiss me while taking a trip up my jumper or skirt if he was feeling really frisky, which he's taken to doing on occasion. I think you saw him pinch my arse during that dinner party, too," Hermione said, nodding at Emma's responding smile.

"I think ...," she trailed off, unsure of how to explain what she wanted to discuss.

"Yes?" Emma asked.

"I think I might truly be submissive," she said quietly. "I don't mean I want to be a slave or anything ... At least not fully," she corrected after a brief hesitation, not looking at her mother. "But, I would very much like him to just ... truly take what he wanted. To just ... lose myself to whatever he wanted to do. He's just so gentle and so willing to wait that I feel completely safe and protected with him. The idea of being at his mercy, someone I trust like that, excites me more than just a little."

"Honey, we all have a little submission in us," Emma said gently, hugging her daughter. "And believe me, we all feel like that at least sometimes. And there's nothing wrong with it as long as you take precautions so no one gets hurt, during or after." Emma allowed a moment of silence to let her words sink in before moving on. "Do you want to have sex with him?"

"Yes," Hermione said simply. "But, not really this soon. To be honest, I'm thinking of progressing to ... oral pleasure. Already would have, actually, except the day I got up the courage to suggest it, he started a monthly non-nude bonding hour where we talk about our relationship, what we want, what we're happy with and our concerns before we do anything more than cuddle and kiss. That was when Luna was pushing the limits and he decided it was something we should do regardless. It was also the first time he said he loved me, and I gave him his first handy."

Emma decided against asking how long ago that was since she knew not to ask a question she didn't want to hear the answer to. Her daughter was taking things far slower than she had anticipated, having honestly expected Hermione's virginity to be long gone by now if she had followed Emma's own footsteps, albeit with a man rather than a woman. "That's it?"

"Other than him pleasing me and Luna the same way back and having a surprising fondness for simply cupping our breasts and holding us, yes," Hermione admitted. "Well, unless you really care to learn the places he's kissed us."

"I can imagine," Emma stated dryly. "Do you think he's ready for something that advanced? Emotionally, I mean."

"Yes," Hermione said with a sigh. "But, a part of me worries because he's not hinted at wanting me to do it."

"From what you say, it sounds like he is doing his level best not to push you girls," Emma soothed. "I've not actually ever heard of a man that would instigate a day where you had to wear clothes rather than not, or that he would be willing to have a day set aside to ensure you just sat and talked about the relationship. Not even your father was that accommodating, though he didn't really have to be, I suppose. I can't tell you how proud I am of your choice in men. Just remember that it isn't something you can take back. So be very sure you're ready, too, and not just him. Luna too, now that I think about it. And remember that your likes and dislikes will change over time, so keep that in mind as well. But, if it is something you really would like to do, then maybe you should suggest it."

The two sat in a comfortable silence for several minutes before Hermione began to talk about her medical lessons with Pomfrey and how she was being given almost pure book work until the end of March. And was still getting checked each visit to see if she was in the pudding club, which led into a discussion on muggle contraceptives and obtaining some for Poppy to test. The elder of the two promised to have a substantial amount of condoms the next day to ensure the medi-witch had enough to do proper testing and Hermione would have more than enough in case she decided to run rather than walk in her relationship.

Dan would be very sad, and very sick to his stomach, when he learned they were all for Hermione before feeling very silly when reminded that his wife was already pregnant and they had no need of the annoying devices. He also needed a few minutes alone when he learned Harry was simply too powerful for the magical birth control methods to work and that the healer had suggested it may only lead to ensuring a pregnancy.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 25, 20:10 – Back with Harry and Dan**

"Well, like I said," Harry continued after laughing at a joke Dan had made. "I'm well enough off that I don't have to work, and since I have a seat in our government, I technically already _have_ a job. But, I want to add something to the family vaults before I 'retire' and work specifically in the government. But the businesses and such I'm working on right now may do that so I don't have to worry about it and I can just focus on them for now."

"Good lad," Dan said approvingly, taking a sip of the wonderful scotch Harry had offered since they were alone. "Now tell me. Have you defiled my daughter?"

"What?" Harry squeaked.

xXxXxXx

**Friday – February 25, 20:00 – With Luna and Xenophilius**

"How are things between you and Sarah?" Luna asked as a gaggle of kneazle kittens rushed towards her for the treats they knew would be in her pockets.

"Good," Xeno said, looking wistfully at his daughter and feeling the normal pang of loneliness associated with the loss of his late wife that always accompanied doing so. Luna looked so much like Celeste it was almost frightening. She had his ears, but that was about it. Otherwise, she was fully her mother's daughter, but becoming even more beautiful if such a thing were possible. Though, he'd admit he may have been a bit biased about that. "What about you and your two?"

"Oh, we're wonderful!" Luna chirruped happily, passing around the chicken bits. "Hermione and I are thinking about progressing to oral sex soon and I'm hoping Harry will like playing with my bottom more, though that doesn't seem to be a difficult prospect since he seems to enjoy it as much as me. We're also getting quite ahead in our school work, so we've got even more time for each other."

"I'm happy to hear that," the man said warmly. He had always heard kids grew up quickly these days. And he had only partly believed it, and even then only because he could swear Luna was only recently in nappies. Well, only recently had them. She refused to wear them unless they were magically locked in place. But, now he had proof. It made him a little sad that she would have her own family soon enough, but happy at the same time. Dark those wrackspurts! "Speaking of Sarah, anuses and sex, she is talking about us moving in together with the thought of it turning to marriage."

"Oh, that's great! Do you know when she'll make you ask her?"

"No, but I'm thinking of tricking her into tricking me into asking her during the summer or near Christmas in a year or two since she would rather have a long engagement. But I was also thinking we may do like your mother and I did and play that Russian Roulette game and do it when we find out she's pregnant," he pondered. "Not quite as much fun without the worry about what her parents might think and eloping before they catch us, but it still has shock value for us both."

"Oh!" Luna gasped, shocked. "That way you can both be surprised! Oh that _is_ a nice idea! But wait ... What would the raccoon that nested in my room think? Have you asked her if she is okay with another woman in the house?"

"I did," Xenophilius explained. "Wasn't too happy about it, to be honest. But Sarah went upstairs and I think I heard it screaming. Haven't seen or heard from it since. When I asked her if she hurt it, she pointed out that it hadn't paid rent and that seemed reasonable."

"Definitely," Luna nodded. "Especially since she used my knickers and not her own."

"Can't recall ever seeing a raccoon wearing any," Xeno mumbled to himself.

"Have you ever looked under their fur coats?" Luna asked.

"Can't ever find the bloody buttons," he explained. "And they get downright vicious if you look too long."

xXxXxXx

[**Author's Note:**] – Next Chapter: "Dance, Puppet! Dance!" - The Auream Ball! Hogwarts' public reveal! Memories of things that haven't happened pop in and the death toll rises! Ah ... a couple of dates, as well.


	27. Witchy Woman

**Title**: Death's Pride

**Chapter26** – Witchy Woman

**Ship**: H/Hr/L, Nev/Sus B/Han A, Draco/Pansy, Ron/Lav

**Rating**: M

**Warnings**: Suggestive Language, Nudity, Adult Situations, Adult Language

**Key**: "Speech", _'Thoughts'_, **"Speech laden with magic"**, §Parseltongue§

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** - **Butterfly Effect**– It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. – Chaos Theory

**Chapter was cut off** due to getting rather long, again. I've got a decent bit of what is coming written, but this would become ridiculous if I add more to it.

Any recovered memories, in the previous chapters, current and future, all have a connection. If you can figure out what, feel free to suggest it. It's about how they're remembering them. I'm trying to keep it fairly innocuous, but it's there. Not difficult to gather, though (that could just be because I know, though... hm...)

The portion of this first scene with Hermione can be skimmed, if so desired. It partly reiterates Harry's fears of really letting himself go with the relationship for the final time along with a little other stuff.

I know success rates, but am not proclaiming validity with my brief discussion of prophylactics in this chapter. While I'm sure of what I've stated (success rates vary based on the source to my own research, by the way,) the part of me that prefers safety suggests talking with your doctor.

**Recommended Story of the Chapter:** "Firebird's Son" by Darth Marrs (H/Hr, possibly others – I've only read the first chapter, but the author was kind enough to answer my main question about shipping – It's a VERY unique spin on the world.)

**xXx Previously xXx**

_Discussion between Neville and his girls, The goblins debate the merits of working with Harry, Slughorn joins the Hogwarts faculty, Hermione and Luna explore the mental connections Harry found, Ginny's mental state is found to be all but irreversible, Remus meets Sirius and the families have a chat with their daughters, though Dan prefers to mess with Harry's head. He pays for it in this chapter._

**xXx STORY xXx**

**Friday – February 25, 08:30 – Potter Manor: Second time through day**

It was the start of the second day through Friday for the soul bound Triad. They had slipped through time already and eaten breakfast and the three had their agreed upon relationship discussion scheduled for that day, which also meant no nudity other than waking up that morning, and the obligatory shared bath after their exercise, and later that night when they would go to bed.

It was also unique insomuch as Harry and Hermione, who got the young man for her private time first, didn't snog, touch each other or do anything to get each other off as they usually did, and had no plans to after their talk which was their norm. Instead, the duo were in the library where Hermione was going through all the books that Harry was planning to give back to the families of their friends and those who were at least neutral to the best of hers and Harry's knowledge. But that didn't mean Hermione wasn't going to copy the books into her own grimoire. "Knowledge is useful, Harry," Hermione said from between her boy toy's legs where she sat cuddled into him on the floor while he held her with his head resting on her right shoulder, smiling wistfully at her happy expression of the restricted knowledge. "Luna told me about these things and leaving them out where others can get them opens them up to be taken by conquest. Even if I admit that some knowledge shouldn't be shared to the general public, I'm not going to let it go to waste. That you're giving them back is something that puts those families into your debt since they're yours by right. I'm simply taking what would normally be allowed and you'll still be giving them back. It's even Stevens. Well, unless you want their debts so you can use that politically?" She asked, suddenly unsure.

"I wouldn't deny you something, love," Harry said, kissing her cheek. "Keep going," he told her, somehow still amazed at just how much her face lit up when given access to something that wasn't generally allowed to the masses. Hermione hesitated, knowing the debts would likely be more valuable, and considered just not letting anyone know they copied the books, but gave it up as Harry pinched her thigh, suggesting she was waffling too long.

"Maybe we just don't tell the neutrals, the ones who didn't ally with you before, and aren't now, that we copied them?" The bushy-haired one asked, copying away almost guiltily.

"If you like," he allowed, squeezing her gently. "Now, no changing the subject. Likes? Dislikes? Changes?" He asked, once again referencing their relationship and watching amusedly as his First blushed.

"I like that you've been showing affection in new ways and asking permission less," Hermione explained, reaching a hand back to stroke his face before focusing on the books again. "Pinching my bum, touching me in public without anyone knowing or seeing, and yanking me into hidden spots to snog me, I've loved all of it. I even like it when you tell me to do things when we _play_, like putting my hands above my head when I'm laying down and not moving them while you tease me."

"Good," he murmured, kissing her neck lazily.

"You could do that a little more, if you'd like," she half stated, half suggested a little quietly, feeling kind of dirty for it, but liked it too much to lose the opportunity to let him know. "Same with kissing me randomly, despite what we're do-MMPH!" She shivered slightly as Harry turned her by the chin and kissed her. Hard.

Harry pulled back after a moment to see his eldest fiancée smiling with her eyes closed. "Just let me know what you _want_, and what my limits are, and I'll do what I can to keep you happy, I promise," he told her.

Hermione leaned back and nodded, feeling very content with her life right then. "Dislikes would ... well," she blushed again, turning her head away from him a little.

"What is it?" Harry asked, stroking her arm gently to try and soothe the answer out of her.

"What would you say if I wanted to go further in our relationship?" Hermione asked after a moment's pause. "Do something we've not done before?"

"Did you have something in mind?" He queried, knowing she did, although not what.

"Remember the day you first told me you loved me?" She began to ease into it, looking at him slightly. "The first time I gave you a handy?"

"I'll be ancient and wearing my underwear on my head, not even able to remember my own name, and I'll still remember," he said with a chuckle, causing her to smack the leg on her side with an amused smile. "I was worried about Luna and we started these days because of it. What about it?"

"I wanted to use my mouth," she stated simply. She felt the sudden heat of his blush on her own cheek.

"You ... did?" Harry asked, mind boggled at the knowledge that Hermione _Granger_, cute, prim and proper Prefect, wanted to put him into her mouth. And _do things_ with it!

"And still do," Hermione explained, hearing him gulp from their close proximity. "Luna, too."

"I've ... thought about doing that for the two of you, too," the young lord stated quietly, feeling Hermione squirm in his arms.

"Really?" Hermione asked, feeling less ashamed and worried he'd be upset. Not that she really thought he'd be upset, as he _was_ a teenaged male, but their relationship was abnormal to begin with. She resisted the urge to spin around and hug him tightly, smashing his face into her developing chest. She had begun to realize that the three of them were more expressive and ... perverted, for lack of a better or more appropriate word, when they were all alone and didn't want to ruin their discussion by trying to see if he was as ready to go as she was.

"Yes," Harry confirmed, unaware Hermione was fighting the same urges he was. "I'm just worried that ... I know about these things and we're somehow feeling things other want. Do I want to experience that? Definitely. But _should_ I?"

"Harry, you remember that we won't feel much of a desire to do something unless we both want to, right?" Hermione asked, turning her head to see him. She couldn't resist the urge she had to smile brightly, so didn't. She wanted him to know how okay with the idea she was.

"She also said we're in control of the bond," Harry said with a shrug. "I've just been worried. I mean, mentally, I'm now eighteen. I'm in a sexual relationship, even if not overly so, with a fourteen and thirteen-year old girl. A part of me just feels like I might be a creep or pervert or something."

"Harry, girls get those thoughts and feelings, too," she assured him. "Hell, I'm the one suggesting we do it, aren't I? And Luna and I are the ones to begin getting naked and suggested this relationship. And you know I like the idea of watching you and Luna and that she'd be happy enough to have some girl play if either you or I wanted it from her." Hermione kissed him gently as hearing these things seemed to be frying his brain.

"We may be thirteen and fourteen, Harry, but we're both perverts. Sometimes, Luna shocks even me," she said as she pulled back from the gentle kiss. "You do ... _know_ about what kinds of things we can get up to together, right?" She asked, feeling like asking such a thing was like challenging his masculinity, at least in his eyes.

"Yes," Harry snorted softly. "Christmas of fifth year, when I last saw Sirius in a ... well, before the fight where he died, he sat me down and forced me to listen to all sorts of advice and taught me a bunch of spells for that sort of thing. Apparently, him and the other Marauders had the bright idea of trying to make a compendium of dirty knowledge to give to their kids and possibly sell at school. He still had the notes and gave them to me while demanding I memorize the spells."

"Like?" Hermione wondered curiously.

"Er, birth control, a spell to ... make the guy ready if he was flagging but without the stamina the potion would give, one to make my baby batter taste like chocolate or vanilla with what he said was a better consistency, which I didn't want to think about too much," he explained sheepishly. "There were also a couple dozen grooming charms, two for lubricant – same flavors as before, an elasticity charm for ... well, if it's needed and a few other things, mostly comfort ones and ones for what Sirius called atmosphere and one that does a better job of cleaning up the mess after."

Hermione's grin was almost predatory as she leaned back and kissed him before whispering into his ear, "sounds like you've already learned what you'll need. For the record, I'll want chocolate the second time. I want the first to be all you."

"So," Harry near stuttered, "something for the 'change' section, huh?"

"When we're ready," Hermione agreed with a nod and wink, amused at his nervousness. It was rare that her or Luna could fluster him, anymore. "This doesn't mean it has to be right now, or tomorrow. Just whenever we feel like it's the right time to start."

"Alright," Harry agreed.

"What about you?" Hermione asked. "You've never really said what you like or dislike, or even what you'd like to change in our relationship or what you'd like us to do."

"Why would I honestly want to change what we've got?" He asked almost incredulously. "I've got two loyal, beautiful girls, both apparently rather kinky, and am happy. There are things I _want_ to do, I admit, like the oral stuff, or even actually having sex, but I ... I feel like I didn't change much when I came back. I get excited about things easily, like when I bought things for Christmas and birthdays, but the _way_ I think and what I want to do with you and Luna? It's all basically the same. When I was this age before, I was only barely noticing girls. Now? It's like it's a part of my life that's as interesting and fun as it was right before I came back, only I didn't have any real experience until I was here again. And I just worry I'll push you or Luna and don't want to make you feel pressured, so I try not to."

"Harry, I think Luna and I would honestly do anything except actual sex right now," Hermione said calmly. "I've even had a dream about being buggered by you in my more extreme fantasies! That's something I'm not really willing to explore right now, but later? Maybe," she explained, feeling that Harry very much shared her thoughts from the poking and prodding she was receiving from his other wand. "And, you showed me where Lora said the power seal you had before also limited your mind as much as your magic. Maybe that meant your libido, too. Luna and I want you to push a little, after all. It's wonderful knowing we're loved and desired. Just share things with us. We'll tell you our thoughts, okay?" It was becoming a continuing argument, she realized, but if saying it more often got him to press a little, then that wouldn't exactly be a bad thing.

Harry nodded, trying his best not to imagine looking down on Hermione's backside from behind her. "I love you, you know," Harry said after a minute or so after Hermione had gone back to sorting the books.

"I love you, too," Hermione said brightly.

"Thank you," Harry sighed, hugging his girl tightly. "This world wouldn't be worth saving or knowing without you."

Hermione would have sworn her insides melted if anyone had asked her. Touched, and feeling a little self-conscious at the suddenly sappy boyfriend, she smirked at him. "Another comment like that, Mister Potter, and we may take that next step sooner rather than later."

Harry snorted softly as he watched her go back to her books, unaware she half-hoped he'd take the bait. "Sirius and Remus will be at the Shrieking Shack tomorrow night. I feel bad I'll be responsible for Remus not having the Wolfsbane."

"There isn't anything you could have done," Hermione chided gently, only really half paying attention to what she was saying as she quirked an eyebrow at a Lovegood book on sexual rituals. A quick check of the contents showed most were protection and fertility related. Also seeing one that protected against rape at the cost of oral sex, she made a mental note of the title of the book. It meant that the one not being protected had full authority over who was considered allowed her body, but there could be no form of penetration that the one being protected considered rape allowed. It was under a section on master, slave relationships that fell under the Old Forms, such as Master and Apprentice. But, under the Old Forms, 'Apprentice' literally meant 'Slave' until the Apprentice was released. Abuse of the bonds seemed far more reasonable to Hermione, suddenly, as she hadn't realized it was a magically-binding contract.

"I could have waited for Snape to finish the potion before I captured him," Harry refuted, pulling Hermione from her thoughts.

"Well, I suppose you could have," Hermione allowed with a wince, copying the book and making a mental note of it to discuss with Luna. She had responded absently, not sure why it came so easily other than the fact it was, historically, true. Still, she hadn't said that very often in the past two years. But she felt like she told him that for quite a bit longer. Like there were dozens of examples just outside of her ability to recall clearly. _'Just like when Ron left and called me a traitor for sticking it out with Harry. All Ron wanted to do was complain about a lack of food and being cold. Locket's fault my arse!'_

Harry noted the look of sudden anger that adorned her face. "Is something wrong?" He asked, wondering if she was actually upset with him.

"Just something that flashed in my mind about Ron that upset me like he usually does," she explained in an annoyed tone of voice, losing her train of thought other than the source of her anger. "Anyway, what you did to Snape was more important than Professor Lupin getting the potion that he usually doesn't get before this year," she said, dismissing his concerns.

"I wonder if Sirius and Remus would train us to become animagi," Harry mused thoughtfully, tweaking Hermione's interest and making her lose the half-formed thoughts and memories that hadn't quite taken root in her awareness.

"That would be brilliant! Do you think they would?" She asked excitedly. "We can compare what he says to the book my parents got me for Christmas! I've already read it, but it is mostly theory and doesn't really explain how to start the change and I haven't had a chance to copy those books from the library yet since I've focused on other things, first."

"We can ask. It isn't like Sirius has much else to do right now," he responded. "But, he was able to change when Remus forgot his potion in our original third year and fight the werewolf off until you howled to get his attention, so maybe it'd be a way for us to do something similar if we ever need to. Good for escaping, at least, if nothing else."

"I still wish at least _one_ book explained why a werewolf transforms with only the full moon," Hermione grumbled, copying the books a little more roughly than she normally would have. "I mean, you said it was about two or three in the morning when Remus transformed that night, and your memories show that, as well. But he didn't transform until he exited the tunnel from the shack. And even then, the moon is different distances from earth during the various full moons, and the light itself is nothing more than reflected sunlight! And not a single book explains what does it!"

"Calm," Harry soothed, holding her tightly and letting her sigh and take a deep breath, only to release it. "If you can find out the answer, maybe you can find out the cure," he said simply. "At least the common element is the moon. But it isn't a big deal for now."

Harry smiled as Hermione continued her copying, mumbling about lazy researchers for the next few minutes before they two were interrupted by a naked Luna shifting into existence right in front of them.

"Ha! You _can_ leave your clothes behind!" With that, the blonde girl leaned down to kiss both her stupefied partners before she faded from view.

"Huh. That was new," Hermione said after a moment.

"Did that really just happen?" Harry asked.

"It looks like it," Hermione said with a shrug. "I thought she was going to wait before shaving her pubic hair to look like a little heart, but there you go."

Harry looked at Hermione in a very strange way. "I meant her showing up naked."

"If she slept with you as often as she did me, you'd expect it by now," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes.

"Back!" Luna announced cheerily, now clothed in baby blue pants that felt like a soft baby blanket and a hot pink T-shirt that she had obtained from Hermione's old clothes that she preferred not to wear, even if she could still fit into it. It was now simply too tight around the chest for her and nearly so for the bubbly Ravenclaw. The blonde girl kissed both partners again before using both hands and pulling Harry up. "C'mon! C'mon! We're late for a very important date!"

"Only a few minutes," Hermione said with an amused smile. "If you had been clothed the first time, you'd have been right on time."

"Pish tosh!" Luna dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Elizabeth's kittens were napping and were all around me like fluffy little land mines. I had to shift to get away."

"Elizabeth?" Harry asked.

"The kneazle mother," Luna explained. "Now let's go! I've got everything ready!" The blonde pulled Harry away as Hermione smiled warmly while being left alone to her thoughts. She was wondering about becoming animagi and whether Ron would want to join or not before she felt another rash of anger at the young redhead that she couldn't quite identify and decided she wouldn't be the one to mention it to him.

"What's ready, exactly?" Harry asked.

"Snacks," Luna chirruped happily, taking Harry into the sitting room where there was a large assortment of fruits with a chocolate fondue pot and fountain. She settled Harry in on the pillows she had conjured and took up the same position she saw him and Hermione in, wriggling just a touch to burrow into him better so she could be comfortable and reach the snacks. "I didn't eat as much at brekkie so we could eat while we talk since we don't get to snog."

Harry hugged the energetic girl with a chuckle. He looked to find various melons cut into bite-sized pieces, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, mangoes, pitted cherries and apples. He also noticed Luna seemed to enjoy the dense pound cake for it, as well. Since the fondue was magicked to go up and out like a fountain, the food only had to stay on the little forks, so he assumed it wasn't likely to fall or break off and stay in the chocolate sauce. She also had animal crackers on the side, though he wasn't sure where she got them from as he felt they were a purely muggle item. "How did you handle the hour away from us?" He asked, feeding the pleased girl a banana chunk smothered in chocolate that had already hardened into a delicate shell over the food. He assumed magic made it liquid rather than heat to get that effect and would be right.

"Mm. It wasn't bad. I rolled around in the pile of gems you got for a bit, played with the kneazle kittens and then made sure this was set up for us," Luna said, happily opening her mouth to accept the bit of goodness Harry was feeding her before he fed himself a cherry.

"So you basically stayed busy?" He confirmed. "Makes sense. That's basically what I do when I'm away at the Wizengamot, even if it _is_ dreadfully boring."

"Mhm," Luna hummed in confirmation. "I have to admit, Hermione may have had a point, though. It took me a few minutes to decide what to do. I felt lost without you or her with me."

"I don't like being separated either," Harry agreed. "I feel we probably _should_ have some life outside of each other, but I feel like we should all just be a part of whatever life the others have at the same time. It's strange. Hermione also pointed out earlier that we essentially live like her parents, according to her mum. They spend all their time together, too, except for some times. So, I don't think what we've been doing is bad in that way, but spending a little time apart my help in some ways."

"Still don't like it," Luna pouted, biting viciously into the banana chunk and ripping it off the simple fork petulantly.

"Me either," Harry shrugged. "But we should support Hermione."

"Did she tell you that we want to advance the relationship to oral pleasure?" Luna asked as though that were a natural progression in their conversation.

"Yes," Harry blushed. The girl was surprisingly honest and blunt and sometimes it threw him. "We decided that we wouldn't force it, but if it happened, then we wouldn't fight it, either. What do you think?"

"No matter what I say, it won't happen today, right?" Luna asked, frowning ever so slightly.

"Right," Harry responded.

"Then that works for me. What about you? What do you think about it?"

Harry responded with essentially what he told Hermione, and his thoughts from the discussion. "That's why I won't fight it if it happens. Is there anything you like or would want to change?"

Luna bit a mango piece off her fork and then tapped it to her cheek as she chewed thoughtfully. "I think I'm pretty happy with where things are," Luna said after a moment. "I think I'd definitely enjoy that date, but we've already decided on that and it's soon enough. I like it when you keep your hands on my backside and you do that plenty for me, and you make sure to give me plenty of cuddles. So, yes. I'm happy. What about you?"

"I'm very happy with both of you," Harry stated in a half growl, kissing the girl's neck.

"What about when you go after your next targets?" Luna queried, fiddling with her fork so her hands had something to do. "Will you leave me behind again?"

"No," Harry sighed. "If it's something you want to do, I won't stop you. But I intend to fully question you before hand, making sure you realize exactly what we're doing. I don't mean the plan, but the actual killing. You saw how Hermione reacted. And that was _with_ a memory that she somehow got a hold of." Of course, he didn't intend to take the girls when he went after Yaxley. That man was just too good to risk his loves' lives. But, he would discuss it with them rather than let them get angry at him. It just seemed like the smart thing to do.

"Can you make me a promise?" Luna asked after a moment, swallowing.

"What's that?" Harry asked, hugging the girl tightly.

"I've been thinking about how Voldemort is supposed to be coming back next year and the conversation with our parents during Christmas. If the war gets bad, and Voldemort comes back, will you marry us?" Luna asked haltingly. "Winky was so devastated when Dobby was gone when we buried him and wanted _so badly_ to have become mates ... I don't want that same regret if ... _if_ ..." she finished with a whisper.

Harry nodded slowly, rubbing his cheek against Luna's. "If that's what you'd like," he offered, his voice thick with emotion. It was confirmation that Luna truly wanted this, and wanted something after the war was over. "Hermione would have to agree, too, though," he explained.

"Would you give us babies, too?" Luna asked, giving Harry her best Nargle Eyes expression. That included pushing out her bottom lip, making it quiver just so, and holding her hands up slightly with her hands hanging limply, something she learned from the kneazle kittens when she stopped giving treats.

"That will depend on when," Harry explained, fighting the urge to give in. "It's not healthy or safe for girls as young as you and Hermione to give birth."

_'Not a yes, but not a no. I'll take it,'_ the blonde girl mused. "Can we burn down Malfoy Manor, shag like bunnies on the front lawn as it burns and then piss on the ashes? Pretty please?"

"Maybe," Harry responded, thinking, erroneously, that the girl was joking. It was only then that he realized he had hidden all of his knowledge about the events of Malfoy Manor from the girls, Luna especially, so she wouldn't find out what happened to her and had never changed it, even after warning her during their long discussion of his time before traveling in time. He spent the rest of the hour chatting with Luna as he watched her carefully, looking for any signs that she remembered anything and asking questions to see how she responded, but she apparently only remembered Winky's devastation, much to his relief, and not her own time there. His questioning also showed it was, indeed, a memory as opposed to knowledge from discussing things with her and Hermione.

_'I don't get it,'_ Harry thought to himself as Hermione showed up and went googly-eyed at the fondue set and joined them, rather than meeting together to go over the books they'd be returning. _'There's almost nothing to suggest what is causing memories to come back! With Hermione, she saw Dolohov and went Valkyrie on him, I saw the Flamebrand daggers and Lora began to tell me some of the past, which caused me to remember my last death. There were triggers! Things that related to those memories. What made Luna remember Dobby's death? We haven't seen him since breakfast, and I can't remember seeing a fondue set in my last life, especially around Dobby. They haven't met Winky yet, and she's still – Crouch! Damn! I need to ... oh hell. I can't get Crouch or I risk not being able to finish the dark wanker off at the end of the year if I get all his horcruxes, or botch his ritual if I can't.'_

Harry decided to stop thinking about those things until after the Auream Ball and enjoy the day with his girls, including an embarrassing conversation about quickie weddings should the dark wanker come back to life and Hermione's revelations about magical birth control spells, potions and what her mother had agreed to do to help.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – February 26, 06:30 – Potter Manor: First time through the day**

"These things are very strange," Luna commented the next morning, having opened a box of extra large condoms that Emma brought during breakfast, while explaining to Hermione that her father elected not to come to pretend this sort of thing wasn't happening. Luna had discovered how to open the packaging and, following the basic directions, already had her arm 'protected' up to her elbow. "They're like slippery balloons!"

"Ah! Ah!" Emma had to stop the girl a few seconds later from trying to taste the cherry-flavored ones.

"Why on earth did you get so many?" Hermione asked as Luna suggested to Harry that he should learn which kind had the best fit, not quite understanding the concept on how they functioned. She and Emma both decided to ignore what the girl was doing with the diaphragm since they knew it wasn't going to be used and they hadn't explained it to the others yet. And now wouldn't. "You seemed to have bought one of every kind the chemist had!"

"I did," Emma explained calmly, privately enjoying Harry's attempts to ignore the offending items and the girl trying to ask him if he would eat the ones that were flavored and playing with the string of packets from the box she had already opened. Thankfully, the blonde wasn't trying to blow them up and tie them off any longer. "I wanted to make sure she could do any tests she needed to see if any of these wouldn't work and others would to be on the safe side, if you'll not pardon the pun. Old Sammy things I'm giving you the 'Talk' and want to explain all the different sorts, just so you know."

"_I bet if you had to hide something from someone, you could put it in here and put it somewhere they'd never think to check_," Luna whispered to Harry. "_You'd never lose your wand that way! You'd just have to try not to fall or bend over._"

Harry stopped eating the sausage and looked a little green.

"That makes sense," Hermione murmured, gently slapping Luna's grabby hands with the ease of experience from opening any of the other boxes and being unaware of what she was telling Harry. Sammy was the ancient pharmacist that had been helping with immunizations and vitamins and the like since she was an infant and always had candy on hand to give when she was younger, though it quickly turned to sugar-free. But the man knew her very well, so seeing him again would be a little embarrassing, but Harry and what this was for was worth it. "What about the pills? Were you able to get some samples?"

"A month supply of each brand, and ten of the morning after," Emma acknowledged, handing over the plastic cases that she hid in a donut box. "I'm not entirely sure he bought my story with these on the list, too, but I don't think you'll have to worry about awkward questions. He _did_ seem concerned I'd be getting my vitamins next week, though, the moment he saw the morning after pill," she announced thoughtfully, getting into chatty mode.

Hermione used a thick cloth sack to stuff all the boxes of prophylactics in and once her mother left to go back to her dad, who had decided to mow their lawn rather than face the idea of his daughter as a sexual being, Hermione took the items back to Hogwarts and to Madam Pomfrey, where she explained the ways the two different items worked to the healer.

"So, these really just cause the body to be incapable of becoming pregnant?" Poppy asked, amazed. "Making the girl's body react naturally?"

"Yes," Hermione agreed, "but it isn't perfect. Assuming you take the pills as they're designed, they have a success-rate of about ninety to ninety-nine percent or so, both for the combination and progestin-only. The rubbers, er, condoms, have a pretty decent success rate of about seventy to ninety percent. It depends on if they break from ... er, _rough handling_," Hermione said with a nervous blush, doing her best to remain professional as Pomfrey had called her out on before, "and such. I've explained how those work, but if you have any questions I can't answer, I can get the answers for you. The pills also can help lessen the dreadful effects of our monthlies."

"And this?" Poppy asked, holding up what appeared to be a flexible dome of some sort. "It looks like a cervix cap."

"Uh, it's called a 'diaphragm' in the muggle world. They've been in use since somewhere in the eighteen thirties with a mid-nineties rate of success if used properly and with spermicide. I won't be using that, regardless, since I am growing so quickly, so only brought the one and my mum was fairly sure you'd know about it since it's been around so long." She also had no intention of telling her that Luna had used that particular one as a mold to make domes out of her scrambled eggs that morning.

"Well, the spell is the magical version for us, as that is the form it takes, and we don't have spermicide, assuming it is what it sounds like, since the spell is meant to be what does that. We do have the potion, which is meant to temporarily make a man sterile, and while that would work for your situation, it fell out of use with the spell because of bad side effects and the occasional instance of not being temporary. I'll be sure to do a thorough examination of these and tell you what I find, Miss Granger," Poppy stated, amazed at the ingenuity of muggles. "You have your new book and are ready for your first test later?"

"I am," Hermione agreed, her eyes shining in triumph. Finally! She would be allowed to start her practical learning! _'Wait...'_ Blinking, Hermione frowned as the healer who was casting at her with a spell she had come to learn already. "Ma'am?" She asked, looking to get answers. It had been nearly a week since Poppy had tested her for pregnancy.

"Just had to be sure, Miss Granger," Poppy stated with a rosy tint to her cheeks. "This box is missing eight packages of condoms and there are only four left," she explained, showing the box that Luna had opened and been playing with while switching to another that was the cherry-flavored ones. "And this is missing one."

Hermione's eyes widened as she tried to say something, anything, other than the choking, coughing sounds that came out instead until, "it's ... not what you think!" The shock of what the elder witch was explaining was more than enough to ignore the annoyance that the healer refused to believe the young Gryffindor despite repeated assurances. She could understand the tests when she originally showed up with her requests, but that was months ago and Hermione didn't really appreciate the constant signs of distrust when it was normally an offense that could culminate in being expelled or forced into marriage if found pregnant. Not to mention the rumors that could affect her good name and standing and the knowledge she would almost certainly lose any chance at becoming Prefect and Head Girl.

"You're young and in love, Miss Granger," Poppy said warmly. "I remember how it was to be your age. I'm just disappointed you tried this before being sure it would work."

"No! It's not like that!" Hermione tried to correct the medi-witch. "Luna was using them on her arm when we were together this morning! She was experimenting during breakfast!"

"Oh," Poppy said simply before her own eyes widened and she sat up straighter. "Oh! I had no idea...," she trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

"No! Not on me!" Hermione rushed to explain.

"Oh," Poppy said quietly, her brow bunching together as her mind realized the only other person would have been...

"No! Not Harry either!" Hermione half screamed in horror. "Luna's never seen them before and was just seeing what they were like! They weren't used on anyone!"

"OH!" Poppy exclaimed, feeling very highly relieved.

xXxXxXx

"Victory is mine!"

A small, thin, four-year old figure, at least so she appeared, ran around in tiny circles, hopping up and down and occasionally bending slightly to stick her butt out, shaking it vigorously as she waved her fists in victory, doing what she felt was her happy dance. She saw Luna-Mommy doing it a few times, but she seemed to prefer no one see it. Hogwarts didn't really understand it, as she felt it was very fun to wave different parts of her around, but she was alone, so it didn't matter.

"Now," she began, grinning a dark, evil little grin that would do nothing more than cause the majority of the girls in the castle to break out into a massive coo of awes. The twins would see a sort of kindred spirit having obtained a fair portion of her personality through observing Luna as the girl spent more time in the castle than Hermione and Harry, and the perky blonde was simply hyper emotive and broadcast her emotions so readily. That was a major part of why she was so wonderful to be friends with. And Hogwarts felt it was something she liked and would take on, especially since she liked it. "When is the best time to show Daddy what I can do? And what would be the best way to surprise him?"

Tiny, evil little giggles worked their way from the small form as she tapped her fingertips together, her bangs curling up into wee little horns.

She was a castle. Understanding hyper emotive traits wasn't quite her forté.

xXxXxXx

**Sunday – February 27, Hogwarts: After Lunch – First time through the Day**

"Oh no you don't!" Luna snapped, stopping the little hooligan in his tracks. "Turn, come back," she ordered, watching the little guy slump and shuffle his way over to her. "Explain."

"I'm sorry, Miss Moon," Snarf pouted, laying his ears back and keeping his tail low. "I was chasing a mouse that wasn't there."

"I suppose I can understand that," Luna accepted gently, doing her best to fight the urge to snap at the messenger while Hermione and Harry had their hour alone for the day. It was just a much more mild version of Hermione's situation coming through, basically her monthly and a minor growth spurt causing her to sprout upwards and, much to her happiness, outwards in her chest. However, she was a little disappointed that she wasn't changing nearly as much as her co-girlfriend. Much to Luna's dismay, practically her only change was upwards, and slowly at that. That annoyance was on top of the understanding that she had to wear panties. She didn't like panties. "So are we ready?"

"Yes, Miss Moon," Snarf grinned, reaching up both hands to be picked up and settling onto the girl's shoulder.

"Why have you and the others been ignoring everyone?" Luna asked, skipping down the halls and following the squeaky directions of her passenger, who didn't think he enjoyed this 'skipping' thing.

"We've been following Master's orders to find the fake rat and spend less time with students so they don't learn as much about us," Snarf said blankly. "It was a mutual decision," he again said. "A Ravenclaw wanted to dissect one of us to study."

Luna seemed to pause in mid skip, actually in the air, for a brief moment that was short enough Snarf wasn't sure it actually happened. "Who?" The blonde growled, looking forward to the idea of showing someone just how upset she could be. The Thundercats were Harry's creations. For all intents and purposes, he was their daddy, and they his children. That practically made her a mommy! Woe be unto anyone hurting one of her babies!

"I don't know. A few tried to capture us for different reasons. Mostly, they wanted us as pets. The first years, anyway. They mostly came out at night. Mostly," Snarf seemed to drift into some other place, perhaps from fear or something else. Luna wasn't quite sure. She knew an enthusiastic Hufflepuff had put him in a dress and bonnet once, as he was a little more easy to catch than others, but this wasn't quit the same. Unless there were some 'Claws that were of the same mind. Luna suddenly thought he may be a little cute in a bonnet...

"How long have you been working on the 'Den'? I know I heard about it recently, but this is the first time I've seen one of you since you promised I could see it," Luna explained, going down and into a section of the castle that hadn't been accessed by anyone, at least anyone living, in just over six hundred years.

"Since Christmas," Snarf explained proudly. "Master gave us permission to open and use this wing. It was closed off a long time ago after some war or something. A dark lord called 'Black Death' or something."

"Hm. I remember something about that," Luna mumbled, puzzling the issue in her head. "Dark lord, a curse or something. I can't seem to recall. I suppose it doesn't matter so long as you're all safe?" She asked, feeling like there was some reason she should worry over her many furry and cuddly children. Hopefully, her future children wouldn't continue the trend, but she loved these ones well enough and she wouldn't be upset with Harry if he gave her fuzzy babies. It would just mean getting extra shampoo to her.

"Yes, we're safe," Snarf stated happily. "We're there, though! Just go through the next door."

Luna smiled and walked simply through the door, unsure if someone would be on the other side, and paused as she took in a truly marvelous room. It was a vast, indoor greenhouse!

Despite going down stairs and halls, Luna saw out the windows that showed she was actually a curious distance away from the main building of Hogwarts on a tower that couldn't apparently be seen from outside. It was also quite obviously enlarged on the inside since the room was far too large to simply be at the top of a tower.

It also appeared that this was one of the first versions of greenhouses because Luna could see a natural drainage and irrigation system of old pipes running along the roof rather than the ones currently in use that required a person to actually water all the plants by reestablishing a watering charm that had been invented not overly long ago. However, because of that, the vegetation had been allowed to flourish and become overgrown, almost jungle-like. And due to what looked like a shattered window pane had allowed some birds to make their homes here, which made the Thundercats rather good climbers and net makers.

Beds of feathers were marks of pride amongst some of them.

"All the plants are safe," Snarf told her, pointing a furry paw to a recent trail that had been dug up slightly and a series of stones that appeared to have been pilfered from the Black Lake were put in place with mud having been poured around them that was laced with something she couldn't identify that made it almost like ... muddy concrete. "Stay on the path, though. Some of the plants ... well, they like really tight hugging." At least, that's what they thought until the hugging kept getting tighter. And tighter.

Luna skipped along the path, having to remain slightly bent over to avoid the uncleared overhead plants. She had to stop skipping since Snarf was getting a face full of branches.

After nearly ten minutes, which Luna had to admit were pleasant since she hadn't been hiking in some time, the girl came across the end of the path where several of the fur people had stones in the ground and they were jumping up and down on them to set them, only to yowl in shock as she made a noise from behind them.

"Miss Moon!" They exclaimed in shock, their tails poofy and their ears laying back.

"I've learned you were making something," Luna said with a smile, scooping both of the Thundercats up and hugging them tightly. "Do I get a peek?"

Rather than say anything, the two on the ground grabbed her robes and pulled her another twenty yards or so to a clearing that had obviously been cleared by hand, or rather paw, and what looked like a wooden village for wee people was being built by a smaller group of Thundercats while the majority seemed to be roaming the castle.

"Oh, it's marvelous!" Luna chirruped brightly, clapping her hands rapidly. "It's like a tiny version of a magical village I saw in Sweden! I love the thatch roofs and have to admit, you've done an excellent job making the lumber for the houses, too! Though, I admit to being partial to using logs and the natural look," the perky girl gushed. "So, you're making a village?"

"Yes, we are," Snarf explained before the other two could jump in. The extra fluffy Thundercat explained they had an underground sort of town and meeting hall, because they originally considered living underground or in a cave and finally decided otherwise. But on top of that cavern, they were building their homes with scratching posts on each corner.

Luna preferred to stay clear of the sand pit. Just in case.

There were places marked out for about seventy homes, with some room to expand later.

"You do realize Harry would be happy to give you some land to build on outside, right?" Luna asked curiously as she greeted each Thundercat with a hug or scratch behind an ear as they passed. Sometimes twice.

"This is more comfortable," Skye told Luna, happy her personal Human showed up. Granted, they all believed themselves to belong to Harry, but Skye had been assigned to Luna and was happy to be back with her Human. "Plus, we don't really like getting wet if we can avoid it."

"Unless there's something in the water to play with," Snarf corrected, flinching when Skye hissed at him. He was sure she was going to make him brush her fur again for whatever he did to make her angry.

"Why aren't you building homes for everyone?" Luna asked, picking up Skye and cuddling her like a baby and making her mewl in delight with tummy rubs. Harry's Second had to agree. Tummy rubs were very nice.

"Some of us have decided to spent time together," Skye murmured around purrs. "We'll make more, but over time."

Luna wasn't sure if Skye meant houses, or Thundercats, but one thing she had learned from Hermione was it was rude to ask that sort of question, so she simply nodded and spent time with the Thundercats who asked that she not tell their master since they wanted to be done and surprise him first. Regardless of the attempt to, Luna just couldn't find the strong appeal in the scratching posts that the Thundercats did. But she could completely agree with Skye's fascination with random bits of string.

xXxXxXx

**Tuesday – March 1, 11:40 – Hogwarts: Gryffindor Common Room – First time through the day**

"Happy birthday, Ron!" Harry proclaimed happily, thumping his friend's back from where the redhead was sitting next to a surprised Lavender and Parvati, who were both helping Ron by checking over his, once again late, homework so they could help him with his Quidditch plans. They didn't really care much for the game themselves, but they rather enjoyed the boys dressed in their uniforms. And anything that caused them to dress up more often was a good thing in their opinions.

"It's your birthday?" The pretty blonde asked, shocked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Didn't think it was important," Ron said with a shrug, trying to hide his blush at being the center of attention unexpectedly even if it was pretty nice, too, and, worse, focus of Lavender's ire. "We couldn't get anything and it happens at school, so..."

"Well, that was before you had a friend who could escape Hogwarts," Harry said with a twinkle in his eye. "Do-"

"Am I late?" Luna asked, straining under the weight of a three-tier cake monstrosity that was a bright, neon orange with candy brooms, quaffles, snitches and rabbits that pranced around on the icing, charmed to be only a little difficult to catch if you wanted to eat them. Luna knew it was for Ron, but wanted to use the bunnies she had made so they weren't lonely. And so she could eat them. They were charmed to tickle on the way down the throat.

"Nope," Hermione turned her mild glare from Ron and chuckled as Luna set the two and a half foot tall cake onto the table with a dull whump. She couldn't quite place it, and had been hiding it fairly well, she thought, but she was constantly angry with Ron the last few days and wasn't sure why. She knew he had done something, though, and deserved it.

"Dobby!" Harry called out before Ron could make a dive for the cake. Instead, two dozen pizza's popped into existence, along with forty bottles of muggle soda and a keg of chilled butterbeer.

"Mate, this is too much, even for _me_!" Ron exclaimed, but willing to do his best to put his friend's belief that he could eat so much to the test.

"It's not just for you, Ronald," Hermione chided, rolling her eyes.

"Yes! Not late!" Neville exclaimed, leading a stunned and confused Susan and Hannah in his wake to the boxes of heavenly scents he had discovered during Hermione's birthday. He then watched, stupefied, as Dobby returned with all the required items for people to put together their own hamburgers, the house elves having made buns that would have been the envy of any gourmet burger restaurant in the muggle world when Harry brought examples for them to mimic.

"I made the cake for you, Ron," Luna chirruped happily, making a burger that was twice as tall as her mouth could realistically stretch and looking at it with a pout when she realized that fact. Attempts to squeeze it into submission resulted in little success, so she decided to give it her best shot anyway.

"Since Harry got the food, I got you this," Hermione said simply, handing Ron an oblong package that had been wrapped normally, but then the girl had rationalized to herself, apparently, that it would be amusing to give it a whole shell of spell-o-tape, which he would have to either cut through or pick at. "Happy birthday."

Ron shocked her when he gnawed on the corner of the package like his rat to make a hole so he could stick his finger in and tear it up, having discovered the solution years ago with the twins as brothers. He didn't even acknowledge anything as odd about it. "Hey! Thanks!" Ron exclaimed, grinning brightly at Hermione for the brand new broom servicing kit. "This will go great with my new Nimbus!"

Ginny and the twins got him candy, which they nearly had to swear an oath before Ron would believe it wasn't pranked, and the promise of one free pranking against anyone of Ron's choosing or their assistance in procuring items not generally obtainable at Hogwarts, both looking pointedly at Lavender when she couldn't see it. Other Gryffindors, who came and went throughout the lunch period, including McGonagall and Flitwick who wanted to try this mysterious 'pizza' they heard about, wished him a happy birthday and most provided hastily-drawn cards for the rights to pizza and burgers. His parents sent him their usual goodies of some homemade sweets and a magical item that he didn't really know the identity of since Errol had lost the parchment explaining it, and a promise of looking into a new familiar during the summer since Scabbers had apparently disappeared and probably died, they assumed. He also got some themed items from his older brothers from Egypt and Romania.

Sadly, Hermione didn't join in the revelry quite as much as Harry expected she would, but she explained it away as too much cake, so he wasn't too worried. And she _did_ get pretty decent at hiding her recent antipathy for Ron, already having two years of practice. _'He'll just leave us again,'_ she growled to herself in her mind, watching him blush, but not fight Lavender feeding him cake and leave the room together, the blonde dragging him by the hand. _'How can Harry just pretend like nothing ever happened that night?'_ She wondered, not watching but aware in her mind's eye as Ron spent several days badmouthing Harry, and worse in her eyes, how she agreed with him in basic principle and not defending her current lover as much as she should have. It culminated in a large fight and her mourning of his leaving them, leaving _her_.

_'He was upset because he didn't get enough to eat and didn't like the cold and all the walking,'_ she mumbled in her mind, too focused on the emotional turmoil to realize it wasn't something recent and forgetting where and when she was. She felt it like her own, as it was her own memory, so it didn't really occur to her that it hadn't happened yet, because she was near-remembering her own memory, so it was hers. Just placing it in the current timeline wasn't her focus.

Then, the memory changed a little, appearing roughly to be the same time, but slightly different as they were somewhere she couldn't quite recognize, but knew deep down somehow that Luna had told her about.

Hermione recalled the emotions she experienced while removing all knowledge of the horcruxes and everything about what Harry knew of his place in the war and the items in general, while altering or removing any memories associated with that knowledge. _'I refuse to trust him,'_ Hermione thought forcefully as the emotional pain and sense of betrayal from the memories she was half-remembering the other day with Harry slid into her mind stealthily, swimming through her subconscious where she wasn't aware of them, but they could affect her current thought processes.

She remembered the feelings she experienced while sifting through memories of Ron badmouthing her and Harry, saying how they ran away from the fight without telling him anything and about how he knew about a prophecy with Harry, but hadn't been told about it. Hermione remembered the fury and shock she felt when she saw his deep-seated rage and jealousy at the inclusion of Luna after their fifth year and how Harry had grown fond of the girl, preferring to spend his time with her and Hermione and studying. She even remembered her absolute shock at just how close they seemed from an outside perspective, which had been what caused her to speak with Luna that night about sharing Harry and each other, not that she recalled that event either. She only knew Luna was the source of feelings of great relief, contentment, happiness and anticipation.

**[Partial Memory Recollection: Hermione feels the emotions, but doesn't really pay attention to her thoughts as they are driven mostly by the memories as they are trying to form and she isn't focusing, but her mind wandering]**

The brunette calmed without the source of her anger near by and shook her head, dismissing the wandering thoughts she was having, trying to determine what she thought she was forgetting and instead looked to where Harry and Luna were loading their slices of pizza with Tabasco hot sauce and pepper flakes, along with a few others, to see who could go the longest without taking a drink. Luna ate hers serenely, not at all bothered by the heat, Harry went red, Neville passed red and went purple, but held on, and Seamus and surprisingly Parvati dove for their soda.

"Pansies," Hermione scoffed, dropping between Harry and Luna and absolutely soaking her slice of pizza in the hot sauce before moaning in delight as her taste buds burned gently. "That's how you do it," she said, swallowing.

Harry laughed and then leaned forward, kissing her hard and tasting the fiery liquid from her lips to cheers, jeers and catcalling, much to the blushing Hermione's delight. "Heat's good, but I'd like to be able to taste things later," he said mischievously, getting slapped on the arm playfully from the thoroughly embarrassed girl. She was incredibly happy Luna passed her up to kiss Harry instead. That would have been more than she could handle, though she had to ignore a small ball of disappointment that had formed in her stomach.

Or was that the hot sauce?

Out in the hallways, and away from the common room, Lavender pulled Ron into a broom closet and shut the door, leaning her body against his and kissing him softly as she lit her wand with a dim, pink glow and set it on a shelf to provide just enough light to see.

"Wha-what?" Ron spluttered, his hands automatically seeking her hips as his face burned brightly. It wouldn't have shocked him as bad had Lavender not immediately thrown her robe over her head, wearing a normal T-shirt and capri pants under it. Ron didn't know if he should be grateful or disappointed. He was definitely a little of both.

"I get to give you a birthday present too, you know," Lavender said softly, rolling her shirt up to mid-torso. "If it's bare," she whispered, leaning into him and kissing his chin, "you're allowed to touch it directly. If it's clothed, stay above them and you can touch," she purred, knowing this would be the farthest she was comfortable with for quite a while and even then, she was only just barely so. She liked the idea of playing around, but had only felt she would be doing just that, playing, or teasing, until around her fifth year. And she still thought as much.

"I don't understand," Ron said carefully, nervous and admittedly, a little scared. They had kissed a bit here and there, but never full-on snogged, and now he's allowed to touch ... _things_?

Lavender bit her lower lip nervously. With Hermione and Luna sleeping with Harry each night now, and Harry obviously getting more confidence with what she had seen him do in public with Hermione, not to mention what a few of the other girls claimed to have seen, Lavender was worried Ron would get bored and want to find another girl more like the two his best mate had if she didn't let him go further. On top of that, she was a sexually curious young girl and didn't want to lose Ron after putting so much effort into him. He actually ate with the manners he was taught now, and knew to swallow his food before speaking. He still said silly or even stupid things sometimes, but he just wasn't overly matured yet, emotionally, which was part of why she felt she had to do this a year earlier than she had promised herself she would allow for the first time.

Plus, she was curious about what it would feel like. She never did more than give or receive simple kisses before Ron, unless you counted practicing with Parvati and occasionally Fay Dunbar in their dorm, the latter of which was looking forward to being a wife and mother and was quite enthusiastic during practice since she already knew she wanted to be the next Molly Weasley. But boys were different.

"I don't feel comfortable doing more than this, Ron," she said carefully, looking him in the eye. "And I'm not sure how long before I'm ready to go further. But if it is bared, you're allowed to touch it from now on. If it is clothed, you can't go under the clothes and only in private, okay?" She asked, hoping she was just nervous as a first-timer and wouldn't regret it in a few hours.

Ron's head bobbed hesitatingly, the words of Fred and George's informative talk flying through his mind in greater detail than any Quidditch statistic ever could. He ... liked Lavender. Ron didn't want to make her cry. He wanted to make her happy. And happy with _him_.

Slowly, and carefully, his hands cupped her bottom and squeezed, causing her to squeak in shock. _'Cute,'_ he mused to himself as her shock also caused her to move forward and lock lips with him again rather than risk simply smashing their mouths together.

"You realize that was basically an open invitation to my boobs, right?" She asked, swallowing as he played with her lower set of fleshy globes. He was being a little rough, but that wasn't a bad thing for where he was at. She just hoped it didn't translate over.

Ron immediately shook his head in the negative. "Nuh, uh! The twins told me about those! They've got mystical powers, some sort of mind-melting juju that turns guys into willing servants of the girls who've got them and they end up ... uh ... I think they said 'henpecked' and 'whipped'?" He finished, trailing off in thought, though not without continuing with his new favorite toys. "And you seem really nice, but don't think I'm ready for that sort of kinky stuff, yet. Besides. If you're not really comfortable doing more than this, then I don't want to go straight to it and have nothing new to try with you in the comin' months, do I? Fred, or maybe George, I don't know which really, said I should pace myself and look for signs or somethin'. Then they told me about how my dad was wrong, which surprised me a bit considerin' he's got seven of us, but told me where babies really come from and ... well, I don't wanna be a dad right now. And apparently, I'll start acting like mine if I fall under their ... uh ... wiles? I'm supposed to think of them like chess. Don't go after your perky queens until all the rest of the pieces are in place because it's like invading enemy territory, otherwise. And, well...," he trailed off, blushing and looking a little ashamed, still not letting go of her very firm derrière, "I kind of ... like your butt." As if to emphasize, he quickly squeezed twice, honking each time under his breath where she almost didn't notice.

Lavender couldn't help it. She burst into fierce giggles and kissed Ron. _'I had nothing to worry about,'_ she thought happily, giggling as his playing tickled. _'And I need to do something nice for the twins. I can quite happily do this part!'_

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – March 2, 07:20 – Hogwarts: Great Hall**

"Hello, my lovelies," Harry greeted his girls as he got to the table the next morning.

"Good morning," both responded, getting their morning kisses in. Again. It was Luna's request since most of the female populace in the school eyed Harry like a piece of meat that held the reigns of a beauty salon and she wanted to remind them as often as possible that he was taken. Hermione required absolutely no discussion to agree.

That was part of why Luna admired her yellow diamond so obviously while she ate, though the majority of it was her shock and awe of it as a symbol that Harry truly wanted her. And it was yellow, which was such a _happy_ color.

"Is it in yet?" Harry asked excitedly, tucking into his food while smiling at Ron and Lavender's blushing glances, wondering why the two were acting so shy around each other all of a sudden and why Parvati seemed to never stop smirk knowingly at them. He was shocked that the two had actually seemed to be interested in each other and wondered if they would have stayed together if Ron hadn't left with him in their seventh year.

"No," Luna stated airily, biting the head off of a sausage person from the family in her waffle house. "Since Daddy felt it best that this news get to as many people as possible, he wanted to ensure the Daily Prophet got the scoop. He's also hoping to avoid the possible scandal of favoritism, something he detests, by being your exclusive paper, so anything legal, other than business, he wants to either let the Prophet have in full, or if important, perhaps wider coverage with both of them, while he would be happy covering anything personal like weddings dates, various announcements and such. He is also thinking anything that is related to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade wouldn't be bad depending on what kind of coverage you hope to achieve since he's willing to admit the Prophet has a larger reader base and, so far, you've been interested in getting people to apply for jobs regarding Hogsmeade, which is why he posted the job announcements during his normal production period."

"Makes sense," Harry considered.

"By the way, Harry?" Hermione began as more people entered the room to eat. "I thought I should remind you. _Our_ yesterday," she said carefully, letting him know she meant their turned day, "I checked out that folder you were given from Gringotts. Do you realize you own the largest share block of the Prophet?"

"Now that you mention it, I think I remember being told that," Harry mused thoughtfully. "I'll have to keep that in mind. I'd forgotten. I guess that could be why they agreed to my terms on waiting to publish my plans for Hogsmeade."

"It also means you don't have to offer Skeeter as much," Luna suggested, looking at them and blinking in confusion as Hermione giggled at her whipped cream mustache.

"I made a deal," Harry said, grinning as Hermione used her thumb to clear Luna's upper lip and licked her finger clean absently. "I'll stick to it. Besides, I don't know what kind of power that actually gives, nor do I know how much my actual share is in total."

"Sixty-four percent," Hermione mumbled around her eggs, using her hand to block it from view for propriety. She wasn't about to let Ron, of all people, show better manners than her. Plus, it had stuck from their etiquette lessons. She also learned most witches, while at a public function, simply silenced their bottoms if they had problems with gas to maintain the illusion of not allowing it to pass their cultured behinds, according to Daphne, though the words were Astoria's. The younger Greengrass girl also said it was an unstated rule to assign blame to the nearest male with the worst glare of disgust you could manage.

Daphne denied it outright, but Blaise commented on such a situation, causing her cheeks to pink. Whether that was in anger or embarrassment, none of them were truly sure.

"Attention, students," Albus called attention from the numerous students since most were now in the Great Hall and eating. "Now that we are all, or at least mostly, present, I would like to take this opportunity to address our new staff member, Horace Slughorn, who is taking over the role of Potions Master in the castle and Head of Slytherin House, both positions he held before our previous member," he gestured to the pleasantly plump man, wondering idly if anyone realized he refused to use Severus' name any longer.

"Other than a select few individuals from upper years in their OWL and NEWT years, none of you will have had classes with him yet. That will change starting next week on Monday, as he will have revised his own lesson plans to help bring you all up to current standards and catch up to what you have been missing." Dumbledore did the polite thing and ignored the many groans of one of their classes coming back after a month without.

"Sir," Percy Weasley asked, standing after Dumbledore motioned for his question. "To those of us in our OWL and NEWT years, will we be getting any additional tutoring to make up for our month of inactivity? We've been asked not to brew without supervision and at the very least, _I_ feel I will have lost out on valuable study when many careers require a good grade in the subject. Especially with only three months, almost to the day, before our end-of-year, OWL and NEWT level tests." A chorus of agreeing sounds echoed through the hall, mostly from the Ravenclaw table, but also anyone else who was worried.

"I'd like to take that, if I may?" Horace offered, speaking up for the first time. Dumbledore stood aside and gestured grandly as though saying the hall was his. "I was hired to teach you potions, and will endeavor to do my best with this. As such, this follows under my remit as potions professor and I will gladly take anyone during each weekend for the rest of the year, who would like additional study or would like to brew their own potions with some supervision."

"What about Hogsmeade weekends!" One of the Slytherins cried out.

"It's a choice, Mister Wilkes," Dumbledore spoke. "You are not required to join, of course, but anyone in their OWL or NEWT years would be most foolish to pass the opportunity up. There will be time off in the future, but these tests are free during school, and quite expensive if you wish to retake them."

"Exactly," Horace continued, nodding. "Now, I will also open up my evenings, Monday through Friday, for questions and lessons on the basics, such as ingredient preparation and safety. I will provide schedules so you know when to attend and when not to. Please also understand that OWL and NEWT students will be the ones with most of my attention on the weekends for obvious reasons. Similarly, you will _only_ brew something if I give you permission and if there are dangerous portions, you will alert me when you come to them as I will warn you in advance. I believe that's all?" He asked, looking around, answering Hermione who had raised her hand quickly. "Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Will House potion stores be opened to the students?" She asked. "Snape refused us on that," she stated, causing nodding heads from only three of the house tables and intense frowns on most of the staff's faces.

"Yes, Miss Granger, though you will be required to tell me your intentions with the ingredients and I will generally require an essay on what you did or learned unless it is to refill your own kits, which I still need to know about in order to know the supply levels. For all intents and purposes, think of this as reactivating the currently defunct Potions Club. I will be the only one supervising, however, at least until I can find individuals I feel can be trusted to look after their peers."

"Thank you," Hermione said, watching Harry make a note on scrap parchment he conjured before staring at it critically and then vanishing it.

With naught but the look in her eyes, Harry understood the question she was silently asking. "Just notes to myself for my plans with the education changes I'm planning next year. I'll explain this weekend when we meet the family," which was code for their turned time day. With nothing else, the students began talking again to one another for several minutes until the sky began to darken as flapping wings of over a hundred birds filled the hall and made Hermione think of the Alfred Hitchcock film, _'The Birds'_.

"_They're_ _here_," Luna sing-songed in a way that had Hermione reliving scenes from _Poltergeist_ with a shudder.

_'I've got to stop watching horror movies,'_ Hermione thought, annoyed. _'Or get Harry to start watching them with me.'_

Owls by the dozens swooped down and delivered the Daily Prophet to a more intrigued group as whispering broke out.

_**Most Grievous Injustice!**_

_By: Rita Skeeter_

_Today, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones, came to see me for a most serious article. What could that be, you ask? Simple._

_Sirius Black may very well be innocent!_

"I placed the Dementors around Hogwarts because we knew he was heading in that direction from overheard mumbling while he as still in Azkaban," _Fudge told me. _"When I did this, under the assumption he was a convicted felon, nothing found under a cursory examination showed any abnormalities. It was only when Lord Potter wondered why this man may be coming for him that we had to actually pull any case files. Understanding why he would be curious, Madam Bones did the leg work to find and pull all our records on him and then gave me his file and warned me it was too short. We went over it and found far too many irregularities."

_At this point, Madam Bones actually showed me the file, or rather the lack of it and explained, _"we have an arrest record, along with witness and arresting Auror reports, but there was no registered questioning, nor was there an actual trial. While we can hold people for up to a year without one on rare occasions, that wasn't done here."

_When I asked what the next step was for the DMLE, I was given a very shocking response by the Minister of Magic._

"I cannot, in good conscience, maintain the kiss-on-sight order for Black. Not if he could be innocent. That is hereby lifted, as is the option to kill for Aurors trying to arrest him unless there is a clear and present danger to civilians. Sirius Black is to be brought in alive while we continue to go over the evidence we _do_ have, which will be pulled out and gone over, including Black's wand, which is still in evidence,"_ Fudge told me._

_In short, dear readers, an innocent man may have gone to Azkaban prison, one of the worst locations in the world, and suffered for eleven years! When I asked who was responsible for this travesty, I was given a very peculiar answer by Bones._

"The short answer is that we don't even have the order to send Black to Azkaban. We believe orders got mixed up, or perhaps Black did since others went there on the same day, but we don't truly know. Barty Crouch Sr was in my place at the time, and we had a different Minister. The Minister and I were in positions too low to do much of anything at the time, and certainly weren't told anything we didn't need to about cases we weren't associated with. That's why we're going over so much of the history and working so closely on this. It's also why we came to you to get everything out now, rather than later. The Ministry of Magic failed to do as we were meant to and we'd like to find out what is what, which leads us to our reason for coming here today."

_Unsure of what this meant, I asked and got my most shocking revelation yet!_

"Sirius Black. This is Minister Fudge, and I am hereby proclaiming you a ward of the Ministry and under its protection. If you come in willingly for questioning, you will not be harmed and anyone taking action against you will suffer the full weight of a Ministry that may have failed you. If you don't come in, we will know the truth of your guilt, but if you do, you have the chance to be free once again. Until then, we urge all citizens not to let down their guards, as we must all practice vigilance, but if you can take Black in without harming him, please do so. The reward for capture stands until then. And yes, Black, that means you'll get it if you turn yourself in."

"The previous administration screwed up, Black. I'm aware of this and want to make it right. On a similar note, I've gone over other records and found that Rubeus Hagrid, current Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts had been accused of a murder and his wand snapped fifty-one years ago, despite no evidence to support this, even though there was nothing to suggest it was him as well. I will be setting up a proper trial for him, also, and providing a wand at my own expense should this prove to be another fault of the Ministry," _Fudge went on, before smiling. _ "Only two failures in fifty years isn't so bad, I'd say. I'm on the look-out for anything else and we're checking the records of every inmate in Azkaban just to be sure, but thus far, we're finding nothing despite a diligent search by myself and the DMLE like these to isolated incidents. I would also like to point out that, due to budget cuts over the years and reducing the work force in the Auror department from what we had on a war time footing, I will be endeavoring to increase the budget Director Bones is working with so that I can help protect the citizens and our Aurors, themselves, due to outdated equipment and some new changes so this will hopefully never happen again, even after I leave office since I can't ensure that my future replacement will be as concerned as myself since the previous was certainly wasn't."

_This report is pleased to see justice being done, but feels one must wonder why, if Sirius Black is indeed innocent, was he the only man during the many arrests in that period of time not provided a trial. I have it on good authority that Black was not marked with the dreaded Dark Mark. But those who were, such as Lucius Malfoy, and even the LeStranges who orphaned another young boy a few days after Black's arrest, were given trials. I've even looked at the transcripts and those like Lucius Malfoy, and others, weren't even questioned under Veritaserum while Black just simply wasn't questioned!_

_A few curious facts, however._

_Sirius Black was a respected Auror with one of the highest take down records of Death Eaters during the last war, second only to Alastor Moody. He was an Auror for four years with a Hitwizard classification before being taken in by fellow Aurors who didn't seem bothered that he was acting so out of character._

_Sirius Black is from the same Black line, and is its current Lord, as Bellatrix LeStrange nee Black, which is known for its dark history. But he ran away from home to live with the Potters and was taken in and treated like one of their own, turning on the family of his birth._

_Black was also a member of Albus Dumbledore's 'Order of the Phoenix', a paramilitary, vigilante group that stood opposed to You-Know-Who to pick up slack where the Ministry was failing. This is important because Albus Dumbledore, the head of that group, was still heading the Wizengamot and International Confederation of Wizards, meaning he could have pushed for a trial. However, according to records, Dumbledore never once even visited one of his Order members to ask why he betrayed his friends, family and the Order. This leads one to wonder what kind of loyalty Dumbledore gives in exchange for the loyalty of those who follow him._

_It is also important, because Sirius Black is and was Harry Potter's godfather, but Albus Dumbledore placed Harry Potter with muggle relatives instead of allowing Black the child._

_From the Minister's words, and those of Director Bones, that suggests three people responsible for Black's imprisonment for failure to uphold the law: Millicent Bagnold (Minister,) Bartemius Crouch Sr (Head of the DMLE) and Albus Dumbledore (Supreme Mugwump of the ICW & Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.)_

_Is this really how we want to treat members of Ancient and Noble Houses? What's next? Will Harry Potter be tossed aside like last week's rubbish as well? Will citizens be shipped off to Azkaban simply for annoying those in power? Regardless of what may happen to the adults, what about their children? Will they continue to be shipped off to muggle relations or live outside of the wizarding world regardless of magical relatives?_

_I applaud Minster Fudge and Department Head Bones for their forthrightness and willingness to own up to mistakes that weren't even theirs and hope no future travesties occur in the future. Stay tuned, readers, and I'll be sure to let you know if Black brings himself in._

"Fudge is definitely a politician," Hermione mumbled, pointing at the article. "He made sure that the public will note his words that the next Minister may not care about them going to Azkaban with no trial, ensuring more people will likely want to keep him on."

"Daddy says politicians are like sharks," Luna said, wondering why Percy was reading a letter and looking ... well, his grin was kind of scaring her. "They can smell blood and weakness from miles away and will turn on someone in an instant for their own benefit. Something to keep in mind, I would think."

"I'm just glad it spins this in a good light," Harry stated, thinking over the possibilities of the words quoted. Since it was the Minister and Amelia, he doubted Skeeter was willing to 'misquote' them, so felt it was likely what was said. What was said and not mentioned, however, was likely important too, according to what Daphne had been trying to explain during her lessons.

Albus Dumbledore, however, looked constipated and was receiving some questioning and accusing stares.

"Harry?" Percy spoke up from behind the young lord in a tremulous voice.

"Hm?" Harry asked, turning around curiously. "What's up, Percy?"

"Ha – Lord Potter," Percy began, speaking as clearly and strongly as he felt he could right then, looking down at the folded parchment in his hands for strength, "I, Percy, son of Arthur and Molly of House Weasley, thank you for finding that old apprenticeship application and gifting it to me for the Yule holiday, providing me with an opportunity of immeasurable potential. I shall not forget your graciousness, generosity and consideration, " he spoke formally, actually bowing in use of the Old Forms, according to Daphne, and shocking many purebloods who were aware of it, including his bewildered brothers and curious sister.

"Er," Harry began, shocked, before he cleared his head and sat up straight, putting Daphne's lessons to good use, especially since he noticed her leap up and glare at him as if daring him to prove her time wasted. "Percy, son of Arthur and Molly of House Weasley, you are most welcome. I hope it served you well?" He finished, ending the formality for the most part while Daphne gnashed her teeth for his remaining sitting.

Percy grinned widely, looking far more relaxed than his family had ever seen and it showed on their faces. Well, except Ginny. She was busy watching Harry and shivering in delight at the Lordly version of him she just witnessed, debating on whether or not she could escape to his dorm and take off with a pair of his boxers. "It did, Lord Potter. Assuming my NEWT scores are good enough, I'll be apprenticing to become the new Undersecretary to Minister Fudge."

"That's amazing!" Lavender cried out gleefully, unaware of her boyfriend's internal debate on how he felt about having another successful brother until she wrapped her arms around his, distracting him and kissing him in public with her happiness making her do something they hadn't before. "A curse-breaker brother in Gringotts, a dragon-tamer in Romania, the twins likely to start a business and you already getting approval to train with the Chudley Cannons! Your family is awesome!" That was enough to please Ron to no end, making his angry thoughts dissipate into the ether as they instead turned to a Lavender wearing nothing but Chudley orange and cheering him on.

_'Yea, eat it up, guys,'_ Ron thought smugly, getting another kiss on the cheek as Lavender's cheeriness simply bubbled out of her, affecting a few others around her like Parvati. _'Those hidden quaffles will be all mine, eventually!'_

At least he got past the staring stage. And despite his fear of their wiles, they were far too entrancing for him to forget entirely.

"Lavender's right, that's wonderful, Percy," Hermione agreed, happy for the boy. She was thinking cattily Ron's success with the Cannons wasn't all that impressive since Harry got the offer for him and training didn't mean he would play for them. The brunette sniffed as she dismissed Ron from her mind with a prejudice, forcing herself to focus on Harry and Percy.

"I _am_ curious," Harry mused thoughtfully. "When you get the job, do you think you can send a letter explaining what an undersecretary actually _does_, by any chance, and what kinds of thigns they _can_ do?"

"I promise I will," Percy stated officiously, puffing up his chest.

"One other thing?" Harry asked, seeing something that there had been thankfully very little of over the year compared to what he remembered.

"What's that?" Percy asked, slightly worried. The boy could ask for quite a bit considering it had been _his_ influence that allowed this to happen. Percy was very intelligent. He knew that Harry was a man with a lot of power. That's why he had been moderately tame over the year. Especially regarding the Ravenclaw in the Gryffindor common room. It had taken a discussion with McGonagall, but it seemed there were truly no rules against it, and Harry was, in reality, the Lord of the castle, and thus could make any rules he chose, or ignore any he chose. Granted, it turned out the staff and students had the choice to leave if they wanted rather than follow, but he hadn't allowed the power to corrupt him nearly as much as Percy had expected it to. Or at all, really, other than that. And finding the new potions professor on his own, which was turning out splendidly, which he hoped his brothers would learn soon. And Percy was intelligent enough to know this opportunity was only so great because Minister Fudge was probably trying to ingratiate Harry to him.

"No matter how much power you may get in this position, and no matter what it leads to in the future, don't forget who you are or where you came from," Harry said seriously, projecting as best he could just how serious he was, much to Percy's confusion, along with most others. But, it was effective all the same, even if the boy receiving the knowledge didn't understand why.

"I don't understand," Percy explained.

"You remember how Draco Malfoy strutted around when he thought he had his name behind him and Snape protecting him? Don't become the person who is so full of themselves that they forget about reality. Don't forget the lessons you learned from your parents, or your roots, or even your family. _Remember_ what it means to be a member of your family," Harry commanded, lacing his voice with power not from magic, but from the power of authority that he had always carried that had always made people follow him and listen. The same voice that got Amelia and Augusta on his side during his first Wizengamot meeting and had all the members of the DA, other than Cho and Marietta, seeing him as their leader.

The same voice that made Hermione's secret places tingle deliciously. The same voice that Ginny Weasley had never heard directly before, and certainly not with that kind of power behind it. She shuddered in pleasure as her Lord and Master spoke before she immediately rushed out to steal a pair of Harry's silk boxers.

The power, the authority, washed over Percy. He didn't feel any different, and he didn't truly understand what Harry was trying to do, but the words affected him anyway. They became deep-rooted in his mind and psyche simply because the voice that spoke those words to him impressed upon him just how serious Harry truly was. "I ... I will, Harry," Percy said, confused, but believing the advice to be perhaps the most veracious and sincere advice he had ever been given about being an adult. Of how to live his life.

"Then I wish you the best of luck," Harry stated, grinning and ignoring Hermione's hand squeezing his thigh in an attempt to keep from trying to ravish him.

Percy nodded and went to show Penny the good news, making the girl squeal in delight as she hugged him tightly for his good fortune. Most of the conversation had been too quiet to truly hear, but even though she didn't know exactly what was going on, the faces around her said it was something important. And now, they didn't have to worry as much about money and getting married, assuming it paid anywhere near as well as it appeared it would.

When she would later learn, after Percy started the job and got his sign on bonus, and the ring that bonus provided, and that it could comfortably support the Weasley Family, the shock would cause her to drop in a dead faint. The sheepish acceptance when revived would send Molly Weasley over the moon.

"You got Percy a job?" The twins asked, shocked.

"No, I got him an application," Harry laughed. "No different than a parent grabbing one for their child to let them know they wanted that child to work during the summer, really. I was honestly expecting him to end up a file clerk," he not-quite joked.

"Now he'll be _really_ unbearable," Fred grumbled.

"_And_ he'll have the authority to back it up," George agreed.

"And Mum will probably want us to follow in his footsteps," they both said and sighed in unison.

"I don't _want_ to be respectable," Fred sniffled in mock horror.

"It'll be alright," George patted his twin's shoulder. "Let's go turn his hair lime green as our way of congratulating him."

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – March 2, 09:40 – Divination Class**

"Honestly!" Hermione grumbled, sitting next to Parvati and Lavender about half an hour into her Divination class as they were staring into crystal balls. They had just started ball gazing – a term that sent half the class into giggles with each repetition and caused Hermione to roll her eyes – that day and Hermione was finding herself both bored and disgusted by the curriculum. "I don't know why I haven't dropped this class, yet. I've been meaning to do it since January. February comes around and I tell Harry I will, and I _still _haven't as of March," she continued, trying to pierce the fog in the ball on the stand in front of her, trying to _will_ the annoying mass of smoke out of the way.

"Oh dear, oh dear," Professor Trelawney mumbled, the sherry on her breath making Hermione's nose crinkle in disgust. "Are you _still_ having trouble, my dear? Is your inner eye still blinded to the future and the world around you?"

"You know very well this isn't as simple as looking into a gaudy ornament and telling it what to show you!" Hermione snapped, her anger from the previous few days returning during the one and only class she truly hated with a passion that she also shared with the unaware source of that anger and aggression without the buffering presence of Harry or Luna. _'If it isn't this batty old fraud predicting Harry's death, then she's talking about grims or the death of someone else, or even Lavender's bloody rabbit, or so the bint says! That wasn't right, that was mean. It's just the fraud getting to you, Hermione. Don't let her turn you against your friends.'_ The bushy-haired brunette could feel her eyebrow twitch and consciously tried to stop it, only getting more annoyed as it continued anyway.

"Of course it is," Trelawney proclaimed, waving her hand dismissively and swaying unsteadily. "I'm afraid you're simply incapable of the Sight. From the moment you first entered this class, I noticed a very faint and dim aura around you. Never before have I encountered a student whose mind was so hopelessly ... _Mundane_. Such a lack of the receptiveness necessary to See and Hear the signs the universe is trying to warn us of at every moment. You aren't just unable to See it, my _dear_, but you are actively closing yourself off from it!" She grabbed the crystal ball with both hands and pulled it towards her, caressing it like a lover and swaying back and forth as she gazed into its depths. "Here, I'll prove it to you," she stated, ignoring Hermione's rage, the snarl of actual hatred directed at the professor that legitimately worried a few of the students, mostly those next to the young witch.

A moment ticked by and, just before Hermione opened her mouth to say something snarky, the professor's back stiffened. "Yes, yes. I _See_ it," she whispered. "As I told you all near the beginning, Mister Potter will have thirteen children. _You_, Miss Granger, shall bear him at least six of these children and-"

"_Six_!?" Hermione shrieked, ignoring the snickering that Draco Malfoy's comment to his group caused. "Do you think I'm just going to be some baby-making machine for Harry!? And if Harry's going to die as you've stated _at least_ once each week since our first bloody class, then how do you expect him to have these thirteen children, you old fraud!" Hermione ignored Parvati and Lavender's shocked gasps, both girls believing in their professor like Ron believed in the Cannons.

Trelawney raised her gaze from the crystal ball to the fuming witch sitting above her, unperturbed. "Does he not desire to be a part of a large family? Desire children? Do you not already consider that you would never deny him another if he so wanted it?" Trelawney asked, making the children surrounding them quiet down and raising Hermione's ire. "You're quite the fertile young lady, and his power is immense. As such, he will never 'miss the mark', as it were. Would you deny him a child if he asked it of – SMACK!"

Hermione lowered her hand from where she had slapped her teacher, causing the woman to spin around in shock and from the pure malice behind it. Not a single student uttered a word as she gathered her belongings and made her way down the ladder. "Didn't see _that_ one coming, did you, Professor," she growled, just before her head lowered to under the floor and closed the hatch.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – March 2, 09:45 – Ancient Runes, during last scene**

Harry's brow furrowed once again as he felt a powerful since of anger, indignation and embarrassment. It had taken him a few minutes, but he recognized it as coming from Hermione, but she was sitting right next to him and happily working on a cleaner version of her end-of-year project since she, just as he had, was finished with the daily assignment of translating a few poems that were written in runic script, to make them more familiar with them, while also having them explain what other meanings the runes could have in the same poem to make it read differently.

Harry knew that Hermione preferred to turn time after this class to make it to Divination, just as she had the very first day of school. It was easier for her to be the first to that class and explain it away than it was for her to do so to this one, since some of the students were much closer and she didn't want to risk changing her daily schedule around too much and risk notice. However, since this Hermione was apparently rather happy, and writing her own poem in runic script for what she hoped would mean extra credit, Harry doubted it was this version that was sending the signals.

Unable to focus any longer as the feelings of embarrassment began to turn into shame and humiliation, Harry shot his hand up with enough force to catch Professor Babbling's attention. "May I go to the loo, Professor?" He asked after getting permission to speak.

"There's only a few minutes left in class, Mister Potter. Can it not wait?" Babbling doubted it from the sense of urgency he was throwing off. However, with the look the young Miss Granger was giving him, she doubted it was really the toilet the boy needed. Reading the girl had made understanding the boy much easier during the year. And knowing his track record, she decided immediately to not keep him held back, just in case. "Never mind. Grab your things and go. Just don't make this a habit," she stated firmly, quirking a brow in mild appreciation of the boy's skill as he flicked his wand and his things flew into his bag almost instantly and he moved for the door quickly while letting Miss Granger know he'd see her in their next class.

As soon as Harry was out of view, he shifted to where he felt Hermione's other presence, something he hadn't ever really paid much attention to, as he had never really felt both before, and due to her frustration, and mindful of the shifting ability being secret and the possible reasons she may be so upset, he arrived around a corner a few feet away in case he needed the element of surprise saw her grumbling angrily as she came down the ladder in a huff.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – March 2, 09:45 – Divination Class, just after Hermione left**

"I'll see to her," Lavender offered, quickly shoving her book into her bag and hugging Ron before skirting around the other students and carefully moving down the ladder, hearing some mumbling from the corner.

"It's a shame Harry isn't interested in Ginny," Ron said nervously into the shocked quiet, musing aloud thoughts that he had never really voiced before. "Mum would love to have a bunch of grandkids," he finished, thinking about how great it would be to actually have Harry become his brother for real. He had never told anyone about those thoughts, of course, as that was too girly, but he had always thought it would be kind of nice.

"Aren't there already enough of you, Weasley?" Draco Malfoy sneered, making several of the Slytherins chuckle quietly in house unity and causing Ron's face to erupt into red. It appeared the newest Lord Malfoy was done remaining in the shadows. He also seemed content that at least some things remained the same as Ron began sniping back at him with dim-witted comebacks, getting a few points lost for his effort and a detention for whatever he was going to say next, which turned out to be a slur against Draco's new wife and loss of his parents, since he felt he already got the detention for it anyway. He had felt bad for taunting the other boy about the latter, however, knowing Harry, Hermione his own family and Lavender would be ashamed of him for it.

Not that he was going to admit to that, of course.

xXxXxXx

**Wednesday – March 2, 09:44 – Outside Divination in the hall**

"-Old batty fraud doesn't know what the bloody hell she's talking about!" Hermione seethed, dropping the last two rungs of the ladder to the ground with a growl of frustration. She turned swiftly, her hair flying around and her eyes blazing until she saw Harry looking at her in concern, his wand out and ready to protect her. "Harry!" She exclaimed, shifting through the twenty feet of hallway and into his embrace and causing him to spin them around so he wouldn't fall over from the force of her entire body launching through the last few feet and wrapping her arms and legs around him in a full body bear hug.

"Whoa, whoa, Hermione," he said gently, trying to get the suddenly-crying girl to calm. "What's wrong?" He asked, not hearing the trap door shut from around the corner.

"So this is where you left during Runes," Hermione half chuckled and half sniffled. "I thought you were off to do something heroic and stupid like normal."

"Coming whenever you need me is heroic enough, and only stupid if I do something to get hexed. Now, what's wrong, Love?" Harry asked, moving Hermione's hair out of her eyes and cupping her face gently, kissing her cheeks to show her he was there for her. He didn't really know what else to do since this wasn't exactly somewhere he could hold her like he normally would when she was upset. He settled for stroking her hair and back as he hugged her to him instead, unaware his voice had caused Lavender to stop just at the corner, not wanting to ruin a private moment, but feeling too girly to give up on the mushy romance.

"How did you know to come?" Hermione asked, wanting to avoid the question a little and finally letting her legs unwrap from around his waist so she could support her own weight.

"You know I can feel yours and Luna's emotions when they spike. I felt it all the way from Runes," he told her in a low voice, trying to instill comfort into her mind. It had worked with Teddy when his Godson was fussy. _'When did I ever get to hold Teddy?'_ He wondered, not having met the newborn that he could remember, though he knew Tonks had given birth to him by the time he died.

"Thank you for coming," Hermione said quietly, wrapping her arms around Harry's neck and kissing him gently. She tried to distract him by continuing the kiss for nearly a minute, but it wasn't to be.

"Not that your kisses don't turn my brain to mush," he said with a fond smile, "but maybe you can tell me what made you so upset now?"

Hermione hesitated only a moment before she sighed, laying her head on his shoulder and turning her face to nuzzle his neck and breathe in deeply of his scent. Well, his and a little of hers and Luna's. She decided they would stop making him use their shampoo. The flowery scent didn't work for him when she wanted to be comforted. "The fraud told me I was going to give you six kids. When I got upset and told her I didn't want to be a baby factory..."

"Go on," Harry urged gently, kissing her on the forehead.

"She said awful, mean things about not having the gift and being closed off and then told me I'd do it anyway if you wanted me to."

"Don't listen to her, honey," Harry said, not noticing the endearment slip, though Hermione felt her lips twitch at how effortlessly he used it. "You know I love you and Luna. I love you and I'm happy with you in my life. If you want one child, two or even a dozen, that is and always will be your choice. I know I want a big family, but my family just blossomed right in front of me. I got you and Luna, Dan and Emma, Xeno. And your mum's about to have another little one. I know children are work and that they sometimes just happen, especially since I'm probably immune to the contraception spell since I would overpower it. But I won't ever put you into that position."

"That's just the thing, though," Hermione said miserably. "I _want_ to give you a family! She was right about that! Even if it meant I became Molly Weasley, I would be content in giving you six babies if you wanted them! I _do_ love you too much to deny you that, especially when I think about how easy it would be to research and invent at home! I want to do something with my life, but I think about how happy I would be in giving you a large family and how badly I want to and I have to argue with myself about which would make me happier!" She explained forcefully.

"You might be willing to give them to me if I asked, but I love you too much to ever really do that to you," Harry told his First firmly. "You want a career and to make a difference. This relationship isn't just about me and what I want. It's about _us_. You, me and Luna and _our_ desires. You want to be Minister for Magic some day? I'll by the husband that stands by your side and fights in the Wizengamot for you each step of the way. Want to invent new things for this world? I'll help you with anything you need. Hell, if you wanted to take over the world, I'd be by your side and blast any bastard who dares come anywhere near you with the thought of doing you harm and gods help any idiot fool enough to stand in your way," he growled, nipping at her neck, having gotten a little impassioned during his speech.

Hermione and Lavender both swooned and both girls were tempted to throw their knickers at him, but saner heads prevailed, although barely in the case of the former while the latter chanted about being Ron's girlfriend in her head.

"Oh, and we'll have to make sure Luna gets her zoo, even if it has to be an evil zoo with evil ducks and evil kittens and the like in the case of taking over the world," Harry murmured into the soft flesh of Hermione's neck where he sucked and raked his teeth, marking her for everyone to see and making Hermione laugh, finally.

Hidden from view, Lavender rested against the stone wall, smiling at the byplay between the two. This was the most honest she had heard of the two being, since they didn't spend much time in public, especially in a romantic sense, though Hermione's squeaks and heavy breathing made her almost curious enough to peek. They'd only begun kissing publicly recently, and that was mostly after Harry's business ventures came out. The blonde tilted her head back and her grin widened at Hermione's happy giggles, happy for her friend, even if she wasn't a close friend. _'She deserves to be happy,'_ she thought, wondering if her and Ron would become that way.

"Does this mean you finally quit Divination?" Harry asked curiously, licking Hermione's neck where he had just bit her firmly, causing her to squirm her body into his and breathe out happily.

"Yes," Hermione admitted with a sigh, realizing Harry was just going to tease her from that point onward. "I swear, with as much as you know about what's to come, I should have just listened when you said as much in January," she finished, perking Lavender's attention.

"You know I won't force you to do anything, and this was always your choice," Harry said with a shrug. "I don't just have to support you in a career. I'll be here for the small things, too," he claimed, getting slapped on the arm for his effort.

"You are such a sappy boyfriend!" Hermione said, the pleased grin denying she was upset at what she heard. "But, I suppose now I can focus on things to aid in the war."

Lavender's hand flew to her mouth at what she was hearing. _'War? _What_ war_!?' She wondered to herself.

"It just bugs me that they let that fraud teach! And she told everyone in there that I would give you however many babies you wanted without a care for whether I really wanted that kind of discussion taking place in a public forum or not! And it would be a fool's bet to say Malfoy and his lot won't be spreading rumors about me. The little prick called me a mudblood slag right there in the classroom when she said it, too."

"Call him on it next time so it's addressed, then come to me and I'll handle him," Harry snarled before dismissing the less important issue of a foolish Slytherin. "And you know, she _did_ give a couple of true prophecies," Harry warned gently. "The one about me and the dark wanker having to fight, and the one about him coming back to life, or regaining his body to be more precise. Well, I guess she hasn't given that one yet, but you know what I mean," he said, confusing Lavender a little more.

_'Is Harry a Seer?'_ Lavender wondered. _'They keep talking about the future! And Ron was saying a bunch of things that Harry told him about that Trelawney said, and he also said Harry wanted to say he was sorry for Sir Hopsalot the day before Mum sent the letter saying he'd died. I didn't even know Harry _knew _Sir Hopsalot's name!' _

"Yes, yes. And that's why you're preparing, I know," Hermione sighed, tossing her head back and growling. "That doesn't mean I have to accept being humiliated in class about what is really a sensitive subject, though!"

"I agree," Harry said, watching and feeling Hermione descend back into anger. "Let's go see Madam Pomfrey, okay?" He suggested.

"What? Why?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry in surprise.

"Hermione, yesterday, you were angry with Ron for no reason I could tell. "You were also a little snarky around him a few days before, but not as bad, and today, you went from furious, even though you had a good reason," he hastened to add, seeing her eyes glint in anger again and knowing what it meant, "then you were happy again, and now you're angry again. I just want to be sure, okay?" He asked.

"It's probably just my monthly," Hermione stated, annoyed, but accepting. "Luna and I have been spending so much time together that we're beginning to sync up. But fine." The two walked away, leaving a very confused and worried Lavender Brown who decided, for the first time in her life, that she would have to think about what she heard before telling anyone about it.

The duo made it to the infirmary a few minutes after the bell and looked at each other, silently communicating that they would go ahead and turn time to avoid being late.

"Miss Granger, Mister Potter," Poppy greeted, looking the two over critically. "Neither of you appear to be injured or fretful, so what can I do for you today?"

"Did you manage to get my tests graded?" Hermione interjected before Harry could speak, much to his amusement.

"Yes, of course, Miss Granger. And a perfect score, as always," Poppy smiled at the girl she was beginning to think may replace her in the future. "You added much more detail for some things, which we will probably discuss in private later," she said, darting her eyes to Harry to show she was uncomfortable discussing female anatomy, which the most recent tests were about, in front of the boy.

"I got the extra information from the muggle texts I read to compare the information," Hermione admitted. "The magic texts have the same information, but words are a little off and the muggle texts generally explain more details on the various differences of-"

"In _private_, Miss Granger," Madam Pomfrey interrupted, unwilling to bend to her desire to keep the boy out of the discussion and causing Hermione to blush at the rebuke.

"We're here because Hermione's been acting a little off the last few days," Harry explained, getting to the reason of the visit. "She's been a little angry the last few days and switching between moods somewhat quickly. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't pranked or anything and has lasting effects," he said, explaining the examples from the occasional glare at Ron a few days ago, to the muted hostility on his birthday and then that morning.

"Sounds like a hormonal imbalance," Poppy muttered to herself, eying Hermione with narrowed eyes and once again casting the charm to test for pregnancy.

"Oh bloody hell!" Hermione threw her head back and screamed with her hands clenched into fists and shaking at her sides, shocking the other two and making Harry glad the infirmary was empty save for them. The three Ravenclaws that had been sent there under Luna's tender mercies had been moved to Saint Mungo's and were beginning to show signs of awakening not long after. "I've been telling you for three bloody months that I'm not pregnant! I've not been pregnant any time you've checked me and I've put up with it long enough! Get it through your head that I'm a bloody virgin and _not_ pregnant!"

"I – I'm sorry, Miss Granger," Poppy stuttered, looking at the furious witch in front of her and seeing the wispy haze of her amber-colored aura beginning to manifest around her. "It's just, with all of our discussions on pregnancy, and what I'm researching for you, I'm sure you can understand why I felt the need to check."

"No! I bloody well can _not_!" Hermione snarled, the constant rage swirling around in her like that fog from the crystal ball frothing agitatedly. "I've explained, in exacting detail, why I wanted to discuss pregnancy related magic! I've explained what I found when testing my mother, so you _know_ I have checked a pregnant woman! I've put up with your accusations for three bloody months and, it! Ends! Now!"

"I've not accused-!" Poppy started, only to be interrupted by five feet and four inches of angry witch.

"You may not have spoken it, but you've tested me for it every chance you get and look at me like you're disappointed whenever I tell you _right before _that there's no chance and you decide to check anyway! If you do it one more time outside of standard check-ups, or at my request, or unless I tell you I've become sexually active to make the risk there, I swear I'll show you exactly what I can do when pissed off!"

As if to prove her point, her aura flared for a brief instant and her hair flew up as the floor chipped and the thick oak of the hospital beds creaked and groaned under some unknown pressure, one of the beds actually jerking as a loud crack went through the support beam in the middle.

Harry got behind the furious witch and hugged her around the waist, saying soothing words into her ear and making her take note of the stone chips and a few of the loose items hovering in the air around her. After a few minutes, of which Poppy wasn't about to stop the boy from calming the witch down, Hermione finally huffed and sat on the bed that Harry was always in.

"Are you going to check me over or not? Do you need to see Harry shag me rotten or bugger me insensate before you're interested in looking me over?" She snapped, causing Poppy to jump as if told to and silently check her over, using some older spells since their newer counterparts, while doing the same things as the older but being more complicated to read, had wand movements that were uncomfortably close to the pregnancy test. She didn't even make Harry leave, which would have been both standard procedure and the proper thing to do, but she wanted the boy nice and close in case he was needed. Still, it wasn't illegal or against the rules since they were now engaged and Harry was allowed to be present during any medical sessions Hermione didn't specifically state she didn't want him at, which suited the medi-witch just fine.

"Do you wish for Mister Potter to leave the room for your diagnosis?" Poppy asked, just to remain professional and hoping not after a few minutes of testing for spells, potions and mental tampering in the normally very accommodating girl. To be blunt, she was equally parts ashamed of the girl's honest and accurate assessment, which was appalling as a medical professional as she realized she had fallen prey to judging the girl based on her peers rather than who she knew the girl to be, and partly worried for her hopeful protégé.

The last time she saw Hermione, she had been a shy, embarrassed girl just entering womanhood and asking the hard questions to ensure the safety of herself, her man and even her co-girlfriend. This was very strange and seemed very sudden.

But at least now, Poppy could understand, even if the results were far more extreme than she could account for.

"No," Hermione bit out, annoying the elder woman a little. "He has the right to know as much as I do."

"It _is_ a hormonal imbalance, and a curiously extreme one," Poppy explained. "Have you been having pains in your back and joints, and almost certainly your muscles? Perhaps some changes in your libido and a stronger appetite? Have you been feeling any odd surges in your magic, by any chance?"

"Yes, yes and yes, I'm randy more often than I'm not the past week and a half, yes and yes," Hermione stated simply, making the medi-witch cluck her tongue at the blunt way the girl said the things in front of the Harry, but only due to propriety as it was a little amusing that he seemed especially guilty-looking at hearing that as he had noticed it as well, but hadn't thought anything of it and Poppy was pleasantly happy that he seemed to be berating himself for it. The two were legally allowed to engage in whatever activities they desired, but that didn't mean she, as a healer, had to support it or accept it. She did catch herself before she finished her thoughts that the girl actually was sexually active and thinking that those missing condoms saw more use than the moody girl admitted to.

They didn't, of course, since Harry talked Luna out of testing her hiding and smuggling theory, albeit barely.

"I expected as much. I'm noticing a growth spurt of unusual aggressiveness. Nothing abnormal, mind you, or dangerous," she added when she noticed Mister Potter beginning to fret. "I simply mean that while many young women sprout upwards and ... outwards," she gestured vaguely, not willing to use her normal speech with a boy present, "at a steady or mild pace, with a mild boost during the summer, yours is hitting you harder. Essentially, causing you to go through what would normally take a couple of months in a couple of weeks. How long this will last I can't say, but I don't expect it to be long. I expect you will have a need for new undergarments in the next few days, or judicious use of resizing charms, you will need to be careful with any other clothing as well as your magic pooling in those areas and in your bones suggests your chest and hips will grow, along with your height. I'm also noticing an odd accumulation of magic in your muscles that is usually seen in Aurors and professional duelers, but since you came to me when you began exercising, I believe that is your magic's way of ensuring you tone without gaining bulk, though I expect you will find your stomach cramping more often and likely more severely during this time."

"So, I should treat it like her normal monthlies?" Harry asked a little unsure of what was actually said. "Make sure she's happy, have the foods she likes around, treat her extra special and maybe some massages to ease the pain?" He continued, unaware he avoided an annoyed girlfriend with his obvious and thoughtful concerns. It was a little heavy on the concern, she felt absently, but Hermione smiled gratefully at him, making Poppy blink at the quick and sudden change in mood. It appeared to be more drastic and sudden than the growth spurt could account for, but Harry had thrown in another possibility.

"It won't hurt, Mister Potter," Poppy agreed, staring at Hermione critically. "Miss Granger, when are you due your monthly? And before you get upset for discussing such a thing in front of Mister Potter, remember you are the one who elected he remain," she argued before a standard point of contention could arise in the moody child.

"Harry doesn't have a problem discussing feminine issues with me or Luna. He's even offered to get us some of our necessities for it," Hermione stated proudly, remembering to keep most of that from her face at the last moment, though the surprised expression of the medi-witch caused some to bleed through and look perhaps a little smug. One thing Hermione had learned was that there was not a single wizard she had ever _heard _of was willing to do such a thing, though she had to admit the muggleborn and mixed homes meant that could have been a lack of maturity. "And Luna and I are beginning to sync, especially with things happening as they are," she explained, fiddling with her necklace since she wasn't supposed to let Harry know about it, though the healer did in case it was necessary medically, which was very possible. "I should begin in a day or two, maybe up to four. I don't really feel the early signs, but I haven't the last few months."

"In that case, there is nothing wrong with you medically, but I believe the hormonal imbalance is exaggerated by the onset of your menses. I will demand you have a large glass of milk at breakfast and lunch, that you eat red meat during dinner and lunch if we have it and try to eat several fruits each breakfast for the next week. I can provide some mild pain relievers for the aches and pains, but natural things like this should be allowed to run their course outside of that. I can also provide a few mild calming drafts for the shifts in your mood. I am afraid that is the extent of my abilities for now. Other than that, you can expect your normal ... _womanly growth_," she said carefully, trying to tame her speech in front of Harry, despite already being more blunt earlier since this was in reference to the nasty side of things they all wished weren't present. In the end, Poppy recognized the girl's magic had minor changes that were effectively present in women after they've reached their maturity. They were fairly minor changes, but they were noticeable. If the medi-witch had to guess, which was honestly what it would be, she would have to assume the time-magics were somehow aging her magically and her body was attempting to catch up. However, while that was a part of the issue, it was only a small portion of the physical changes. The primary reasons for those changes was the soul bond. And it was simply causing changes to suit what Hermione was wanting to do, subconsciously trying to channel all her rage and aggression into a course of action outside of killing the source of that anger. Thus, it was working to make her body faster, stronger and more capable of channeling magic so she could be a better fighter.

So she could _then_ rip Ronald Weasley a new arsehole with her bare bloody hands!

There was a _lot_ of anger and aggression within such a tiny witch.

"Better than nothing," Hermione grumbled, making a gimme motion with her hand. Taking the first calming draft immediately and feeling the soothing coolness enter her mind, Hermione sighed and looped her right arm around Harry's left and allowed him to escort her out of the infirmary with her head on his shoulder, feeling very mellow now.

"Miss Granger," Poppy called before they got through the door, making the girl turn and look at her with a blank expression from the potion's effects. "I truly am sorry for my essentially not believing you. I promise I shan't do so again." The medi-witch sighed as the girl simply nodded and left.

In the calmness of Hermione's mind, the memories recovered on Ron's birthday drifted along the outside of Hermione's occlumency barriers, unsorted and unfiltered in her psyche without the rest of her life's memories balancing the raw feelings from them with their own.

xXxXxXx

**Saturday – March 5, After Breakfast in unused classroom – First time through day**

"What's this all about?" Hermione asked almost rudely as Daphne led her and Luna into a separate room from Neville and Harry, who had received confirmation an hour previously from Sirius about the start of his plan to recover the Longbottoms. The girl was now upset that Harry was almost skittish with the physical loving and she was so far beyond sexually frustrated that she felt ready to spend hours in private taking care of an itch that just never seemed to go away. The good news was that this was the first day she woke up without soaking Harry's leg against her most private area. She could actually feel the always-present urge to do dirty things far less than the day before and Hermione was fairly confident things were ending.

Her breasts had enlarged a little, requiring the need of a new set of bras, but some quick charms set her to rights. Her hips had widened an inch and her height went up by two over the course of the week she had been in the middle of her growth spurt and, much to her annoyance, for the pain, and joy, for the massages from Harry, more than half of that was in the last three days. It also annoyed her to no end that her and Luna were now very much commiserating with each other as they were now completely synced up.

Thankfully, the dual days meant they were also on their last day and already had stopped the last of the bad days. But, she was still taking the calming drafts when things were getting frustrating, which seemed to only happen at school according to her partners. _'I am so glad Poppy said this growth spurt rubbish is about to be over.'_

Daphne held up a letter from her father, ignoring Astoria's hyper bouncing. "Father wrote me today about receiving an invite for the Auream Ball of Lord Potter," the black-haired girl said with a little pride. Not in her father or their invite, but that Potter was doing something she felt was only proper and expected, and much earlier than she thought he would do so.

"Yes, that's why we've been taking dancing lessons from Neville's dancing instructor," Luna explained, bobbing her head to make the enchanted earrings Harry had given her at Christmas jingle pleasantly against her ears. Today, she was wearing not only the earrings, but the bracelet, and a ring and even the necklace, feeling something like a princess.

"What are you going to wear?" Daphne asked bluntly, getting to the point. "The invite is marked as being a themed event as a costume ball. While very unorthodox, Father says all of those who received similar invites that he's spoken to are excited by the prospect. The details suggest less Halloween and more masks and fanciful outfits."

"We have spoken about that, actually," Hermione began with a smile, now in her happy place. "I've got a fitting today with my mum at Mistress Morgana's. Luna wants to try something a little more muggle, so we'll be going that direction for her fitting."

"You got an appointment with Mistress Morgana?" Astoria breathed out in shock, mouth agape. "I am _so_ jealous! I wish I was allowed to go," the young girl mourned.

"You are," Hermione blinked in confusion.

"No she isn't," Daphne explained. "Well, you may allow it, but Father doesn't want her around a bunch of adults when he knows most will be drinking to excess. Plus, it is most common, unless they are friends to provide an exception like perhaps Harry with the Weasleys, that only the heads of the families, their spouses and their heirs are to arrive. Mostly, for the same reasons Father won't allow Astoria to come."

"That, and we'll always manage to get into the booze," Astoria stated with a mischievous smirk that the twins would be proud of.

"Regardless, I wanted to ensure you plan on getting an actual dress. Robes are really only allowed if they are most exceptional or there is an exceptional circumstance. Trousers would be an insult the same as welcoming everyone who showed up with a lengthy diatribe about how you hated the host. Not an insult to those coming, but to Harry in this case, essentially stating that you don't care about him enough to play the role of a Lady."

"Actually, we're both looking forward to dressing up, the dresses, make-up, doing our hair and the whole enchilada," Hermione said with a shrug.

"The what?" Daphne asked, confused.

"Just an expression," Hermione said, refusing to explain Mexican food to the pureblood for now.

"Okay," Daphne said slowly, dismissing her confusion and electing to continue with why she brought Hermione and Luna into the room. "Now, tell me what you know of what is going to happen that night. I'd like to make sure you're aware of not only what is required for the evening, and expected, but of your roles on top of it."

Luna immediately spoke to great length the alcohol the party would have, Astoria commiserating that they wouldn't be allowed much at all by their parents, and then spoke of the food and how it would be a free-for-all smörgåsbord with plenty of finger foods. Hermione explained the music and their invitation process with Sirius' modifications which Daphne had to admit were brilliant in a way, even if she didn't know Sirius was the one to come up with it. The Gryffindor also went on about the decoration, a little about the security and how they eventually decided, much to hers and her parents' dislike, to hire a few of the higher-end women of the night who would ensure that none of the lords were to ever have their glasses less than half full. It was going to be their jobs to provide a pretty face that laughed at the old farts' stupid jokes and get them so wasted that they could dream up their own happy endings. In exchange, they would get a thousand galleons for every lord that passed out, though Sirius would also have them, unknown to the rest of the group, lead willing lords to a bedroom where they would be stunned, get an alcohol enema to really get them wasted, but only with low-quality stuff due to the risk, and then obliviate them so the last thing they would clearly remember was being led away, only to wake up the next day naked and, with a little charm work, a little sore and chaffed.

Sirius was giving those women an extra five hundred for their work and an oath of confidentiality, which they normally gave anyway to save clients from blackmail risks. That evening, they all, officially, worked for Sirius Black.

Which would eventually explain why he woke up surrounded by half a dozen girls who were all sleeping on a pile of galleons.

But that would be another night.

"Wait," Hermione interrupted gently. "You're saying we have to spend the entire night at Harry's side and are essentially expected to ... schmooze? The first part was going to happen anyway, but I have to laugh at the jokes of people that would rather see me dead and pretend to be fascinated by them?"

"Yes," Daphne explained. "These balls are all about currying favor. The drinks, the food, the music, the social networking. All of this is meant to make inroads for Harry's political leanings and allow people to get to know him and his agenda. Not being with him is like saying he has no support from you, and believe me when I tell you that you will be expected to fawn over Harry himself and generally stay on his arm, and to not schmooze with those he speaks with is the same as saying you will fight his attempts to help that person's political agenda. Once alliances are formed, then you have more wiggle room, but that will depends entirely on the alliance and the relationship you share with those alliance members. I suspect my father hopes to offer an alliance of neutrality with intent to look into backing at a future date. And, please don't be surprised or angered if he attempts to offer either myself or Astoria as a mistress or wife for Harry. Most of the heads of houses with an extra girl, or any girl most likely, will probably try and do the same since it is believed almost universally that he will have at least five wives and probably ten women total. That is also why you are expected to wear something that you can use to proudly display the Potter crest, a way of showing that you've been marked as his women. You'll also want your mother to do the same, or she'll be hit on all night by amorous drunkards who get interested. But that should be on a sleeve or belt. Nothing on the torso or above her neck or they will think she's going to be one of his wives. You should wear something on your breast, like a pin, or a necklace, scarf, shawl or hair pin of some sort."

"Harry's already agreed that won't happen," Luna said with a proud smile and not a small hint of affection as she referred to the addition of other girls. "Even if we don't want to give him six heirs for his lines."

"Don't tell anyone that and make sure Harry knows to stay neutral on the subject if it comes up," Daphne warned, needing a moment to remember he was also the heir of the Black line, though she wasn't sure how and knew it was rude in an extreme way to inquire. "He's done well on that, so far, but these people can try and force the issue if they believe he is staying at two girls. There are very few who would fight to keep their own family names when compared to the name of a Founder, especially when you consider the boons that come with such a name."

"We don't blame you, so don't worry. And we'll tell him," Hermione said with a frown. "You're the heiress for the Greengrasses, right? Are you coming?"

"I'm expected to," Daphne admitted. "I believe it will depend on my father's intentions for the evening. I am almost positive I will be. I've done as you suggested and told him I was accepted into your group and becoming close to you and Harry, so he may believe I'm succeeding in gaining Harry's favor."

"Since I wasn't told to try and shag him, we think he believes it," Astoria said, only a little of her embarrassed blush coming through at what she still felt was grown-up talk. Not the shagging, but the nature of why it was brought up. "I know many of the girls in Slytherin certainly do and have told their families as much."

"Do you _want_ to come?" Hermione asked, ignoring the look of curiousity Luna sent her.

"I would enjoy the opportunity to dress up as well," Daphne evaded slightly. "And it is expected of me."

"If you'd like to join us at Mistress Morgana's to get fitted, we can get you a dress, my treat," Hermione offered, thinking it may be nice to have the opinion of a girl who knew what to expect. Luna knew about the event, but her own sense of fashion aside, she wasn't as politically astute as Daphne was. And the Granger women knew virtually nothing about the fashions of the wizarding world and felt it best just to get what they enjoyed that may look like it would fit in during the Renaissance.

"I wish I could, but my father would see it as an insult," Daphne sighed, truly disappointed. Mistress Morgana's was the number one store in wizarding Britain for female clothing from pajamas to sexy sleepwear, daily clothing to formal outfits that could occasionally give the Queen's tailors a run for their money, able to do things with cloth and gems that just simply weren't possible without the use of magic. They also had a tendency to require appointments months in advance if you weren't a preferred client, which meant wealthy. Daphne's parents had put in an appointment on the day of her birth for her birthday just before starting Hogwarts so she could have a pretty dress and her first pair of adult woman's sleepwear, their way of telling her they were proud of the woman she was becoming.

They still almost didn't get the appointment. The Greengrasses were well-to-do, but not truly wealthy in terms of liquid assets, which almost saw them losing their place.

"Now, let's discuss your outfits," Daphne said happily, going over how they should match each other and Harry to broadcast different meanings and how, if they matched too closely, people may suspect them of being lovers as well.

xXxXxXx

**[Author's Note:]** – 23K words, and this is less than half of the total chapter's outline. I waited a few days to try and get to the end, but I hacked off 14K for the next chapter and still have what I expect to be the longest parts to go.


End file.
